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I'm Marisa Wojcik for "Here&
Now".

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>> In state budget news from
1987 to 2005, the state had

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a film office spending
millions of dollars to

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attract blockbuster
productions like Public

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Enemies to film in Wisconsin
in a sort of take. Two state

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lawmakers just agreed to
fund a new production

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incentive program. The state
budget reestablished the

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Wisconsin Film Office and
offers up to $5 million in

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tax credits to filmmakers.
They're banking on more

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Hollywood movie makers and
local filmmakers to bring

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their work to Wisconsin.
Here and now, reporter Murv

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Seymour has details.
>> Thanks, everybody for

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coming. This is such a cool
turnout. Let's talk about

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bringing Tinseltown to the
Chippewa Valley.

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>> On this cool summer
evening in the heart of

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downtown Eau Claire.
writing, story editing.

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>> Locals passionate about
filmmaking have come to the

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town's library to learn.
You can say that if you're

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an actor, you can say that.
>> Learn from each other

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about what they can do to
encourage and cultivate more

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filmmaking projects, large
and small, to be made in the

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state of Wisconsin.
>> This turnout is crazy.

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>> Tim Schwagel helps set up
for this night of

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collaborating.
lot of people care about

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filmmaking, care about film
or art in general. We're

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kind of an island where it
doesn't feel like there's a

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lot of people that do
filmmaking in the area. But

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as I've learned over the
years, is that people just

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kind of appear and you meet
someone who's right in the

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same town. It's like, oh,
you do this too. So this is

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kind of the first time that
we've had an event that

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brings us all to one spot.
>> Almost 70 people

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passionate about filmmaking
>> Somebody who sold a

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Netflix movie, other people
who have shown their

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documentary around the
state. Actors, writers. We

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got Christmas tree farms. We
can do Christmas movies

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here.
>> Tonight's event has been

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organized and is led by
Nathan Deming, a Los Angeles

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filmmaker who splits his
time between Hollywood and

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his hometown of Eau Claire.
>> Roll camera please.

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>> So far, he's shot five
movies in Wisconsin. He

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wants to boost local
filmmaking in big Hollywood

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productions in the state.
[MUSIC]

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You're watching a clip from
his most recent movie called

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February.
least in my world, could

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have predicted ten years ago
that we'd be looking at

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headlines that Hollywood is
leaving LA. I think the new

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future is that films going
to be everywhere in the

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hotspots, and it's going to
be because of things like

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the film office.
>> At a time when a movie

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can be made anywhere. Up
until now, Wisconsin was one

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of only three states with no
state film office and one of

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only a few states that
didn't offer financial

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incentives to help lure
productions to the state.

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>> It is all about money.
[MUSIC]

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there's free money.
>> Production incentives are

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the number one factor that
production companies

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consider when they decide
where to film.

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>> I met with former Miramax
movie executive Jeff Kurz

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Inside Independent Studios,
a post-production house in

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Milwaukee that serves large
Hollywood based productions

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and local ones to. I'm going
to guess that you're a

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pretty important guy in the
city.

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his movie Deep Woods, and
his last two films in

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Wisconsin.
>> Filmmaking is not

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something that just happens
in New York or Los Angeles

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or Atlanta or Chicago.
>> Kurz represents a

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steering committee of
filmmakers, business owners,

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government officials and
others who want Wisconsin to

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compete with neighboring
states in luring filmmakers

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to film in the Badger State
by dangling tax breaks.

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>> When I was having a
conversation with somebody

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in Eau Claire, I said,
listen, you have a beautiful

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community. It is picture
perfect to make a movie.

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There. But without a film
office, there is nobody to

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tell an out of state
production how great you

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are.
>> There's Banbury Place,

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this crazy factory thing.
You know, the rivers, you

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know, we have so many
locations here.

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>> Wisconsin's revitalized
film office will now become

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part of the state's tourism
department.

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>> We are turning football
fans into Wisconsin fans

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every moment. We caught up
with its leader during the

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2020 NFL Draft in Green Bay.
>> Is a lot about those

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people coming into Wisconsin
to do the production and

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building a whole cottage
industry around that, but

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it's also about setting a
perception once it's on the

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big screen. That's also
important to the long term

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perception of Wisconsin.
>> In 2024, the hit TV

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series Top Chef filmed in
Milwaukee. The show is a

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highlight reel of Wisconsin
culture, cuisine and

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community that has the
entire state cashing in from

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its worldwide audience.
>> Because people were

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seeing this restaurant or
that restaurant and then

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just wanted to go there and
try it. All of that is

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possible as a reverberation
from from filmmaking,

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television making. So it's
not just the filmmakers who

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would benefit from something
like that. It's really the

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whole state.
>> The county of Milwaukee

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saw an uptick of $1.5
million in hotel room

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rentals alone from people
coming here to see to see

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Wisconsin, right, to see
what they had seen on

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television.
>> New Mexico implemented

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these and then got Breaking
Bad, which was not written

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for New Mexico. It just went
there because of tax

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incentives. And then
suddenly it not only got

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that, it got better Call
Saul. So two hit shows.

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>> The talent's here and
it's always a roll of the

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dice to see if something
blows up. But I think it's

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easy for us to forget here
in Wisconsin that Wisconsin

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is just gorgeous.
of that. The Driftless

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Region, gorgeous. And Lake
Michigan. So we have all of

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these different terrains. We
have cities like Madison and

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Milwaukee.
>> Superior offers 25% film

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incentive for the city
itself. If you stay at their

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hotels. Right. As LA is
losing jobs and filming,

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Illinois is exploding.
Minnesota is exploding. City

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like Duluth. A lot of
filming happening on the

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Duluth side. Nothing on the
Wisconsin side. And it's

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just because of film
incentives.

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>> There are no dollars that
are better than Hollywood

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dollars.
Hollywood filmmaker and

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Milwaukee native John Ridley
when it comes to him or any

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other large budget film
shooting in Wisconsin, he

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point blank told me this.
>> Until Wisconsin gets tax

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credits, and that's
something that I've

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advocated for. No, that's
not going to happen.

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>> Ridley proudly tells me
he routinely shoots smaller

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projects in Wisconsin.
>> But in terms of doing

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feature films out here,
whether it's myself or

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anybody else, Wisconsin, I'm
going to look into the

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camera. You got to get tax
credits. We've talked about

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this. You got to advocate
for tax credits.

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>> Enough said. Mr. Ridley.
action.

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>> Georgia built a really
good film incentive program

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and brought in a lot of
business. And there's movies

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now that are set in New York
City. But if you watch the

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credits, there's going to be
of it. There is zero

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soundstages in the entire
state of Wisconsin. So right

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now that's a huge thing that
if productions want to film

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like 100 years, the film
industry is morphing and we

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have a real opportunity to
pick up the work, just like

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our neighbors Illinois and
Minnesota are doing.