How to find incentives with Funding

The Funding page compares your production against a built-in list of about a hundred film incentive programs, mostly US states and cities plus Canada, the UK, Australia, and a handful of other countries. The list is bundled with the app, some of it dates from 2024, and it isn't a live database. Use it to see which programs are worth a call, then confirm everything with the film office.

What it needs from the story

• locations with addresses, which it matches to states, provinces, and countries
• scenes on the stripboard, so it can count shoot days at those locations
• a budget, because spend is estimated from the budget total

Steps

1. Set up the budget and schedule first. Without a budget, Apply to Budget stops with "Budget Required".
2. Open Funding under Financing.
3. In Filters, use Add Story Location... to add the locations you want matched.
4. Leave Match Dates and Match Spend on to hide programs you don't qualify for, or turn them off to see everything with ineligible programs dimmed.
5. Stay on Applicable. Programs are listed under Tax Credits. Grants & Festivals and Suggestions currently come up empty, even for grant programs.
6. Click a program card to read its details, then Visit Program Website for the official rules.
7. Click Apply to Budget. The Applied tab lists what you've applied, and the budget shows a net total after incentives.

How the estimate is worked out

Storiara assumes qualifying spend is 60% of the budget total, spreads it evenly across shoot days, and multiplies by the program's base rate for the days scheduled at matching locations.

Say the budget totals $500,000 over 20 shoot days, with 12 days scheduled at Georgia addresses. Qualifying spend is 0.60 x $500,000 = $300,000, or $15,000 a day. Twelve days is $180,000, and at the 20% base rate in Storiara's Georgia record the estimate is $36,000. That same record lists a $500,000 minimum spend, and $300,000 falls short, so with Match Spend on the program drops out.

The estimate ignores per-project and annual caps, uplifts, resident labor rules, sunset dates, and currency. All figures show in US dollars. Read the Georgia incentive page or the program's own site before budgeting against a number.

If it doesn't work

• Nothing listed? Check that locations have addresses and that scenes are scheduled on those dates.
• A program you know applies is missing: matching is by place names in the address, so an address without the state or country can miss.
• "Already Applied" means the program is already on the budget. Use Remove from Budget in its details to take it off.

For how the credits themselves work, see tax credit. The Funding guide covers the page.