State tax credits helping draw filmmakers to Missouri

Coming soon to a theater near you: Missouri.

With two major feature films and several smaller movies being produced in Missouri, residents could soon be seeing their state on the silver screen.

Crews in St. Louis are filming "The Game of Their Lives," which tells the story of the 1950 U.S. soccer team -- including five St. Louis natives -- and its upset victory in the World Cup. In Fayette, filming has begun on "Bottleneck." It's set in North Carolina, but producer Tricia Brock wanted it filmed in mid-Missouri, where she grew up.

Jerry Jones, director of the Missouri Film Commission, said tax credits have helped draw filmmakers to the state.

"We've got two movies shooting here right now that would not be if not for the tax credit," Jones said.

In exchange for the tax credits, the filmmakers provide an economic rush to their location.

"There's definite economic impact," Jones said. "The crew comes in and spends a lot of money and they leave."

The makers of "Bottleneck" said last week they had spent at least $200,000 since arriving in Fayette.

The filming of two feature films in Missouri comes at a time when many crews are taking advantage of financial incentives in Canada and Europe, Jones said.

"We're kind of going against the national trend because productions have really been fleeing over the last few years," Jones said.

Several independent filmmakers, including Southwest Missouri State University graduate Nicholas Coleman, have targeted the Ozarks as a film location.

"This area is incredibly cinematic," Coleman said. "When you talk about the Ozarks, you're talking about one of the most beautiful places on Earth. I've got my cinematographer out in L.A. drooling over the pictures I've sent him."

Coleman said his film "Ozark Mile," about a "prodigal son" who fails in New York then moves back to Missouri, will be filmed in Branson with a $500,000 budget.

Keith Morris directed his first feature film, "The Clinic," at locations in Stockton and Springfield. Morris wrote the film last year after visiting Stockton, where his fiancee was raised.

"I was inspired because the land here is so beautiful," Morris said.

Morris said he wanted the "small-town Midwestern feel" and characters who are "real people."

"I think Missouri is beginning to have an active film community," said Mark Biggs, who teaches filmmaking at Southwest Missouri State. "And the more people that make films, the more people are aware that films can be made here."

Biggs said the independent films could be seen at festivals by prominent producers, who, in turn, could choose to make a film in Missouri.

However, with the economy struggling, filmmakers said it is more difficult now to find investors and funding to make a movie than it was a few years ago.

"The economy is not pumping as much as in the '90s. Not as many people are willing to support dreams," Biggs said. "And that's what filmmaking is all about: dreams."