Duluth City Council will discuss production incentives for film and tv

Duluth is becoming more of a hotspot for the entertainment industry in film and television. However, The city council wants to continue supporting this growing industry with production incentives.

Roz Randorf, the Duluth City Councilor of District 3 talked more about production incentives. “This is the exact same funding. So $200,000. And the thing that I like the most about the way this funding is being distributed is we do it after the money is spent. So, you know, it’s really supporting the development of TV and film and digital media productions in the city of Duluth.” Randorf said. “For movies to come here. Like the past, they’ve had three or four. It’s pretty amazing to be able to utilize our beautiful infrastructure and for us to be able to incentivize that to be able encourage more production companies to come here. I think it’s a phenomenal incentive.”

TV and film production are able to meet certain requirements to receive funding at a city, county and state level. Especially after several successful productions like Merry Kisscam. Philip Gilpin Jr. the CEO and Executive Director of Catalyst Story Institute had more to say about the production incentives. “There’s the potential for it to be as large as the Duluth community decides to invest in. There’s tens of millions of dollars of productions that have their eye on Duluth in any given year now. And so it’s really up to Duluth to decide how much of that money and impact it wants to welcome into the community.” Philip said. Philip also said Duluth doesn’t really face any obstacles to help create a booming film and tv industry.

The production incentives for these film and tv production companies will come in the form of rebates. Although after spending money at local businesses in Duluth, the production companies can submit their receipts to get some funds back. David Stoke, the Board President of the Upper Midwest Film Office (UMFO), explained why the production incentives are a great step forward. “So the more that we can grow these incentives, the more that we’re going to attract this industry and the more that then we can build out our infrastructure so that we can continue to build and grow. So this is the early stages of this. These are our first steps. These are great first steps, fantastic first steps. And we want to keep moving forward.” Stoke said.

For more information on the Duluth City Council agenda session you can look here https://duluthmn.gov/city-council/city-council-meetings-events/council-meeting-media/.

For another story about filming in Duluth you can look here https://www.wdio.com/front-page/top-stories/merry-kiss-cam-filmed-in-duluth-now-out-on-hulu/.