Week of January 6, 2011
| Film work in Miami-Dade County sets record By Zachary S. Fagenson The Miami-Dade Office of Film and Entertainment in 2010 issued the most filming permits and hauled in the most revenue since becoming the county's central clearinghouse for permitting and collecting revenues in 2008. Revenues from permits in 2010 totaled $111,000, up sharply from $86,000 in 2009 and more than the $100,000 collected in 2008, when the number of projects seemed less battered by the recession. After plummeting 16% in 2009 from 2008, the number of permitted entertainment projects in Miami-Dade in 2010 climbed out of the ditch. A total of 1,027 were shot in 2010, accounting for $121.7 million spent on more than 10,000 production days and 22,236 hotel room nights. That's a sharp contrast from 2009, when only 840 projects were shot with $84.7 million spent on 7,742 production days and 17,163 hotel nights. "It was the recession and lack of incentive" that dragged numbers down, according to Jeff Peel, director of the Miami-Dade Office of Film & Entertainment. State lawmakers in late 2009 approved a five-year, $242 million film incentive plan that took effect in early summer. The vast majority of that money is already committed to 92 projects, according to the Governor's Office of Film and Entertainment. The sharpest increase from 2009 to 2010 came in television production, as projects increased from 197 to 265. Only the number of motion pictures remained flat from 2009 to 2010 at 38, while commercials shot in Miami-Dade increased from 100 to 135. Still shoots increased about 10%, from 406 to 446, and music videos shot crept from 38 in 2009 to 44 in 2010. An "other" category on film office reports, which Mr. Peel said "are generally Internet-related productions," climbed from 63 in 2009 to 99 in 2010. Read the entire edition of Miami Today online. Subscribe to e-Miami Today. |
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