From Tax Incentives to Stunning Locations: Why West Virginia is Ready for Your Next Shoot

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Hello and welcome to a special episode of On Production brought to you by Wrapbook. Today, we're celebrating all things West Virginia as we sit down with David and Megan from the West Virginia Development office and Film Office. Today, they're going to share how the state is becoming a vibrant hub for filmmakers and discuss the unique opportunities and support available for productions. I'm excited to dive in with them as to what makes West Virginia a great place for for producers’ next projects, my first questions are for David, so you really spent a lot of time with the apprenticeship programs. Can you help us sort of learn more about those and what West Virginia is doing around apprenticeship.

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Um, yeah, sure, yeah. So when I first came to work for the West Virginia Department economic development, I had myself. I was a trained journalist and did five paid internships in when I was in college, and so loved that work based learning kind of model, and so I had been part of the apprenticeship expansion grant that helped bring apprenticeships into non traditional sectors. And so put in the nation's first beer brewing apprenticeship that was us DOL certified. And then also helped with putting some in with like meat cutters, home health aides, wind turbine techs, helping our solar panel installers and getting training funds to kind of lift up those apprenticeship opportunities. And so that's been a fun thing as we've started the film project here. You know that we've been trying to take that work based learning model and help expand the opportunities for film and TV here. So we've been doing a lot of training. So we did about 20 trainings last year, and so got to do some stuff, like with West Virginia women works, which is a very unique model to get women into the construction trades and also into manufacturing trades. And so did like a group and electric lighting workshop with them to show them that they can work in that industry as well. That's

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awesome. Yeah, there is always incredible amounts of crossover for the skills built in construction and electrical and film across all kinds of industries. So that's really cool. We

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2:32  

do love that kind of model, you know, around the country, and we've kind of modeled after some of the film offices like New Orleans and, you know, some of those just really best practices where they've done a great job of, like, on introducing students and, you know, like, say, in Austin as well, like a community college, they're really getting, feeding students into those programs and having mentors as well in the industry. So we think that the film and TV industry is kind of really perfect for, you know, training up folks to get into the industry and make their stories where they're at right

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on. Sort of the piece of skilled labor for producers, should they, you know, come out to the state to film and and maybe even just some background for our listeners, is just sort of how you all have navigated this, as you've been building the program and building the ecosystem in your state is, you know, what sort of main hurdles in developing skilled labor in the film industry, did you come across? And how does your office help producers sort of overcome these challenges and get access to on the ground resources to take advantage of your incentives, which of course, we'll get to in a minute. Well, we

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have a real Scout database for professional crew services and locations. And so, you know, we're very lucky in West Virginia, you know, we're within a half a day's drive of half the US population. And so we've always had, for the reasons that manufacturing comes here, you know, we have also are blessed to have a very good worker base. And so, you know, we're surrounded by some really booming film industries, you know, Hobbes, you know, places like Pittsburgh. And so, you know, we understand with five border states that we are Megan and I are of the idea of that you gotta play well with others. And so, so, you know that we're better together. And so we've had great relationships with donkeys or the Pittsburgh Film Office, and particularly, but also with Ohio and other states, you know, to kind of share crew, share ideas, do workshops. And so we've done a lot of sort of building in that way. So we're sort of, yeah, just sort of building community, because we know there's plenty, plenty of pie to go around. And so we're not coming from it and that kind of crabs in the bucket mentality, but more of that, that we're all in this together. And so when we're building the industry out, and so, but we have tons of crew here, right? So part of our, you know, eastern panhandle, you know, it's on the train line to DC. So we have the DC, Baltimore crew. Then in western, West Virginia, you know, we got amazing. Crew from what, Marshall University over there has a BFA in filmmaking, and so we have great crew over there. And it's right by Kentucky, which has been balling really good in film, of course, in Louisville and southern Kentucky as well. We see them everywhere we go, like American film market, when we were out there with you guys. So, you know? So, yeah, so we're just kind of playing well with our neighbors, you know, and and that's, that's the best way to go for us. We're a small state, you know, only about 1.8 million people. So I always tell people, think Vermont with what cheese. But, uh, it. But we're right here in the middle of the action, so there's plenty of crew to go around.

