Sarasota News Leader

09/21/12

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Sarasota News Leader September 21, 2012 beth "Lisa" Damschroder with the finance office in the Planning Services Department told the commissioners prior to Corcoran's presentation. A staff memo, dated Sept. 11, says the com- mission has reimbursed several projects that have spent more than $2 million each in the county, equating to a return on in- vestment of 2,390%. Referring to the Bollywood Hollywood CEO, Corcoran noted that while she had spoken with him on the phone a few times over the past couple of years, a person on her office's advisory panel who knew him was the link that led to his visit to the county just the previous week. Not only did county staff arrange for a VIP reception for him, Corcoran said, but staff arranged for him to tour the area by car and by yacht, "and he is very interested in bringing some projects here. He has two feature films in development," as well as four TV series and some new media proj- ects, she said. "It's a very promising jigsaw puzzle of piec- es," Corcoran added. To date, 10 projects have applied for, or are in the process of being paid from, the in- centive program, she said. "Our incentive rebate program is very selective about what it rebates cash on," she pointed out. Four new projects in the process of consid- eration for rebates, Corcoran said, were "very diverse." Page 41 They ranged from an independent film comedy called "Attorney at Low," to a six- month-long multi-media project that incor- porated commercials and web broadcast- ing, to "Spring Breakers" — a film starring James Franco, Selena Gomez and Vanessa Hudgens — to production work focused on a skin-care product The only reason the "Spring Breakers" crew considered shooting in Sarasota, she added, was because of the incentive program. The original plan for its production work called for filming in the Tampa Bay region, she said, but the company ended up spending about $250,000 in Sarasota County. The movie "may not be Disney-esque," Corcoran noted, "but it's still going to have a huge audience, and it's going to showcase the community very well as a great, fun, exciting place for young people." One project that was pending for the in- centive program, she added, was an MTV show. At $1 million, Corcoran said, it had the single biggest budget for a production shot in Sarasota County since her office had been open over the past five years. "MTV came in under the radar … and did a reality show," she said. "It'll be very in- teresting to see how much of the commu- nity is recognizable, or if [the show is] all focused around the participants … Either way, we're glad to get that million dollars." "Absolutely," responded Commission Chair- woman Christine Robinson. SarasotaNewsLeader.com

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