If you have ever thought that your home or business has star quality, then this could be your chance to put it to the test.
The Cayman Islands Film Commission and the Cayman Islands Department of Tourism are putting together a list of filming locations across the Islands, so that film producers from around the world can discover what iconic spots could be perfect for their next project.
Speaking on Compass TV’s Daybreak programme, Cayman Islands Film Commissioner Brittany Kelly said that the listings would be featured online so that “producers overseas can see the locations and see kind of what places we have in Cayman – we have a lot of unique locations here”.
She added, “We’re inviting people to submit their locations, businesses, properties, warehouses, anywhere that they think would be film worthy.”
Economic benefit
Not only would the property owners themselves benefit, said Kelly, but the economic benefit would be felt across the local community, including by food and drink vendors and other suppliers to the filming company.
Kelly, who has been in her role for just over a year, said that she had spent the time promoting Cayman as a filming destination at film festivals around the world, including in America and France. “Instead of waiting for them to come and find us,” she said, “we go to where the industry is and where they’re gathering and making decisions.”
One of the incentives currently being launched is a cash rebate offer, so production companies could reclaim some of the money that they spend in the Cayman Islands during filming.
Kelly explained, “A film company would come in, they’d spend a certain amount of money on island, and then we perform an audit. Once they proved that they’ve spent this money at local businesses, using local vendors, and all this expenditure has occurred on island, then through the Ministry of Tourism and Trade Development, we, as the Film Commission, facilitate and administer that rebate … they have to prove basically that they spend the money here first before the money goes to them.”
To facilitate the scheme, the Film Commission and Department of Tourism recently placed a request on the government’s procurement website Bonfire seeking expressions of interest from qualified accounting firms to be considered for listing as official auditors for the Cayman Islands Film Commission’s Cash Rebate Incentive.
Kelly said, “The film industry is rapidly evolving and destinations have to make financial sense to producers. We may not necessarily be the most accessible location for producers, but an incentive will bring more producers in … and also to film in a location that most people haven’t seen on camera yet.”
Future filmmakers
The Film Commission is currently running a competition with the International Scuba Diving Hall of Fame for young filmmakers aged 13-17, which, said Kelly, will hopefully inspire a new generation of creatives.
“The young students that are making these short films are our future filmmakers,” she said. “They become our future Frank E. Flowers, our Jazz Pitcairns. They grow and they learn how to hone their craft.
“Caymanians seeing themselves reflected in media is so important because we use it as kind of a cultural marker; we can look back and say, “Oh, that was when XYZ was happening,” and so, get more young people interested in media and film. It’s about creating our own image of ourselves and bringing that internationally.”
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