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That's super awesome. Can you discuss any recent success stories of how the initiatives that you lead have directly supported film productions in West Virginia. Yeah,

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do you want to, do you want to talk about some of the Megan and just sort of some of the things that we've done lately?

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Yeah, I think you know what's, what's been hot for us lately are, you know, lifetime type movies, those have been kind of the the big dollar amount productions that have come in, into the state. We've got producers here that have just developed a really great relationship with those state or those, those networks and so, you know, kind of a quirky little niche. But I think Dave does a really good job of, you know, aside from these larger productions really lifting up and working with these smaller scale productions that we can also support through the tax incentive, that's

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awesome. Let's talk about the tax incentive. What are the details on that in terms of taking advantage of the incentives in West Virginia?

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6:37  

Yeah, so in West Virginia, really exciting stuff the program as of 2022 you know, we have a base rate of 27% back on the West Virginia expenditures. You can actually get up to 31% back if you hire 10 or more West Virginians as part of the production, all you need is a $50,000 spend in a calendar year. And then, you know, feature length, motion pictures, TVs, series, post production also counts. We could do music videos, lots of different categories that would qualify. And we're here to make that process really easy for people, not always the easiest thing to understand, tax credits, that's just kind of their nature. But we're here to be nimble, help people through the process, connect with you know, the tax department when needed, and really help them understand what what the process is that they need to go through to to really get that benefit back on their spend. Obviously, because

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they one of the, I think, great things about the tax incentive, and Megan is a huge part of this is that, you know, she was already working with the tax department every day doing the tourism tax credit. And so, you know, unlike some other states where it might be, you know, somebody else coming to ask, you know, putting this new program together. You know, Megan was already working with the tax department, which is very important. And then the other thing I was gonna say is that West Virginia, you know, we're a small state, and so about 98% of our businesses are small businesses, which is like 50 or less. And so we were already kind of like, writing our laws, writing our language to cater to the mom and pop operations, because we know that the heart of West Virginia. And so we really consider it like, you know, government at the speed of business, you know. I mean, we of course have to, like, go through all the hoops, but we try to make those hoops minimal, and we try to make them very palatable, so that, you know, any production, as you can see, what the baseline of what the minimum spend is to get involved, you know, we've made that so really cater to the indie productions cam so like, everybody can get a seat at the table, everybody can tell their story here in West Virginia. And so I would, so I just wanted to say that, you know, that is that some important thing for us? Yeah, I

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think that's fantastic. So we got some details on, like, the amounts that you can get back, some of the bonuses, you know, I think you mentioned 10 or more locals. Can you walk us through that process? Are there caps on this program? Like, when do people apply? Like, walk us through the sort of the nuts and bolts of how a filmmaker can be engaged with the West Virginia Film

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Office. Yes, the great news, there is no cap in West Virginia on our credit, so we're not worried about those limitations. Like Dave said earlier, we're surrounded by five states. So the great thing is, when, when other states around us kind of run out of credits, we can kind of still help productions out and continue to provide some assistance. So as far as the process of getting this incentive, first thing someone would need to do is make sure they're registered to do business in West Virginia. And that's a very simple process that can be done online. It's called the West Virginia one stop business portal, and then from there we have an eligibility application where we just kind of read through your script, or whatever you have to offer, get an understanding of does do you have funding for your film? Yet, once we check off all those boxes, if the production is ready to roll within 120 days of our offices approval, that's perfect timing. So we can't approve something that's way too far in advance, but that sweet spot is just when you're a couple months out and kind of ready to execute on the production. And from there we we let folks do their thing. Dave is here to help, be the boots on the ground, secure the crew, help with locations and everything like that. And then once the shoot wraps, there's kind of a secondary application process where you submit your final documents, your final script, final expenditures. Folks do have to have a third party CPA kind of go through and go through some agreed upon procedures. And so once they take care of that part of the process, we take a look at that packaged up report, and at that point, we're able to issue the tax credit voucher. And then from there, people have the ability to transfer or sell that credit. And that's probably the easiest part of the process for us, people just kind of let us know, like, here's the entity who were we're passing this credit to. We're in good standing with the state tax department. We've paid all of our our obligations to this point. And so, you know, that's kind of how that that works from the project inception to getting the tax credit voucher, and then most of the time selling it.

