Puerto Rico Film Commission?

The Puerto Rico Film Commission is the most important entity dedicated to “promoting the development of all the elements that comprise the audiovisual industry”. Its highest achievement to date is offering one of the highest tax incentives offered by any film commission.

The PRFC was created by act of law in 1999 primarily to develop the arts and sciences of the film industry on the island. Their primary incentive is a 40% tax credit on payments to PR residents and 20% tax credit on non-resident talent. These incentives are also offered to off-island producers who may want to carry out their shoots in Puerto Rico.

Their service is pretty basic, as well as any other city Film Commission. They act as a liaison, helping investors, studios, and production companies and independent producers find all the services needed to film their projects in Puerto Rico.

They also offer a “phone book” of all the people that make up the industry in the island. Pre Pro has all the numbers you’re looking for when you are a producer in Puerto Rico. Not only possible assistants, camera crews, lighting technicians, but food services, transportation services, laundry services, among others.

All of this information is great for international producers and/or if you happen to have $50,000 and give them exclusivity, just to get them to hear you out. For local filmmakers is very difficult to acquire that quantity of money and getting them to help you out with the distribution of the film. I know this sounds a bit unorthodox given the fact that I live here, and, of course, my business would be located here. But, I know this from former experience, one of the islands’ own directors, famous for his educational style of filmmaking has been through a very difficult run to produce the movie. He resorted to a very odd strategy of funding.

He came up with the idea of through selling tickets for the premiere getting the money. You don’t need me to tell you that the movie hasn’t even begun pre-production. The reason why he resorted to this odd strategy is because he simply didn’t have the money to finance it.

And to me, that is the biggest problem with the Commission. They filter too many of the projects that get to their desks and subsequently cut the wings of the rest. In other words, if you don’t have either enough money, or a good story (to their eyes) to tell, you won’t get help at all.

As an aspiring filmmaker one gets disheartened by this circumstance, it’s very difficult to get support from the government for us locals, and is why the industry in the island is suffering. The arts are not being developed or nourished by either the government or the Commission.

I didn’t want to make this post “controversial” for lack of a better word, but, the situations have been so many in which it’s been very hard to get funding, that I just couldn’t stand here and say nothing about it. Yes, it has great tax cuts, but that’s about it. I think they can do better than that to help improve the chances for us commoners to get our stories out there.

I truly hope other hopefuls don’t get the terrible luck that we have, and hopefully do whatever you can to get your stories out there for people to admire.