Can you tell the difference between the Atlantic Ocean and Lake Michigan?
The director of a new movie titled What's Wrong With Virginia believes you won't.
The film is about a woman named Virginia, played by Jennifer Connonly, who is having an affair with the town sheriff, Ed Harris.
The script is set in Virginia Beach but its makers have decided to use Lake Michigan as the Atlantic Ocean.
Why? Virginia film office officials say it all comes back to incentives that states put in place to lure production companies in to film.
The film office says that out of the 41 states that offer production companies tax breaks and credits, Virginia ranks dead last.
"So the feature films...where the real, real large dollars come in...are not going to come" says W. Jeffery Frizzell of the Hampton Roads Film Office. "We need to get in the incentive game."
So just what are we missing out on? The Virginia film office says when a major feature film is shot in our area the crew adds $250,000 a day to the local economy.
Officials say low incentives have recently cost the state other big films projects like Secretariat - a movie about the triple crown winner from Virginia that's currently being shot in Kentucky.
There's also Big Stone Gap, a movie set in southwest Virginia that's being produced in South Carolina.
Frizzell says the bottom line is what producers see and the commonwealth's elected officials have to pass legislation that gives directors a reason to use or our beautiful backdrop.
If not there will be lights and cameras at the Oceanfront, but no action.
The director of a new movie titled What's Wrong With Virginia believes you won't.
The film is about a woman named Virginia, played by Jennifer Connonly, who is having an affair with the town sheriff, Ed Harris.
The script is set in Virginia Beach but its makers have decided to use Lake Michigan as the Atlantic Ocean.
Why? Virginia film office officials say it all comes back to incentives that states put in place to lure production companies in to film.
The film office says that out of the 41 states that offer production companies tax breaks and credits, Virginia ranks dead last.
"So the feature films...where the real, real large dollars come in...are not going to come" says W. Jeffery Frizzell of the Hampton Roads Film Office. "We need to get in the incentive game."
So just what are we missing out on? The Virginia film office says when a major feature film is shot in our area the crew adds $250,000 a day to the local economy.
Officials say low incentives have recently cost the state other big films projects like Secretariat - a movie about the triple crown winner from Virginia that's currently being shot in Kentucky.
There's also Big Stone Gap, a movie set in southwest Virginia that's being produced in South Carolina.
Frizzell says the bottom line is what producers see and the commonwealth's elected officials have to pass legislation that gives directors a reason to use or our beautiful backdrop.
If not there will be lights and cameras at the Oceanfront, but no action.
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