Galveston 2018 Motion Picture

[k5jri radio]

Recently watched on Blu-Ray the Galveston (2018) movie starring Ben Foster and Elle Fanning. Roy Cady (played by Foster) is a 40 year old career criminal on the run from a New Orleans LA area mob boss, Stan Pitco (played by Beau Bridges) circa 1988. He meets up with Raquel "Rocky" Arceneaux, a 19 year old call girl (played by Fanning), also on the run. Rocky persuades Roy to stop off at her former residence in Orange TX. While Roy waits in the car, "Rocky" goes inside, the audience hears what sounds like a gunshot, and she returns with her daughter. "Rocky" tells Roy her stepfather habitually abused her sexually and is the biological father of her 3 year old daughter. All three characters flee to Galveston TX (Roy Cady's home town). The movie was filmed in and around Savannah GA, with Tybee Island GA standing in for Galveston TX. Tybee Island and the road and bridge connecting it to the Georgia mainland look very different from Galveston and the roads (two with bridge, one with ferry) connecting it to the Texas mainland.

[k5jri radio]

The GALVESTON (2018) movie was based on the 2010 novel GALVESTON by Nic Pizzolatto with screenplay credited to Jim Hammett (pseudonym for Nic Pizzolatto). The movie was directed by Melanie Laurent (who made revisions to the original script). This 2018 movie had only limited distribution in the United States. As far as I know, the 2010 novel is the third novel with this title. The first being the 1976 novel by Suzanne Morris. I remember seeing the Morris novel displayed for sale at the Galvez Mall (Galveston TX) location of B. Dalton bookstore. The second is the 2000 fantasy novel by Sean Stewart in which a flood of magic takes over the island of Galveston. As of this posting, I have read the Galveston novels by Morris and Pizzolatto, but not the Galveston novel by Stewart.

 

[k5jri radio]

The Blu-Ray disc of GALVESTON that I own has audio tracks in English and French and is distributed by Mongrel Media, an independent Canadian film distributor. Jim Hammett (pseudonym for Nic Pizzolatto) is credited for the screenplay. Melanie Laurent, a prominent actress and filmmaker in France, directed the film (with extensive rewrite authority). Although Ms. Laurent is credited as director, she is not credited for the screenplay.

 

   

[k5jri radio]

After watching the GALVESTON motion picture (2018) on Blu-Ray disc, then reading the GALVESTON novel (2010), it was interesting to watch the motion picture again.

Nic Pizzolatto (credited as Jim Hammett) faced the initial challenge of adapting and condensing his 250 page novel into a suitable motion picture screenplay. Melanie Laurent (credited as director, not credited as screenwriter) was given broad authority to make changes to the screenplay during filming. In my opinion, the screenplay simplifies and clarifies events in the novel in a highly effective manner.

Roy Cady (male lead character), is smart enough to anticipate and escape from the setup designed to eliminate him, but goes on to make several apparent mistakes after leaving the New Orleans area: [1] contacting his former girlfriend (in person at her home) and thereby announcing his presence in southeast Texas, [2] telephoning the New Orleans physician who diagnosed his terminal lung cancer, & [3] telephoning his former boss and trying to extort money from him. Contacting his former girlfriend provided an eye witness with a motive for revealing his current whereabouts. (She is now married and living a respectable life in an upscale neighborhood.) Telephoning his New Orleans doctor provides a telephone call that can be traced to his current location. Telephoning his former boss not only provides a way to trace his current location, but the attempt to extort money gives his former boss an even stronger motive to have him eliminated. Spoiler Alert: Roy Cady (as well as the movie audience) do not find out until Roy's eventual arrest and physical examination that his previous terminal lung cancer diagnosis was incorrect. His lung condition was, in fact, treatable. It follows that Roy's actions prior to his arrest might have been different had he known the true status of his lung condition prior to his arrest.

The scene in the movie with a road sign indicating the distance between Beaumont (TX) and Galveston (TX) is approximately correct if the route taken is via the Bolivar Peninsula and the ferry connecting it to Galveston Island.

The decision to film this movie at Savannah and Tybee Island GA was likely due to the tax incentive structure offered by the state of Georgia, compared to that offered by the state or Texas. Aesthetic considerations (the look and ambiance of Tybee Island GA versus the look and ambiance of Galveston TX) were less likely.       

[Reefmonkey]

On 11/23/2020 at 12:16 PM, k5jri radio said:

The decision to film at Tybee Island GA presumes the cost of filming there was significantly lower than it would be to film at Galveston TX. This type of decision is normally made by the producer and/or financial backers.          

Probably not about Galveston being more costly to film in than Tybee, because I doubt it is. More likely it is either due to the production team preferring the aesthetic of Tybee for the look of the film they wanted, or it had to do with tax incentives. Georgia offers a 20% incentive on productions of $500,000 or more, plus an additional 10% if the film adds a peach logo to its credits. Texas is more like 5% between $100,00 and $1 million, 10% over $1 million. And in Georgia that $500,000 minimum doesn't have to be spent on one project, it can be aggregated across several projects by the same production company in a single tax year. If a production company already has several small budget productions taking place in Georgia, and none taking place in Texas, it certainly makes more sense to fold a movie like Galveston into its aggregated production spending in Georgia rather than just doing one movie in Texas.

[mkultra25]

I'd been meaning to watch GALVESTON for some time, but I have to admit that my interest level dropped significantly once I found out that it was filmed in Georgia and not Galveston. Same reason that BREWSTER MCCLOUD wouldn't be as interesting (to me, anyway) if it hadn't been shot on location in Houston. 

[k5jri radio]

Tax incentives do not affect costs. Tax incentives are assets that are applied to revenue, once the product is completed and delivered. Assuming the respective costs of filming in Galveston TX and Tybee Island GA are comparable, Georgia offers more generous film production tax incentives, including the ability to aggregate tax incentives on several smaller projects.

In addition, Georgia law allows unused tax incentives to be sold to other Georgia taxpayers. A typical selling price would be 90 percent of face value less brokerage fees, if any. Production companies, their owners, or their employees do not have to be Georgia residents or have bank accounts in Georgia.

 

 

 

 

   

[Reefmonkey]

Film production accounting can be somewhat byzantine. Tax credits like these can either be deducted from the intangible assets held in relation to the production costs, or they can be recognized as deferred income. With a small production like this where its costs are going to be lumped in with other film projects since its costs by itself don't meet a minimum threshold, I imagine they'd do the latter. If tax incentives are recognized as deferred income, they aren't going to show up on the cost side of the balance sheet, then all other things being equal between filming in Tybee and Galveston, there wouldn't be a difference in "net cost of filming" between the two.

[k5jri radio]

Movie productions (theatrical or television) usually conform to accrual accounting methods that do not recognize incoming payment from a buyer (in this case the tax incentive) as income until the goods or services are delivered to the buyer at some point in the future. Tax incentives affect income but not cost.