BusinessTN

A Google search of the expression "lights, camera, action" would not yield the word "Memphis." But the Bluff City's film industry is as hot as any Hollywood starlet.

According to MovieMaker magazine, Memphis ranks among the nation's 10 most attractive and accommodating U.S. cities in which to make movies. The publication's most recent Top 25 "best of" list ranks Memphis at No. 8, the fourth consecutive year in the top 10. For the ranking, MovieMaker editors defined "best" as those places that offer "the perfect combination of employment opportunities, reasonable costs of living, strong quality of life, affordable home prices and financial incentives" for film productions. (Chicago, Atlanta, New York, Shreveport and Albuquerque ranked one through five.)

For those who toil within Memphis' economic development sector, the impressive ranking can be summarized in two words: local incentives. For example, Memphis officials offered an incentive package valued at $500,000 (in real estate and storage space), which helped entice the production company involved with the 2004 Walk the Line filming effort to choose the Bluff City over Shreveport.

"Although our incentives on the state level can be competitive, [the state] cannot offer all of the benefits of some of the other states' incentives," says Sharon Fox O'Guin, deputy commissioner of the Memphis & Shelby County Film and Television Commission (MSCFTC). O'Guinn and MSCFTC Commissioner Linn Sitler, who oversees Memphis/Shelby County incentives efforts, have a combined 45 years of film industry experience. "That is where our local government has really stepped up and offered the wage refund program that not only allows a monetary incentive to outside productions, but trains the local crew to help them move up the ladder in the production world."

With the wage refund program, filmmakers can receive a state filming incentive consisting of a 32% cash refund of qualified in-state spending, as well as a city/county filming incentive of a 50% cash refund of wages of qualified local crew trainees. For example, there were five qualified trainees involved in the 2008 filming/production of Nothing But the Truth (starring Kate Beckinsale, Matt Dillon and Alan Alda).

Additionally, the commission coordinates with government officials for the use by filmmakers of facilities such as city and county schools, the Shelby County Courthouse and the Shelby County Division of Correction (with no location fee charged). Free government office space can be had, too. Film production companies pay city and county film permits of only $1 (and then only under certain circumstances). MSCFTC officials say even the Memphis Police Department offers its Memphis Movie Motorcycle Unit for security- and safety-related filmmaking requirements at a fee much lower than those at other police departments. This combination of local incentives and organizational structure gives MSHFTC--and, by extension, Memphis--a leg up on landing film projects over other cities across the nation, as well as here in Tennessee.

Jennifer M. Wood, the editor of MovieMaker, says MSHFTC's focus on helping local movie makers and not just landing big-budget, Hollywood productions is another key ingredient in the city's success within the industry--and presence on the list.

"Local movie makers we interview during our research always speak highly of [the commission]," Wood says. "By helping indie moviemakers cut through the red tape, they are helping to build a thriving local community of moviemakers."

Critically recognized, made-in-Memphis films such as Nothing But the Truth, Black Snake Moan and Hustle & Flow are proof that investing in a film community can be a sound financial decision.