Written by James Peak on Nov 27, 2009. Posted in On Location

Filming in Brazil

Focus Features' tasty development deal with Brazil’s most successful production company of the last decade, 02 Filmes, looks like bearing fruit once again as they are currently making VIPs. The movie, which Christian Grass, CEO of Focus Features International calls a “compelling and fast paced adventure movie”, is shooting in the São Paulo and Angra regions of Brazil. It is being helmed by new director Toniko Melo and was written by

Golden Bear-winning writer Braulio Mantovani.

VIPs should follow in the footsteps of 02 Filmes previous successes, both commercial and critical, but how easy is it to shoot a feature in Brazil these days? The film qualified for subsidies, which made the project run smoothly, as producer Claudia Buschel explains:

“The project was approved by Ancine, so we were able to use the Brazilian Audiovisual Law. This meant we were able to raise part of the budget in soft money.”

In Brazil, ANCINE, which is a division of the Ministry of Culture, allows foreign producers in co-productions to redirect up to 70% of their tax liabilities into future Brazil-based productions. Deals like this make long term development deals - just like Focus Features and 02 Filmes - extraordinarily attractive.

This kind of perk is only useful if the country has a solid film infrastructure, and can cope with high-end production. Luckily, the Brazilian film industry makes 70 to 80 features per year, along with hundreds of commercials, and the production services and crew are very highly skilled. With varied terrain, including rainforests in the interior of the country, and historical and European-style architecture, Brazil does high quality work, including this year’s contender for the foreign language Oscar, Helmer Sergio Rezende’s Salve Geral, a USD4.5 million production from Tosca Audiovisual.

In addition to all this solid production, Brazil will be further boosted this year with the launch of ANCINE President Monoel Rangel’s new ‘Sector Fund’ (Fundo Setorial) with USD41 million dollars worth of incentive programmes rolling out over 2009 and 2010, designed to aid local productions and co-productions.

Brazil’s industry prides itself in making sure international productions can come and shoot with minimum hassle, and makes work-permits and equipment permissions happen quickly and efficiently. Claudia Buschel confirms that ANCINE were really helpful in organising permits and licenses to film in Olinda Carnival and the Nainai resort, which aided the production in terms of time and money:

“To make better use of production money we shot the Olinda carnival scenes in Santana de Parnaiba. It looks a lot like Olinda and is nearer São Paulo. We also shot scenes that occurred at the Nainai Resort in Recife in Angra for the same reasons. Both these locations worked very well and were very effective in lowering production costs.”

If you are thinking of shooting in Brazil, take a look at the ABRAFIC website (Brazilian Film Commissions Alliance) which explains the various incentives available for international productions.