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That's fantastic. Yeah, I was reading some headlines that there's been some major companies expanding into West Virginia, which sort of makes it even more exciting for filmmakers if they do want to transfer those credits, gives them more opportunities for the debt financing, or all those types of things that go into a production. That's super fascinating. You know, you were mentioning something Megan also that was really interesting, is like, Okay, you have all these neighboring states big film hubs, maybe they hit a cap and they still want to take advantage of an incentive for the rest of their shoot. And David, we had kind of talked about this last time we got together, and you were really just talking about some of the amazing underutilized resources and locations in in West Virginia. Can you sort of give us an overview or an understanding of when you're working with filmmakers, helping them with locations, what that looks like, how that goes down, if they're trying to find something unique and compelling to shoot at, yeah, for sure.

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You know, yeah, we are definitely uniquely situated, kind of say, like, I kind of liken this to, like, a New Zealand or like a Switzerland of the East, right? So, so, while we're really close to, like, the population bases, um, we're just amazing outdoor states. We had 75 million people visit us last year, mostly for the outdoors. And so six ski resorts here, right? And with the world mountain bike championships here, the most rock climbing routes in the east, the most miles of runnable whitewater in America. So we have, you know, a top 10 whitewater river in the world, the galley river, you know, that's controlled by the US Army Corps of Engineers that can be turned off and on. So we have some really amazing assets. One unique thing is that we're a geographic chameleon. You know, where is West Virginia? Well, we know it's west of Virginia, or we like to say we're best Virginia, but we're what are we Midwest? Are we north? Are we south? Are we Mid Atlantic? Well, the good thing is, we're all of those things, and we have over 5000 locations in our database. And so, you know, we can double as anything, as Europe, as New York, just about any place. And one thing that I was going to mention that's kind of cool cam with the with the tax incentive and the language, is that, you know, we don't have a minimum days shoot here. So, you know, right now, for instance, we're looking at some shoots over in the eastern panhandle, which is on the line, train line to DC and so, so folks could shoot, say, Baltimore, Inner Harbor, um, for some scenes, and then come to West Virginia and shoot the rest of their film. And so we like that, that fact that we still have a lot of plays, you know, with other states as well. So that's, that's kind of a groovy thing that we have happening with locations. But we have some, like premier locations, like we have trans Allegheny lunatic asylum. It's a civil war based the second largest limestone building in North America. And also the setting for the Pulitzer Prize winning book, The Night Watch that won the Pulitzer Prize this year in fiction by Jane and Philip. But you know that that we can't keep people out of that. We just had discovery expeditions. Unknown was there, and there's people shooting there all the time, because it's such a unique location. So we have, like, historic prisons, like Moundsville prison, we just shot, had a 30 day shoot up there. And so really, some of. We have one of the world's largest Hare Krishna communities, you know? So we had peacock did a series about new virindon Man and the palace of gold. We have some really unique properties as well. And also America's newest national park, the New River. Oh, no kidding, that's awesome. It's the second lot longest North flowing river to the Nile, Hmm, no kidding. That's so cool. I

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would love to come out and visit. That'd be so awesome. I'm curious, can you guys dig in a little bit more? I mean, I think we have a broad overview of how the office sort of supports filmmakers in the state, but is there an overview of how you kind of both work together to ensure that film producers receive comprehensive support when they're shooting in West Virginia. Like, what does that look like? What can they expect from the office? Obviously, you want to walk them through the process. You want to see them be successful. You want to see them shoot in the state again. But in all practicality, if somebody needs to chat with somebody, what's that interaction like,

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yeah. I mean, I think we're constantly taking inquiries, whether it's a phone call or on our web form, pretty easy to to reach out to us. I think just go to westvirginia.gov/wvfilm is the hyperlink. There's a form there you can fill out. You can call our office. Just kind of look, look us up. At any point, those messages will get to us. And as soon as we get something, Dave is on it with the response, copies me in and and we kind of go from there. If someone wants to set up a call to talk through details that he shoots through, immediately, we'll make ourselves available to to answer questions, whether they're simply looking for crew members general information, or if they're focused on the tax incentive, I

