At one point, Missouri was a “film state,” says Chase Elliot, a director who is trying to revive the state’s filmmaking industry. His current feature film project is the first to take advantage of a newly reinstated Missouri film credit program. “We’re the guinea pigs,” he says.
Last year, Governor Mike Parsons renewed the Show MO Act film tax credit program that had lain dormant for nearly a decade. The tax credit is intended to make Missouri a viable competitor in the film industry, offering incentives and tax breaks for productions filmed in the state. The passed legislation not only reauthorized the bill but strengthened it, allowing approved motion media productions to receive tax credits up to $16 million. The base incentive starts at 20 percent and could increase up to 60 percent if certain requirements are met, such as filming in a rural or blighted area. To ensure incentive money is spent properly, productions will undergo two audits: one by a licensed Missouri CPA and the other by the government.
For Elliot, taking advantage of the tax credit for At Niangua’s End, his feature film based on a short film of the same name, means overcoming several infrastructure challenges. Finding crew members is one of the highest hurdles. “We want to hire people from Missouri, as many as we can,” Elliot says. “The problem is Missouri doesn’t really have the infrastructure to do filmmaking because that’s not done here, and so finding crew, finding equipment—cameras, lenses, lighting, stuff like that—is hard.”
Elliot’s intent is to start developing the necessary infrastructure and hammering out the kinks. Eventually, he wants to film more projects here and help Missouri take off as a film state. So far, several of the production members, including Elliot, producer Gina Goff, and co-stars Bo Shore and Phoenix Buckner, are all Missouri locals.
“I’m excited to finally be returning home to make a movie,” says Goff, a film producer who grew up in Jefferson City before moving to Los Angeles. “What I think will be special about it is to not only see something finally shot in Missouri, but just all of these Missouri-based filmmakers and actors and crew members coming together to make a movie.”
In the past, several Missouri-based stories haven’t been filmed in the state due to lack of tax credit incentives, says Steph Shannon, director of the Kansas City Film Office. The Paramount Plus original series Tulsa King was originally titled Kansas City King, and the hit Netflix series Ozark, whose story revolves around Missouri’s lake region, was produced in Atlanta, Georgia.
“Every project is a business in and of itself,” says Shannon, who has been instrumental in luring film production to the state. “Each job can employ 300 to 400 people including actors, camera crew, lighting, audio and even jobs that aren’t quickly associated with filmmaking like plumbing, carpentry, catering and accounting.”
For instance, the hit movie Gone Girl poured close to $7.9 million into Cape Girardeau’s local economy, where much of the movie was shot, in a matter of weeks, Shannon says.
In Elliot’s case, most of the movie production will take place at the Lake of the Ozarks. Initially, Elliot and his team were concerned that they would not be welcomed by local lake communities due to its often unfavorable depiction in the media. “We were a little scared because of how Ozark portrayed the Ozarks,” says Elliot, who grew up in the area, as did Shore. However, their trepidation proved unnecessary. “They [locals] love the concept and that we’re…bringing eyes to the area.”
In the grand scheme of filmmaking, At Niangua’s End’s $1.6 million budget is low, so having the local community eager to get involved and support the project is huge.
“Being from the lake, we’ve always wanted to tell a story that’s at the Lake of the Ozarks because it has untapped potential,” Elliot says. Elliot and Shore, who also helped write and create the short film, wanted to create something distinctly recognizable by any Missourian, featuring local landmarks and businesses. They have also pulled inspiration from their own childhoods by dropping Easter eggs only Ozark locals would know.
Elliot has other ideas for projects that could be filmed in Missouri and believes this film is only the beginning. A lot rests on At Niangua’s End in proving the viability of the new program, but, Elliot assures, “it’s been a long time coming.”
