AUGUSTA, Maine — In a world where filmmakers love making movies set in Maine, how does the state make sure they're actually filmed in Maine?
Steve Lyons directs the Maine Office of Tourism, which runs the Maine Film Office. On Wednesday, the film office wrote an announcement that it hired London-based firm Olsberg-SPI to "complete a thorough audit of the state's current film production capacity, its strengths, weaknesses and constraints... as well as opportunities for future growth."
"It might also give us some ideas of where our gaps are; so we can look and see, 'Well, what do we need to do to work with the industry to, sort of, fill those gaps,"' Lyons told NEWS CENTER Maine Thursday.
One of the largest gaps is incentives, and Lyons admitted Maine's current incentive program was one of the lowest in the nation. For productions costing more than $75,000, it offers crew wage reimbursements between 10-12 percent, as well as a 5 percent tax credit for production spending.
Matt Delamater grew up in Maine's lakes region and is the chief financial officer of Oxbow Brewing. He's also an actor with 28 IMDB credits to his name and counting. He said the film office works hard for people like himself, who want to see more productions come to his state.
"As a working actor, I don’t see any reason why Maine can’t be one of the top producers of amazing films," he said. "And, as you know, Picture Maine is the group that’s really working out there lately to really spread this message."
Erik Van Wyck is a former actor and current filmmaker who has lived in Maine since 2015. He helps lead Picture Maine, which advocates to improve the state's film industry and incentivize more projects here.
"Nobody’s gonna come here and shoot the Avengers, and we don’t want that, we don’t need that," Van Wyck said in an October interview, as he did in a 2021 interview with NEWS CENTER's Rob Caldwell. "But, there are plenty of films that hit that sweet spot in terms of the incentive package that Picture Maine is proposing, in the 2-5 to 2-6-million-dollar [budget] range."
Lyons is waiting for the audit results, which are expected in June. To those who might question giving tax breaks to film companies, he said more movies shot in Maine means more local jobs and more money left here after the lights turn off.