Empire State Development (ESD), New York's chief economic development agency, highlighted the fiscal benefits resulting from the postproduction animation of “Dora and Friends: Into the City” in New York State. The new children’s television series spent approximately $1 million in the State on post production costs, hired 80 New Yorkers, and generated over $5 million in non-post production spending for local New York vendors. The series is the Empire State’s first fully-animated television show since Governor Andrew M. Cuomo extended and enhanced the film and television tax credit in 2013 to facilitate postproduction work for animation.
The first season of the show, which begins broadcasting this week on Nickelodeon, will include 20 half-hour episodes and is a spinoff series from “Dora the Explorer,” which, according to Nickelodeon, is the most watched pre-school age show of all time. The new series follows Dora and her friends’ adventures in the fictional city of Playa Verde.
“The new post production incentive for animation was a key factor in our decision to keep postproduction in New York,” said Teri Weiss, executive VP of original programming, Nickelodeon Preschool Television.
In 2012, Governor Cuomo championed and signed into law legislation that was designed to help New York State compete for postproduction business and jobs, a fast-growing segment of the motion picture and television industry. The law boosted the available postproduction tax credit from 10 percent to 30 percent (for post-production work in the New York metropolitan commuter region), and from 10 percent to 35 percent (for postproduction work done Upstate.) Last year, when the film and TV tax credit program was enhanced and extended, programmatic changes included lowering the postproduction threshold for visual effects and animation on qualified New York expenses from 75 percent to 20 percent or $3 million of the total animation budget (whichever is lower).
These enhancements have helped to significantly grow postproduction in New York, particularly by attracting work from films shot outside the state and to have the postproduction work done by New York companies. Since taking effect, 140 productions have applied for postproduction work in New York–more than eight times the number of applications received during a two-year period under the previous tax credit–which will generate more than $130 million in direct spending. Furthermore, 13 post companies have established new operations, including three Upstate.
Yana Collins Lehman, co-chair of Post New York Alliance, said, “VFX and animation companies in New York have never been busier. Governor Cuomo recognized early on that getting aggressive with the film and TV incentive was the surest way to attract to New York the kinds of projects that have, for years, been leaving the country. And it’s working! Companies are expanding within, and relocating to New York. And great jobs in VFX and animation are coming here, almost faster than we can fill them.”
Postproduction includes all of the editing after filming is complete and includes visual effects, color correction, sound editing and mixing. The industry also includes thousands of other jobs, from engineers and messengers to creative and support staff. The strengthened law was designed to expand state support by specifically focusing on attracting postproduction work to communities in all corners of the state. At a time when other states are experiencing production flight, New York’s strengthened credit supports a robust industry cluster which has become a major source of direct and indirect employment and economic opportunity for hundreds of thousands of people.
Since the film tax credit program was established in 2004, it has leveraged an estimated $14 billion worth of direct spending and has been a huge job generator for New York. Under Governor Cuomo’s leadership, the industry has experienced explosive growth since 2011, with record breaking years for productions and post production in 2013, bringing billions of dollars in new spending and thousands of jobs into New York State. The stability provided by multiyear funding has particularly encouraged the development of television series production work, as well as long term investments in infrastructure, all of which creates thousands of jobs directly and indirectly related to the actual productions themselves.
During calendar year 2013, applications for 181 film productions were submitted and included 124 films, 31 television programs, and 25 pilots and 1 relocated television show. The impact of these projects includes: Generating a direct spend of $2.09 billion in NY State; collecting a projected $466 million in credits; and hiring an estimated 126,301 actors and crew for the 181 projects submitted.
