French Production Incentives Boost Country’s Visual Effects Sector
Ben Croll The growth of France’s VFX sector cannot be overstated, as the implementation of a comprehensive 10% bonus for international productions that spend more than $2.1 million with local companies (and the fact that the full 40% tax rebate can be earned off digital expenditures alone) has supercharged the post-production ecosystem, funneling first financial and then human capital. On paper, the equation is self-evident: Where investment goes, talent soon follows. In practice, this cause-and-effect has fueled a wide repatriation, as skilled graduates of the country’s top training programs return from outposts abroad for the opportunity to work on projects at home. Studios like Paris- and Montpellier-based the Yard have reaped the benefits of this inverse brain-drain, building on commissions from recent projects like “Halo,” “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” and “The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon” to bulk up a workforce well-versed in international pipelines and methods — a staffing asset that further facilitates partnerships with bigger commissioners. “Our entire working model is similar to those of studios in Canada, the United States and England,” says the Yard founder and senior VFX supervisor Laurens Ehrmann.