3 days ago
Weeds, hope grows for stagnant film industry in Hawaiʻi
HONOLULU (KHON2) — Hawaiʻi's stagnant film industry is becoming glaringly obvious as weeds have taken over the once-bustling film studio, but there is hope with continued tax credits and momentum from two big productions.
Big changes could be coming for Hawaii's film industry — and they aren't good
The Hawaiʻi Film Studio in Diamond Head sits vacant with weeds now growing outside. An actor recently tweeted the visual – some say symbolic of the current state of our film industry.
'It's just sad that now that there's nobody in there, it's dying, it's falling apart just like the industry is,' said Ralph Malani, hairstylist.
Malani is one of the thousands of locals who worked behind the scenes of film and T.V. productions. But with nothing currently shooting here, he's had to find other work just like almost everyone else in the industry.
'If the choice is between doing the thing that you love and doing the thing that will feed your family, that's a pretty easy and still tough choice,' said Tuiaana Scanlan, IATSE Local 665 President.
But there is some hope. Governor Green announced he plans to veto House Bill 796, which would put a five-year expiration on income tax credits on several industries, including film and television, research and renewable energy. Green feels the credits are critical to supporting economic development and scares away future investors.
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'It means that we have a longer runway for our industry to take off,' said Scanlan.
Those in the industry hope the Governor's veto jumpstarts everything again and gets this studio and all the industry employees in Hawaiʻi back to work.
With the success of 'Lilo and Stitch,' and Jason Momoa's 'Chief of War' scheduled to debut in August, industry leaders say now is the time to showcase Hawaiʻi and for Hawaiʻi to see what these productions really mean.
'They put us in the forefront and spotlight of folks when they're looking at travel destinations, when they go to a theater, when they see advertisements for a movie, that directly impacts the visitor industry,' said Scanlan.
Scanlan cites one 2022 study that found the film industry accounted for 4.5 million visitor days in Hawaiʻi, $544 million in wages and $720 million in economic impact.
'The benefit of productions that look to create those stories about Hawaiʻi, are hiring more local directors, local writers and we at DBEDT really believe that's an important part of putting Hawaiʻi first,' said Georja Skinner, DBEDT Creative Industries Division Chief Officer.
Another important part, according to Skinner, is making incremental changes in Hawaiʻi's film tax credit which the State Film Office will push to do next legislative session. She says it's about 30% across the nation, while it's 22% on Oʻahu.'Atlanta has become the new Hollywood,' said Malani. 'And they film everything in Atlanta now because they play the game. They give the tax incentives, they play the game. Hawaiʻi doesn't play the game, and look what happened.'
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