78
THE LOCALS HAVE MADE US FEEL AT HOME LIKE WE ARE LOCALS. THEY ARE VERY SUPPORTIVE OF THE SHOW AND NEVER MAKE US FEEL LIKE WE ARE A DISRUPTION. –MICHELLE MANNING, THE EXECUTIVE PRODUCER OF DISNEY CHANNEL’S ANDI MACK
PRODUCTIONS RECEIVED STATE FILM INCENTIVES TO SHOOT IN UTAH IN 2017.
mother is actually her grandmother. Somehow, with pre-teens across the nation watching, Andi works through it with the help of her family, her friends Cyrus and Buffy and her crush Jonah Beck. Perhaps more astonishing for Disney, Andi Mack last year became the first series in the company's history to develop an LGBTQ storyline when Andi's friend Cyrus (played by Joshua Rush) realizes he has feelings for a male classmate and shares those conflicted feelings with viewers in a scene overseen by child development experts and screened by GLAAD and PFLAG. Clearly, this is not Mickey's Disney. Best of all, it happens entirely in Utah where the series hires 200 extras and crew, rents storefronts, pumps $110,000 into the Utah economy and may make Magna's downtown an entertainment hub on the national map. The twists and turns of Andi Mack reflect the recent interest in Utah as a location for films and television. No one in the Utah film industry can forget the boom days of Touched by an Angel that produced nine seasons and 211 episodes from 1994 through 2003. Then film business in the state stalled, with the exception of occasional commercials and a film or TV special. The main culprit was Utah's incentive
S A LT L A K E M A G A Z I N E . C O M | M A R / A P R 2 0 1 8
Production set of the Disney Channel series Andi Mack underway on Main Street in Magna.
program, which couldn't compete with those of Vancouver, British Columbia; Georgia; New Mexico or Louisiana. Utah's Legislature, relishing the state's reputation for fiscal restraint, didn't support incentive packages that required front-loading significant funding to later pay out in tax breaks. In 2012, with the help of Speaker of the House Greg Hughes, a revised incentive program was put in place that offers significant film projects a 20 percent tax break and up to 25 percent if the film uses a 75 percent Utah cast and crew or films in a rural location. So far, studios - including Fox, AMC, Disney, HBO and ABC - have spent $269 million in Utah
since the program began. The recent growth is significant: In 2016 the state issued 356 film permits, that grew to 602 in 2017. “We've had a really stellar couple of years,” says Utah Film Commission Director Virginia Pearce. “We've seen a lot of stories, a lot of films, made here.” And a television series, like Andi Mack, is the grail. While less prestigious than major films or critically acclaimed small movies, a series provides a long-term economic investment and crew job security. A typical series spends 6-12 months shooting and spends $25-50 million in a location, the commission figures. “We've done a lot of work to
PHOTO DISNEY/ABC TELEVISION GROUP © 2016 DISNEY ENTERPRISES, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
Source, Utah Film Commission