How much does film and TV production mean to the state in terms of revenue and jobs produced?
It means a lot. It s newfound money basically. What we do here is promote the state outside of the state to try and get producers to come here to do their movie or TV projects. So, it s new money to the state and it s quite substantial. A feature film, depending on the budget, will spend anywhere between $100 thousand and $200 thousand a day in the state. About 50 percent of that goes toward labor for people who live here. That s everything from technicians and craftspeople to actors — although that s not the biggest portion — most goes to the highly skilled labor force we have here. What are your latest dollar figures? I saw a 1999 estimate of $76.2 million. We ve been averaging about $75 million a year for the past three years in economic impact. What about job numbers? We don t keep job figures because every project is different. But basically, on most of the projects that come here, they hire about 150 to 200 people for the length of time that they re here. That can be anywhere f
