The outfit has bought a ten thousand square foot building on Golden Gate Avenue which they intend to transform into low-rent office space for up-and-coming filmmakers who can’t afford San Francisco’s sky-high rents.
Dubbed an ‘incubator’ program, the scheme will rent out office space for as little as USD 1 to 1.50 per square foot.
Susannah Greason Robbins, the commission’s executive director told the SF Chronicle: “We want to show independent filmmakers that we are focused on them, as much as we are on the big studio productions.”
The building, located at 134A Golden Gate Avenue will have a communal area and at least ten basement offices.
Martin Rosetti, a young filmmaker in San Francisco told the Chronicle: “It’s a little awkward for clients to come in and see my living room and bedroom.
“The biggest challenge has been finding something that we can afford and fits us.
“It’s at least half of the rents that we were looking at in SoMa, Potrero and the Dogpatch. If this hadn’t gone through, we thought of finding a place outside the city.”
Through the SFFC, San Francisco also offers the Scene in San Francisco Rebate Program to productions which are set in the city. This consists of a rebate of a maximum of USD 600,000 of fees paid to the City.
Also in June of 2010, the CFFC started to accept tax credit applications for the new year. This lets productions have a credit against income and sales and use taxes based on qualified expenditures for years beginning on or after January 2011.
Editor’s notes: For further details of the office-related services The Office Providers offers the film industry, check out our IMDB profile.