I'm Marisa Wojcik for "Here& Now".
>> In state budget news from 1987 to 2005, the state had
a film office spending millions of dollars to
attract blockbuster productions like Public
Enemies to film in Wisconsin in a sort of take. Two state
lawmakers just agreed to fund a new production
incentive program. The state budget reestablished the
Wisconsin Film Office and offers up to $5 million in
tax credits to filmmakers. They're banking on more
Hollywood movie makers and local filmmakers to bring
their work to Wisconsin. Here and now, reporter Murv
Seymour has details. >> Thanks, everybody for
coming. This is such a cool turnout. Let's talk about
bringing Tinseltown to the Chippewa Valley.
>> On this cool summer evening in the heart of
downtown Eau Claire. writing, story editing.
>> Locals passionate about filmmaking have come to the
town's library to learn. You can say that if you're
an actor, you can say that. >> Learn from each other
about what they can do to encourage and cultivate more
filmmaking projects, large and small, to be made in the
state of Wisconsin. >> This turnout is crazy.
>> Tim Schwagel helps set up for this night of
collaborating. lot of people care about
filmmaking, care about film or art in general. We're
kind of an island where it doesn't feel like there's a
lot of people that do filmmaking in the area. But
as I've learned over the years, is that people just
kind of appear and you meet someone who's right in the
same town. It's like, oh, you do this too. So this is
kind of the first time that we've had an event that
brings us all to one spot. >> Almost 70 people
passionate about filmmaking >> Somebody who sold a
Netflix movie, other people who have shown their
documentary around the state. Actors, writers. We
got Christmas tree farms. We can do Christmas movies
here. >> Tonight's event has been
organized and is led by Nathan Deming, a Los Angeles
filmmaker who splits his time between Hollywood and
his hometown of Eau Claire. >> Roll camera please.
>> So far, he's shot five movies in Wisconsin. He
wants to boost local filmmaking in big Hollywood
productions in the state. [MUSIC]
You're watching a clip from his most recent movie called
February. least in my world, could
have predicted ten years ago that we'd be looking at
headlines that Hollywood is leaving LA. I think the new
future is that films going to be everywhere in the
hotspots, and it's going to be because of things like
the film office. >> At a time when a movie
can be made anywhere. Up until now, Wisconsin was one
of only three states with no state film office and one of
only a few states that didn't offer financial
incentives to help lure productions to the state.
>> It is all about money. [MUSIC]
there's free money. >> Production incentives are
the number one factor that production companies
consider when they decide where to film.
>> I met with former Miramax movie executive Jeff Kurz
Inside Independent Studios, a post-production house in
Milwaukee that serves large Hollywood based productions
and local ones to. I'm going to guess that you're a
pretty important guy in the city.
his movie Deep Woods, and his last two films in
Wisconsin. >> Filmmaking is not
something that just happens in New York or Los Angeles
or Atlanta or Chicago. >> Kurz represents a
steering committee of filmmakers, business owners,
government officials and others who want Wisconsin to
compete with neighboring states in luring filmmakers
to film in the Badger State by dangling tax breaks.
>> When I was having a conversation with somebody
in Eau Claire, I said, listen, you have a beautiful
community. It is picture perfect to make a movie.
There. But without a film office, there is nobody to
tell an out of state production how great you
are. >> There's Banbury Place,
this crazy factory thing. You know, the rivers, you
know, we have so many locations here.
>> Wisconsin's revitalized film office will now become
part of the state's tourism department.
>> We are turning football fans into Wisconsin fans
every moment. We caught up with its leader during the
2020 NFL Draft in Green Bay. >> Is a lot about those
people coming into Wisconsin to do the production and
building a whole cottage industry around that, but
it's also about setting a perception once it's on the
big screen. That's also important to the long term
perception of Wisconsin. >> In 2024, the hit TV
series Top Chef filmed in Milwaukee. The show is a
highlight reel of Wisconsin culture, cuisine and
community that has the entire state cashing in from
its worldwide audience. >> Because people were
seeing this restaurant or that restaurant and then
just wanted to go there and try it. All of that is
possible as a reverberation from from filmmaking,
television making. So it's not just the filmmakers who
would benefit from something like that. It's really the
whole state. >> The county of Milwaukee
saw an uptick of $1.5 million in hotel room
rentals alone from people coming here to see to see
Wisconsin, right, to see what they had seen on
television. >> New Mexico implemented
these and then got Breaking Bad, which was not written
for New Mexico. It just went there because of tax
incentives. And then suddenly it not only got
that, it got better Call Saul. So two hit shows.
>> The talent's here and it's always a roll of the
dice to see if something blows up. But I think it's
easy for us to forget here in Wisconsin that Wisconsin
is just gorgeous. of that. The Driftless
Region, gorgeous. And Lake Michigan. So we have all of
these different terrains. We have cities like Madison and
Milwaukee. >> Superior offers 25% film
incentive for the city itself. If you stay at their
hotels. Right. As LA is losing jobs and filming,
Illinois is exploding. Minnesota is exploding. City
like Duluth. A lot of filming happening on the
Duluth side. Nothing on the Wisconsin side. And it's
just because of film incentives.
>> There are no dollars that are better than Hollywood
dollars. Hollywood filmmaker and
Milwaukee native John Ridley when it comes to him or any
other large budget film shooting in Wisconsin, he
point blank told me this. >> Until Wisconsin gets tax
credits, and that's something that I've
advocated for. No, that's not going to happen.
>> Ridley proudly tells me he routinely shoots smaller
projects in Wisconsin. >> But in terms of doing
feature films out here, whether it's myself or
anybody else, Wisconsin, I'm going to look into the
camera. You got to get tax credits. We've talked about
this. You got to advocate for tax credits.
>> Enough said. Mr. Ridley. action.
>> Georgia built a really good film incentive program
and brought in a lot of business. And there's movies
now that are set in New York City. But if you watch the
credits, there's going to be of it. There is zero
soundstages in the entire state of Wisconsin. So right
now that's a huge thing that if productions want to film
like 100 years, the film industry is morphing and we
have a real opportunity to pick up the work, just like
our neighbors Illinois and Minnesota are doing.