Above: Cast and crew gather outside the Everett Theatre in Middletown during shooting for one of the final scenes of Dead Poets Society. The movie premiered in June 1989. O&A file photo/TJ Healy.
By Ken Mammarella
Delaware is allocating big bucks for movies made here, and advocates want to do even more.
The Delaware Motion Picture and Television Development Commission has set aside $950,000 in tax rebates to four productions scheduled to begin work before the start of 2025, says T.J. Healy II, a filmmaker since 1966 who, in 2016, helped start Film Delaware, a nonprofit that promotes the local video game, motion picture and television production industries.
And he hopes that the Legislature will reconsider a bill that would create a 30% transferable tax credit for film, television, esports or video game productions. It stalled in 2022.
Supporters believe the bill could create significant numbers of temporary jobs (hence its name, the Delaware Entertainment Job Act) and even an industry with permanent jobs and infrastructure.
“If you do it right, you’re building an entirely new industry,” says Chris Lemole, a Centreville resident who has produced more than a dozen movies, including Mudbound, a 2017 Netflix production that earned four Oscar nominations.
Centreville’s Chris Lemole (r) with his Armory Films partner Tim Zajaros (l) and Peanut Butter Falcon star Azck Gottsagen. Photo Provided.
“It’s not the arts,” Healy explains of the legislative push to support filmmaking. “It’s part of economic development.”
Republican gubernatorial candidate Mike Ramone is behind the concept “100%,” says Healy. And Democratic gubernatorial candidate Matt Meyer is behind it “1 billion%.”
“Delaware has incredible potential to become a hub for creative industries like film and television,” Meyer says. “I’m committed to finding innovative ways to strengthen our economy and make Delaware more competitive on a national scale. By collaborating with leaders across the state, we can create strategic ways to attract filmmakers, creating lasting opportunities for job growth, tourism, and technological innovation. This will not only build a dynamic industry that highlights Delaware’s communities, but also supports local businesses and strengthens our workforce for the future.”
Delaware has a limited history in making movies and TV shows. The Gentleman Bandit, a 1981 TV movie based on a Delaware case of mistaken identity, was shot in New York. Wikipedia, voluminous on so much else, lists only 14 movies shot in Delaware. The most famous is 1989’s Dead Poets Society; the most infamous is Broadway Brawler, a 1997 Bruce Willis movie that was never completed. Healy wrangled the vintage cars for Dead Poets Society and used connections he developed during that movie to develop his career.
Since then, the people interviewed say, Delaware TV series have included two seasons of Special Ops: Lioness, for Paramount+ TV and two seasons of Big Beach Builds for HGTV.
All the states, plus some smaller jurisdictions, have film offices to help productions. About three dozen states have monetary production incentives, according to Stephen Weizenecker, a lawyer who since 1995 has been specializing in the industry. He helped Georgia draft its much-admired legislation and helped with the Delaware bill.
Robin Williams received an Academy Award nomination as Best Actor for his performance in Dead Poets Society O&A archive photo.
California and New York top the list in usage of such incentives, he says. No. 3 is Georgia, which in 2005 introduced its first version of an industry tax credit. A 2023 analysis commissioned by the Georgia Screen Entertainment Coalition concludes that production expenditures in the state quadrupled from fiscal 2012 to fiscal 2023, going from $890 million to $4.10 billion.
“The explosion of production activity in Georgia” has been accompanied by $1.28 billion in private investment to convert, expand and construct soundstages and related buildings, the analysis says, with another $2.93 billion planned, “none of which would happen without the tax credit.”
“We’re all excited by all of the money coming into Georgia,” Healy says.
Georgia “built that industry from nothing” over the last 20 years, Lemole says. He calls Georgia’s incentives “the best in the country, and I would like to match it” with Delaware’s law. “Without these incentives, most movies can’t be made,” he says, noting incentives were “integral” to the making of Mudbound. “All of the movies I’ve made except for Arctic could have been made in Delaware.”
