Film tax-credit cap is ‘short-sighted,’ makes it tough for R.I. to compete

George T. Marshall created Flickers: Rhode Island International Film Festival mostly because he has such a deep love of movies that he instinctively wants to share that appreciation with others. His organizational ability and communication skills have made the August festival one of the most successful in the nation, with 4,200 entries this year and more than 25,000 people attending. It is the only New England entity certified to nominate films for the Academy Awards (one of only 65 worldwide) and every year screens dozens of short films for Oscar consideration. Marshall recently spoke with Providence Business News about the festival and the state of moviemaking in Rhode Island.

PBN: How and why did you create RIIFF?
MARSHALL: The festival was created to present a forum for international films and for people to discover the art of film. It’s really that simple.

PBN Branded Content

Building a Strong Data Foundation in the Age of AI

Artificial intelligence (AI) has become a key priority in the boardroom and across management —…

Learn More

PBN: Why do you think RIIFF has been successful?
MARSHALL: We have been consistent, we also have been able to evolve and change with new technologies as they come in. We’ve always been at the forefront of new technologies. … One thing that has been a hallmark of the festival is hospitality. We’ve always been good hosts. We’ve treated our filmmakers with great respect and the filmmakers bring more people to the festival, they sell the festival and, at this point, after almost 15 years, we have a large alumni base and they keep coming back.

PBN: How much do you rely on business sponsors to make the festival happen every year?
MARSHALL: Heavily, both local and national sponsors. We’ve been really lucky that we’ve built good, strong relationships with our sponsors. … For example, we’ve had Sony as a sponsor from the very beginning. … We’ve had Amtrak as a long-term sponsor. … WJAR-TV NBC10 has been a sponsor.

PBN: Do the sponsorships make up a certain percentage of your revenue? MARSHALL: They do, but it’s a combination of in-kind services and cash. For example, in the case of [WJAR-TV], we’re not seeing cash from them. What they provide us is exposure, commercials. So, we could literally have more than $30,000, $40,000, $50,000 worth of advertising given to us. Cox [Communications] does the same for us.

PBN: What is your best estimate of the annual festival’s impact on the state’s economy?
MARSHALL: Our audience base is actually higher than [approximately 25,000 for the festival alone] because, when you add in all of the events that we do throughout the year, it starts racking up. … This past year, we had 247 filmmakers register with us [for the August festival]. We chart where they stay and we chart how long they stay. The average stay is five days. And that’s not counting people coming here just to watch the films. … We’ve been able to chart [the use of] more than 2,000 [hotel] room nights each year, for filmmakers and audience.

PBN: Your group this year helped organize a film festival in New Hampshire and you’re in the process of creating the New England Film Festival Alliance. Why is it important to branch out?
MARSHALL: To me, it seems that the future in anything we do in this industry is collaboration. It really is important for us to be working together. … Right now we have four festivals [in the alliance] and we have others approaching us. That allows us to consolidate information, to go after major sponsors so you get the bigger bang for the buck.

PBN: How would you assess the state of the filmmaking industry in Rhode Island? Are we ready yet for 40-hour workweeks, 52 weeks a year, for filmmakers?
MARSHALL: Not yet, but we could be. The real answer is: It’s not just Rhode Island, it needs to be all of New England. … First of all, what we need to do is have our house in order as far as what we do for tax credits. [Rhode Island has a 25 percent tax credit for production costs incurred when a movie has 51 percent or more of its production take place in the state, with a $15 million annual cap.] Having a cap limits what we can do, it prevents growth, it is a short-sighted, wrong-headed political perspective. … [The tax cap means] we’re not competitive with the other New England states. … We are not equal players. In order for this to work, we need to be on the same page as other New England states and be as competitive. So you could shoot something in Massachusetts and then come to Rhode Island to finish things up, or vice versa. That way, you keep business here.

PBN: What would you recommend to the state’s economic-development officials and lawmakers to grow the filmmaking industry in Rhode Island?
MARSHALL: [Steve Feinberg at the state film office commissioned a study by URI professor Edward M. Mazze in April] and those numbers are the ones people should be latching onto. [Mazze’s study said the tax credit generated $466 million in economic activity for the state from 2005 through 2009].
And it’s not just a film company coming in and doing a Dana Delany TV show. We have a lot of tech people that are here, they’re doing video games, they’re doing cell phone applications, they’re doing programs with new technologies. We could have shops doing special effects. … We need, first, to look at the tax credit and we need to be, excuse the term, “data-mining” what other states are doing and then work in collaboration with them to see what we can bring to the table. We need to be very proactive and we need to be aggressive in getting as much [of the New England film industry] here as we can, so if we can’t get the whole thing, we can at least get some of it, to keep the jobs here. •

INTERVIEW
George T. Marshall
POSITION: Executive director and CEO of Flickers: Rhode Island International Film Festival
BACKGROUND: Marshall has been working with film since the late 1970s, when he started an informal group in Newport known as Flickers that began by showing movies in private homes, then for dinner parties, and then, as attendance continued to grow, moved on to renting restaurants and using a local theater. He created RIIFF in 1999, basing it in Providence. He also is an adjunct professor of communications at Roger Williams University.
EDUCATION: Bachelor’s degree in political science and history, University of Rhode Island, 1976; one year of independent study at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, 1977-78; master’s degree in political communications, Brown University, 1978
FIRST JOB: Painting, wall-papering, yard work and other household chores for family and neighbors at the age of 14
RESIDENCE: Newport
AGE: 56