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No subsidies needed for Czech film industry
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September 12th, 2007 issue

By Norbert Auerbach
Those involved in motion-picture circles here have hotly debated whether the government needs to create a system of subsidies and rebates to draw foreign filmmakers. Many of them say the filmmakers who have been to our country and are still coming to produce here will prefer to go to such countries as Hungary or Romania, where such subsidies and tax rebates exist.
I am convinced this fear of losing clients is highly exaggerated, and I base my conclusion on a number of factors:
Barrandov Studios’ facilities are unmatched in most if not all of the countries that are potential competitors to the Czech Republic.
Barrandov’s new sound stages were completed in 2006, and filmmakers have come in droves. (Editor’s note: Much of the latest James Bond movie Casino Royale was shot at Barrandov sound stages, for example, as well as Prince Caspian, the second Chronicles of Narnia movie, a follow-up to the box-office hit The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.)
To my knowledge there is no studio anywhere that has its own full service laboratory like the one Barrandov has.
We all know there’s a long tradition of feature-film production in the Czech Republic, which is perhaps matched only by Hollywood.
This results in an abundance of skilled professionals in all departments, be it set construction, camera people, sound specialists or special effects artists. Those people have worked on a variety of well-known American movies, from Oliver Twist to Hellboy and Blade II.
Filmmaking needs a sophisticated hinterland with an availability of talent such as musicians, dancers, actors and actresses. I do not know of a single country that can match the Czech Republic in both technical and creative skills where a moviemaker can produce a film at lower costs. Our production prices are estimated to be about 25 percent lower than in the United Kingdom and 40 percent lower than they would be in the United States.
As many as 20,000 people work directly with the film industry in the Czech Republic, according to the Czech Film Commission.
In addition, creative people like directors, actors and writers are extremely sensitive to the “atmosphere” of the area in which they work. Here again, the Czech Republic comes out on top, in my opinion.
We have Oscar award-winning Czechs who have drawn attention to our country as well, from art director and set designer Karel Černý to costume designer Theodor Pištěk. Miroslav Ondříček was an Oscar nominee. Producer/director Miloš Forman is a household name around the world. There are others.
Barrandov Studios also has a superb trove of costumes, weapons and furniture similar to nothing less than what once existed at MGM Studios in Hollywood. Barrandov’s collection is now unequaled anywhere.
When these subsidy arguments come up, there is always much talk about how an incident of alleged overcharging during a Tom Cruise shoot caused a number of productions scheduled for the Czech Republic to be canceled (Editor’s note: much of the original Mission: Impossible starring Cruise was filmed in the Czech Republic. It was released in 1996.)
The entire incident and its so-called consequences have been highly exaggerated.
Let me set the record straight. The sum involved amounted to something like $50,000 (1 million Kč) for the use of a building. Compared to the overall budget of the film, the amount in question was ridiculously small.
That incident has not affected our ability to attract new movies, and it won’t affect us in the future.
President Václav Klaus vetoed a cinematography law last year that would have created tax incentives for foreign film makers. Industry leaders are still discussing how to create a law that will include a system to support film education, a system to promote domestic films, and are discussing whether or not tax incentives are needed.
I would say that foreign film production in the Czech Republic is much more dependent on the very cyclical nature of the Hollywood motion picture industry, which has its separate ups and downs, than in how much money we can offer to try to attract outside films.
If more or fewer pictures are scheduled to be produced in Hollywood, that does and will affect what happens here more than something that happened years ago.
There seems to be a lot of fear from people worrying that fewer foreign films will be shot locally is due to the proliferation of film “service production companies” in the Czech Republic. In my opinion, we now have an overabundance of such companies, because every “production assistant” seems to think that he is capable of being at least a “production manager” or “line producer.”
That just is not so.
In addition, when you think about the film industry here, don’t forget the historic cachet and unique locations the Czech Republic offers. Producers save money from what they would spend in Western Europe or the United States and they can live lavishly as well. They can hire experienced people at good prices and handle production at a reasonable rate.
Finally, most U.S. moviemakers who come to film in the Czech Republic have massive budgets to work with. So, in many cases, if we for some reason decide to offer an incentive as a percent of a movie’s overall cost, we wouldn’t even be able to afford to start negotiating. We don’t have that kind of money to throw at moviemakers that already want to come here, anyway.
We have a good reputation, and we should just concentrate on making it better.
— The author is the former president and chief executive officer of United Artists movie studios in Los Angeles. He has been an executive consultant to AB Barrandov (the movie studio complex in Prague 5). He lives in the Czech Republic.


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