The Concept

Evergreen is the word . . .

Although production has fled Florida for other states that offer generous filming incentives, producers still have a strong desire to return to the Sunshine State – they simply need a good financial “reason” to justify shooting here once again. The Florida Film Funds concept (FFF) provides that simple reason: come back to Florida and get a percentage of the capital you need at superior rates and conditions.

Rather than be subject to the ebb and flow of incentives, which are continually at risk to changes in political sentiment, the stronger course the Florida film industry can take is to build on market-based pragmatism and responsible lending. This is the fundamental principle to which Florida FIlm Funds adheres.

Florida Film Funds is a selection of evergreen funds that emphasize capital preservation and employ an early buy-out provision at below-market rates to stimulate reinvestment of valuable capital. Each Fund is structured to encourage repeated cycling of the original investment to new projects so economic impact is maximized, workforce stabilized, infrastructure strengthened, and the existing regional production base galvanized for expansion.

Funds are designed to attract independent feature film and television projects in the $2 million to $8 million range specifically because projects of this size are subject to inflated costs for crew, gear rental, studio space, construction supplies, hotel rooms, permitting, and other essentials in states with a production overload due to their highly successful incentives programs. Every dollar matters for these projects and producers know that every dollar will go much farther in Florida, which creates a strong rationale for them to choose the Florida Film Funds financing model over the tax credit game being played out elsewhere.

Here's a little more:

Florida Film Funds has a specific mission to provide opportunities for Floridians from the under-represented areas and populations of our state. Florida has a deep cultural and ethnic diversity from which original content can be derived. As much as possible, we want to create pathways for these Florida stories to be told by Florida creators and producers utilizing crew and cast from Florida’s underserved communities where opportunity is hard to come by.

We are creating a “Pathway Program” that will offer financial inducements to productions that tap into the existing DEI focus of the industry workforce. The Program is in development now. Ask us about it.