8bitOrange

CS/CS/HB 697 - Entertainment Industry Economic Development

So remember our friend Precourt? His crazy anti-gay…oh wait I mean “Pro Family” entertainment tax credit bill? Well it passed, with a minor modification, it looks like they pulled out the “non-traditional family values” line that would have nullified any credits available for gay themed movies. Although, to be honest, I’ve read it a couple of times and it seems like they just want to spur disney to make movies again, and gay themes don’t seem like they fit still, depending on what “Would not offend the parent of a 5 year old” means. Well here’s the wording for what a “Family-Friendly” theme needs to be:

4. Family-friendly productions.—A certified theatrical or direct-to-video motion picture production or video game determined by the Commissioner of Film and Entertainment, with the advice of the Florida Film and Entertainment Advisory Council, to be family-friendly, based on the review of the script and the review of the final release version, is eligible for an additional tax credit equal to 5 percent of its actual qualified expenditures. Family-friendly productions are those that have cross-generational appeal; would be considered suitable for viewing by children age 5 or older; do not contain any theme, language, nudity, sex, violence, or other matter that would offend the parent of a 5-year-old child that views the motion picture or game; are appropriate in theme, content, and language for a broad family audience; embody a responsible resolution of issues; and do not exhibit or imply any act of smoking, sex, nudity, gratuitous violence, or vulgar or profane language.

Well there you go. Interpret yourself. I for one either think it makes for the most boring movie ever, or they removed a line to appease a certain sector of people without really solving what was wrong with the bill in the first place.

So please, film-makers/tv producers/game developers/interactive entertainment crews, bring your work to us, we’ll help out with those pesky taxes, just make sure we don’t offend anyone, because lord knows we wouldn’t want anyone to know that the world outside of disney is a scary, scary place.