“Film tax incentives typically come in the form of tax credits equal to a percentage of a film or television production’s qualified in-state spending and/or exemptions from sales tax on qualified transactions,” the National Conference of State Legislatures explains. “The credits are often refundable — eligible for refund without any tax liability, or transferable — if the value of a company’s credits is higher than its tax liability. A company can sell the excess credits to another taxpayer who owes the state taxes. States also offer cash rebates as another type of incentive.”
The text and enforcement of the laws can be complex. The Georgia Entertainment Industry Investment Act tops 7,000 words, and the 2022 Delaware bill ran 2,500 (this story is just under 1,400 words). Nationwide, incentives differentiate productions made entirely in one state, or productions with split locations. They also differentiate above the line and below the line expenses.
“Above the line individuals guide the artistic direction — directors, producers, screenwriters and principal actors,” Studiobinder.com says. “Below the line refers to crew members who bring the vision to life — cinematographers, sound technicians, editors and more.” Expenses go far beyond salaries. Healy shared a 20-page breakdown of what could and could not be included in eligible expenses, starting with storyboards (yes) and ending with completion bonds (no).
No wonder that states audit incentive requests, at a cost of up to $25,000 in Georgia.
People who support the incentives cite the multiplier effect of productions. The 150 to 250 people hired to create a typical movie, Lemole says, are renting places to live and vehicles to drive, dining out, enjoying nightlife and paying income taxes.
Delaware is already seeing that multiplier effect from work at the newish Pine Box Studios on Wilmington’s Seventh Street peninsula, with musicians rehearsing their tours, commercials being filmed and sets being constructed. The studio is big, and the company has plans to expand.
“Georgia is now saturated” with moviemakers, Lemole says, driving up the cost for salaries and enabling people who used to rent out their homes for $5,000 to get $35,000. Per day.
TJ Healy has been working to elevate the state’s movie-making industry for decades.
A robust filmmaking industry has inspired many performing celebrities to buy second homes in Georgia, Lemole says. Popular films and TV shows can generate tourism dollars for years from fans who want to experience where they were shot, Weizenecker says.
The Georgia bill called for creating a specialized university training program, Weizenecker says, and the result is the Georgia Film Academy, a state Board of Regents school.
The 2022 Delaware bill calls for an internship program, and Healy hopes a revived bill would build on video production programs at Delaware Technical Community College and Delaware State University and the video game program at Wilmington University. Some high schools, such as Salesianum, have TV production programs as well, he says.
During interviews, the advocates listed assets that Delaware can leverage. They include its location (not far from New York City), its range of filming locations (urban streetscapes, rural areas, beaches), its relatively cheap land for building soundstages and related infrastructure and its lack of a sales tax.
“And here’s the thing — unlike in most states, where you have to go through a bunch of red tape and not everybody’s on the same page — one of the great things about Delaware is everybody knows everybody else, and getting this stuff done is relatively easy,” says David Sheppard, who assists Healy as vice chair of the Delaware Motion Picture and Television Development Commission. As a lawyer, Sheppard worked on the tax credit bill and helped develop the commission’s regulations, while also evaluating applications for film productions for prospective rebates.
Healy wants to draw big films and TV series. “I’ve done a million dollars’ worth of documentaries here in Delaware, with crews of five, six, seven, eight people. Not a lot of money coming into Delaware, and this whole thing is built up to bring people into Delaware and to leave money here.”
“So, 20-some years ago, the Georgia film industry was nowhere, right?” Sheppard says. “And today, you can’t watch a movie without seeing the Georgia peach pop up at the end credits, right? All those Marvel movies — literally, every single one you see it.
“I long for the day that when we are able to get some real traction on this, get that legislation passed, have the resources to incentivize productions in the state — so that when you watch a Marvel movie, or any other movie, at the end credits, instead of seeing that Georgia peach you see a Delaware blue hen.”
‘One Helluva Toolbox’
Major productions in Delaware? The Pine Box is already in the game.
By Ken Mammarella
For a glimpse of a possible future when Delaware incentivizes film production, watch the “Wawa has pizza” and “Audi unreal imagination” videos on YouTube.
To understand how, watch the behind-the-scenes Audi video, in which Format founder Nic Reader and others say how they used a real car, a real driver and powerful software to create lifelike scenes.
The Pine Box Studios with the Wilmington skyline in background. Photo by Joe del Tufo.
