Local movie shoots on the rise despite lack of political support

Thanks to lawmakers’ inaction, tax incentives for TV and movie productions have dried up at the state level, but that hasn’t stopped efforts to land entertainment industry productions.

  • By Brian Hartz
  • | 11:50 a.m. March 24, 2022
  • | 0 Free Articles Remaining!
Wikimedia/Jud McCranie. Even though the Ben Affleck film "Live By Night" is set in Tampa, filmmakers built a replica of Ybor City in Georgia because Florida no longer offers a tax incentive program for movie and TV productions
Wikimedia/Jud McCranie. Even though the Ben Affleck film "Live By Night" is set in Tampa, filmmakers built a replica of Ybor City in Georgia because Florida no longer offers a tax incentive program for movie and TV productions
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Spring Break Nightmare, a movie about a surfer who gets kidnapped while in Pinellas County for a surfing competition, was filmed last month in St. Petersburg, Gulfport and the beach communities of Indian Rocks Beach, Madeira Beach and St. Pete Beach. Slated to air on the Lifetime TV network or TUBI, a streaming service, it’s the latest in a string of low-budget, made-for-TV movies to be filmed in the area.

 

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