{"id":902,"date":"2014-09-17T09:46:00","date_gmt":"2014-09-17T15:46:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.parkrag.com\/?p=902"},"modified":"2014-09-17T09:46:00","modified_gmt":"2014-09-17T15:46:00","slug":"should-park-city-film-studios-have-been-built-in-moab","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/v2.parkrag.com\/index.php\/2014\/09\/17\/should-park-city-film-studios-have-been-built-in-moab\/","title":{"rendered":"Should Park City Film Studios Have Been Built in Moab?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Park City Film Studios has&nbsp;arisen from the ground like Godzilla from the sea. &nbsp;Its shadow falls over not only&nbsp;Quinn\u2019s Junction but all of Park City. The hope is that it brings a thriving movie production business to Park City, diversifies our community away from tourism, offer jobs, and becomes wildly successful.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile in Detroit, Michigan Motion Picture Studio, a studio that <a href=\"http:\/\/www.parkrag.com\/park-city-film-studios-why-will-we-be-different\/\">seems to have many things in common<\/a> with Park City Film Studios (PCFS), has finally started getting a couple&nbsp;major film projects. &nbsp;Three years after Oz the Great and Powerful was being filmed, they are now working on special effects for Batman v. Superman. &nbsp;Before that they worked on <a href=\"http:\/\/www.rottentomatoes.com\/m\/into_the_storm_2014\/\">Into the Storm<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>There are two common threads linking the two movies:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>They both were primarily filmed in downtown Detroit<\/li>\n<li>They both got big tax incentives from the state<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>What does that say for Park City\u2019s chances of using it\u2019s movie studio full-time, leading to lots of full-time jobs? &nbsp;It\u2019s likely not good. From speaking with a few people in the movie business, it seems that studios like PCFS are typically used when the majority of filming is done in close proximity to the studio. &nbsp;In the case of the two Michigan films both were being filmed primarily in Detroit. &nbsp;It makes sense that they&nbsp;would want&nbsp;to have special effects handled nearby.<\/p>\n<p>Would it make sense for a large budget movie to be shot primarily in Park City? No, although parts of Dumb and Dumber were filmed here. &nbsp;How about Salt Lake City? &nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Salt_Lake_City_in_film\">There actually have been quite a few films that had some scenes filmed around&nbsp;Salt Lake<\/a>, including Park Rag\u2019s&nbsp;favorite&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0133189\/\">SLC Punk!<\/a>. However, many of those just use the Bonneville Salt Flats, with a majority of filming happening in Los Angeles, et al.<\/p>\n<p>Yet films that are primarily shot in Utah are done for the scenery and that scenery is often in southern Utah around Moab. &nbsp;Films like John Carter and Lone Ranger need something that can\u2019t be found elsewhere. &nbsp;If they are doing a majority of filming here, a production studio makes sense\u2026 in Moab\u2026 but not 5 hours away in Park City.<\/p>\n<p>The other side of the equation that even makes a studio want to film in a certain location are incentives. &nbsp;For instance, Michigan gave $12 million in incentives to Into the Storm and $25 million in incentives to Batman v Superman in order to entice them. &nbsp;Utah provides up to a 25% tax incentive. Yet, other factors are in play:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">The total allotted by the state is $6.8 million each year.<br \/>\nThe total allotted by the state is $6.8 million each year.<br \/>\nThe total allotted by the state is $6.8 million each year.<br \/>\nThe total allotted by the state is $6.8 million each year.<br \/>\nThe total allotted by the state is $6.8 million each year.<br \/>\nThe total allotted by the state is $6.8 million each year.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">People with a vested interest have been saying for years that this limit on incentives, which is 1\/2 of the money given in Michigan for a movie you\u2019ll never see, must increase. It hasn\u2019t. &nbsp;So, not a lot of movies are going to be filmed in Utah. &nbsp;If some&nbsp;are, not a major portion of the movie will be filmed in Utah. For those that are, the majority will be filmed in southern Utah. &nbsp;And that\u2019s a long way from Park City. That\u2019s a lot of ifs, ands, and buts\u2026 and you know how that phrase is finished.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">So, we rest our hopes on a TV show, maybe a spinoff of High School Musical 6 in Space that makes sense to film in Salt Lake, and requires some wicked special effects that can only be done at PCFS. &nbsp;Otherwise, it turns into another <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Osmond_Studios\">Osmond Studios<\/a>,&nbsp;and you REALLY&nbsp;don\u2019t want to know what it\u2019s currently being used for.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Building any sort of studio in Utah is at a best a crap shoot. &nbsp;At least building a production studio in Moab or St George has some logic behind it.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Park City Film Studios has&nbsp;arisen from the ground like Godzilla from the sea. &nbsp;Its shadow falls over not only&nbsp;Quinn\u2019s Junction but all of Park&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/v2.parkrag.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/902"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/v2.parkrag.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/v2.parkrag.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/v2.parkrag.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/v2.parkrag.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=902"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/v2.parkrag.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/902\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/v2.parkrag.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=902"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/v2.parkrag.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=902"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/v2.parkrag.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=902"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}