All three videos were made on Wilmington’s Seventh Street peninsula, at The Pine Box Studios.
“It’s incredible how it’s done,” says Brian Market, chief operating officer of Light Action, which runs the adjacent studio. “It’s like you’re in the environment. But you’re really inside a building.”
Pine Box’s big draw is a huge customizable space, 21,000 square feet, the size of an ice hockey rink, with 95-foot ceilings. Light Action and its allied companies (Staging Dimensions in New Castle and Applied Electronics in Virginia) can supply and construct lighting, trusses, stages and related equipment for video productions, musicians rehearsing tours and other entertainers.
“We have one hell of a toolbox,” says founder Scott Humphrey, whose production credits include MTV videos and Rocky V. “Eighty-five percent of our business income comes from out of state, but 95% of the people working for the company are here in Delaware, so that money is being generated from outside the state and then distributed inside the state.”
That’s exactly the math that advocates of Delaware offering tax incentives for the entertainment industry want to hear.
“We bring in a concert tour [for rehearsals], and there are 70 people on that tour that are here for 10 days, and they’re staying around the corner in Wilmington,” Market says. “They’re dining in Wilmington, they’re spending their money in Wilmington. There’s so much economic impact that comes with that. The same thing applies when doing a commercial shoot.”
That impact supersizes for larger productions that involve more people, like a movie.
Humphrey is prepared. He has developed only eight of his 20 acres and has the option to buy five more acres. He’s planning for four buildings (“You have to have a minimum of two of these buildings to accommodate your client base”) and is looking forward to the state raising the access road that leads to the property by five feet to avoid flooding issues.
“Hopefully this bill [on transferrable tax credits] goes through, because it will definitely open the door for us,” he says.
Showtime for the City
Wilmington’s King Creative collaborates on feature film
By Michelle-Kramer-Fitzgerald
Wilmington-based media company King Creative has collaborated with New York-based production studio Uncultured Swine to produce a full-length feature film entitled The Conspiracists, which will be shot entirely in Delaware. Production for the film will run November 1-11; its release is anticipated in early 2025.
Uncultured Swine co-founders and film executive producers Beatriz Naranjo and Eddie Layfield (a Delaware native) connected with King Creative owner Christopher Bruce on the project, bringing Bruce on as an executive producer. The film’s production operations will be based out of King Creative’s offices at 727 N. Market Street in Wilmington. The Conspiracists is one of the first projects to be eligible for a tax rebate via the Delaware Motion Picture and Television Development Commission (see main story).
Beatriz Naranjo and Chris Bruce, two of three executive producers of The Conspiracists. Photo courtesy Chris Bruce.
“After hearing the pitch and feeling [their] passion, I saw the vision right away and knew we could help make it happen,” Bruce says of their partnership. “Delaware needs this, and we were just crazy enough to be the ones to do it!”
The Conspiracists is a mockumentary written by Michael Perrie Jr. and Lacy Reily. In a style reminiscent of classics like Best In Show and Waiting for Guffman, this film uncovers the world revolving around conspiracy theories.
Delaware native and Broadway actor Terrie Lynne Goins stars as protagonist Daisy Sureloc in a tale of two siblings’ dreams of creating an all-inclusive conspiracy convention. When those efforts begin to unravel, it’s up to one of them to put the pieces back together while the other strives to uncover a deeper conspiracy in play.
Delawareans will enjoy seeing notable local landmarks included in the film like the Hotel du Pont and The Grand Opera House, as well as local businesses like Precious Paws of Elsmere, Delaware Tire Center, and the Siegel JCC (where the conspiracy convention takes place). Bruce also hints at celebrity cameos.
“This wouldn’t have been possible without the involvement of Christopher Bruce being my right hand through this fast-paced pre-production phase,” said Naranjo.
Both Uncultured Swine (@unculturedswine.ig) and King Creative (@kingcreativellc) social channels will be providing behind-the-scenes reveals and content related to the making of the film.
“We’re excited to promote the film scene in the great state of Delaware, while celebrating the community and promoting local businesses along the way!” said Naranjo and Layfield. “We hope to continue to bring more stories and opportunities to Delaware in the future.”
