Lights, camera, incentives! Could public money make Orlando ‘Hollywood East?’

They didn’t walk a red carpet, but a roster of aspiring actors, directors and stage hands gave cinematic speeches to Orange County commissioners Tuesday, urging the board to resurrect a dormant film incentive program with hopes of turning Orlando into “Hollywood East.”

Three dozen people who star in or help make motion pictures, TV programs or documentaries said the region boasts a skilled cadre of creative and technical talent, but has lost much of it to productions elsewhere, including Georgia where AMC’s hit series “The Walking Dead” was made.

Some left the state because there are few jobs here. Offering financial incentives to those who film here could change that, advocates said.

“Florida is probably the only state in the Southeast and one of only 13 in the country that does not have a statewide incentive program,” said John Lux, executive director of Film Florida, a not-for-profit which represents 50,000 people who work in the screen production industry. “Right now, Orange County is the only major metro area in the state without a film incentive program.”

He said incentives can help lure productions that often hire 1,000 local workers.

“An average feature film or television series spends more than $20 million in the community where they film,” Lux said. “Then  when the movie or series is released, the world sees that location on the large, small or mobile screen” and they’re motivated to visit.

An impassioned cast of characters took turns at the microphone for more than an hour.

“I’m here to implore and encourage you to help unleash the beast of creativity in the Orlando area,” said Jimmy McDowell, a cosmetic dentist, owner of a film production company and a professional wrestler with long flowing white locks. “Please be a visionary.”

He wrestles under the name “The Golden Boy” and can fix a foe’s smile if he knocks a tooth out, Mayor Jerry Demings joked.

Winter Garden mom Frances “Franny” Titus, 37, an actress in independent films, tried to sway the board with a little flattery.

“I just have to say there’s like a very good looking panel here,” she said buttering up commissioners like a bucket of popcorn. “I could see you all  in the movies.”

In the end, maybe it worked.

Commissioners gave a unanimous two-thumbs up to creating a panel of experts to study the idea.

If an incentive fund is created, Film Florida recommends an initial investment of $5 million.

Tuesday’s discussion did not focus on details about distributing incentive funds, but similar programs tend to use rebates to reimburse a production company after it provides proof it has met minimum requirements for local spending, local hires and production days.

Some counties tap their main budget accounts fed by property taxes, but an alternative source could be Tourist Development Tax revenue, which Hillsborough and Palm Beach counties use, according to a memo by Commissioner Emily Bonilla, who proposed the idea.

Bonilla, who formerly worked at Full Sail University, said an incentive program would offer the county an opportunity to collaborate with Visit Orlando, the destination marketing organization which received more than $100 million in tourist-tax funding last year.

In their Tuesday meeting, commissioners also sent to the November ballot a request by the Orange County Public Schools to extend a half-penny sales tax for 10 more years to continue a school construction program that has renovated or replaced 136 older campuses and built 65 new ones.

The School Board voted unanimously last month to put the referendum before voters in the fall but state law also requires a majority vote of county commissioners. It will be the last question on the long presidential-election ballot.

Commissioners who voted last month to abandon a proposed penny sales tax increase for transportation hope that decision boosts the chances of passing the school district’s tax. County and school officials worried two sales-tax measures on the same ballot would doom both.

shudak@orlandosentinel.com