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would say two things on that cam is that, you know, it's we have a really nice split of duties here, you know, and Megan's like, so good about explaining, like, you know, walking production Companies who maybe aren't used to doing the tax credit, you know, walking them through the ABCs of it, right? And then, you know, where I was a trained journalist, you know, I tried to be, you know, just very forthcoming and quick with our responses to people. And then, you know, West Virginia is kind of a NOAA guy in a gal state. And so we try to help production companies of any size, you know, find whatever they need, you know. And do they need an ice rink in July? Do they need the inter like they did for Christmas at Greenbrier? Do they need the interstate shutdown, which we did for the last of us, you know, whatever it is. Well, Megan and I are, aren't afraid to make that ask. So it's that's been a great thing is that we'd like to say thank you to all of our partners, kind of, around the state. I've come at them with, you know, the the caveat thing, I know this is going to sound weird, but we need to do this. Can we shut down the interstate? There's a there's a production that really wants to to do that. And so they did it, you know? And so, so very grateful for the partnerships around the state with so many different entities. So it's made it a lot of fun. We often say that, you know, country roads is our stadium anthem, but Bill Withers song, lean on me that he wrote about growing up in a coal camp in West Virginia. Well, that's our mantra, right? So, so so we're very grateful for for people having that kind of attitude and being on board with us, even if it's not a huge movie. We know that somebody this movie is very important to somebody that's telling their story, and we love that. We love to help people tell their story and to get it to screen. That's

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amazing. That's really awesome. You guys have a really great program, and sounds like some really amazing resources for filmmakers to film there. My last question for you all is, what advice would you give to producers considering West Virginia for their next project?

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Give us a chance, you know? I think that a lot of times when people think of West Virginia, they think of 1950s West Virginia, you know, and they think we're like a one trick pony with coal. We have, you know, our state has had ten billion worth of investment in the last two years. The largest Green Mill, new core that's coming out of three and a half billion dollar Green Mill, still mill and, you know, and that's just indicative of the kind of wide open, all of the above kind of mindset of West Virginia and that, I think, that people, I think the interesting thing is, to Cameron, is that the folks that have come in from both coasts and from all over the US the film here, they feel like they got they have told me that, you know, we make them feel welcome, and we know that we're not first on their list, maybe like or in their mind, right of where to go. But once they're here, you know, they love it, and they've told me that they kind of got the joy back of filmmaking, like the community is back. And so to be able to bring a little bit of that kind of bill wither slab fork feel to a film set where people maybe have lost their joy, and, you know, other places people are like, Get off my lawn, or give me $10,000 you know. Well, we that's been beautiful, right? So we love, we love the fact that we've been able to do that. So we're bringing the West Virginia flavor to the industry and infuse it with some of that bottom up, all hands on board, kind of, all hands on deck, kind of feel, you know, we all love that that's been beautiful, yeah,

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just to put you back on on grave sentiments, you know, give us a chance come visit. And I think, you know, with film, it's probably so similar to kind of the tourism industry, if someone comes and visits us once for the first time, they're probably like 80% chance likely of being a return visitor. So our goal is to be as hospitable as we possibly can, make the experience great for everybody, and just see how we can work together. So we'd love to have folks here

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that is awesome. Well, Megan and David, thank you so much for joining me and telling me and our listeners about how awesome it is to work in West Virginia. Is super, super great as always to run into you David and thanks for joining me again.

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21:08  

Well, Cam, thank you so much. We really appreciate what you and Ryan and Wrapbook does just give everybody those wraparound services and to make so many dreams happen. Get their stories, get their stories made and get them on screen. It's not not easy. It's a real it's a it's a miracle that it, that it happens, and it's beautiful to see, to see that and be a part of the process.

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It really is. I mean, I think all three of us have an interesting part to play in the ecosystem of being enablers for people to get these visions and these stories out into the world. And it's a huge honor and a big privilege. So with that, see you all next time. All right, thanks so much.

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21:43  

Thank you. Thanks so much.