As a movie where most of the scenes take place in Iraq, Matthew will never let the crew go to Iraq to shoot on the spot, today's Iraq is definitely synonymous with chaos, and it is said that there are extremist terrorist groups operating again, if you go there to shoot on the spot, it is not unusual to encounter roadside bombs or car bombs or something on the way.

Besides, they are still from the United States.

A country that has been messed up by the United States, if you don't start with a crew from the United States, it really has no backbone at all.

There are other alternative filming locations, so why go to Iraq?

Is there a tax rebate in Iraq, is there a beautiful actress, is the local government willing to pay for the crew's expenses?

There are many places that can make a movie feel like Iraq, such as the crew of Catherine Bigelow's "Bomb Disposal Unit", which was filmed in Amman, the capital of Jordan.

It is indeed a way to shoot in a place where the political situation in the Middle East is relatively stable, but Matthew vetoed such a plan early on, and the crew stayed in North America as much as possible, preferably in California.

On the one hand, it allows him to focus more on other aspects of his work, after all, he is not a simple actor, and on the other hand, Clint Eastwood is 81 years old and needs to avoid the fatigue as much as possible.

So, the final filming location was in Southern California, where the 2005 "Pot Head" response to Operation Desert Storm was filmed in Southern California, where Universal Pictures built the exterior of an Iraqi town in a very large desert valley in Southern California, and later filmed films such as "Battle of Elira Valley".

But in recent years, due to negligent management and the fact that this type of film is more inclined to go to the Middle East for actual shooting, this location has gradually fallen into disrepair.

After Matthew and Clint Eastwood's field trip, it was decided to make it the main location for the location scenes.

The town, which is mainly made of wood and sand, is small, but there are dozens of rustic houses, interspersed with four or five short streets, potholes, and in some places piles of garbage blowing from nowhere.

In addition, about one-fifth of the houses have collapsed to varying degrees, and some even have fallen off the roof.

"It needs to be trimmed. Clint Eastwood stood on a high platform used for filming and said to Matthew, "It doesn't need to be repaired too well, the dilapidated look is just the right backdrop after the war." ”

Matthew took off his sunglasses, looked into the distance in the somewhat harsh sunlight, and said, "I'll talk to Universal Pictures about this." ”

It's not a difficult task, the crew has done a certain amount of remodeling, and the location can be preserved for a longer period of time, and if they hadn't rented this place from Universal Pictures for filming, maybe in a few years, it would have been completely dilapidated.

Clint Eastwood nodded and said, "Let's go back." ”

Matthew answered and helped him down, Clint Eastwood looked refreshed, but his eighty-over body couldn't escape the laws of nature.

But Clint Eastwood is old and strong, and is said to be divorcing his second wife, Dina Eastwood.

As for the reason, it is natural that Clint Eastwood has a new love.

Originally, this wasn't a big deal, and there were a few big Hollywood directors who didn't mess around? Like Christopher Nolan was definitely an offbeat, but Clint Eastwood was said to have been directly bumped into by Dina Eastwood when he was dating his new love.

However, Clint Eastwood is not stupid, Matthew has heard that he has no plans to marry a new love.

Even if that new love has an idea, with Clint Eastwood's body, it is estimated that short-term investment will be trapped in the end.

Clint Eastwood's age is here, Matthew is relatively cautious, if he travels to shoot overseas, in case something goes wrong with Clint Eastwood, not to mention the various troubles that come with it, just talking about changing the director, the risk factor will increase exponentially.

Another point, and a key reason for Matthew's decision to shoot "American Sniper" in the Southern California area, has already applied for tax rebates and special subsidies from the state government, and it is very likely to pass.

Although Hollywood is located in California, today's Hollywood is not more about a certain region, but more about a broad entertainment industry and even the entertainment industry.

Because California did not have any advantages in terms of policy and taxation, and other states and regions such as Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom and Morocco had large tax rebates, Hollywood crews left California to shoot in these preferential areas.

Around 2,000 years ago, there were very few first-line crews filming in California, and even the photography studios with major studios declined, and they were once reduced to pure tourist locations.

Since around 2004, the state government of California has introduced a series of preferential policies, formulating a policy of tax rebates of up to 100 million US dollars, and the state treasury will also subsidize some special film projects.

California wants to retain more crews in order to create more jobs.

Frankly speaking, this policy is somewhat of a bit of a chicken problem, the state government of California requires that more than 70% of the work of applying for a film from preparation to shooting to post-production must be completed in California, and the final amount of policy support is 23 film or TV series projects per year.

Compared with Hollywood's huge film volume, this can only be said to be a drop in the bucket.

Besides, $100 million is a bit low, not to mention places like Louisiana and Maryland, New York City alone offers $450 million a year in concessions to attract investment and jobs for Hollywood crews.

The film projects that can get California's preferential policies are undoubtedly the lucky ones.

"American Sniper" is about to become one of the twenty-three lucky winners next year because of its natural advantages in terms of subject matter.

Bella Anderson, as CEO of Studio Thirteen, walked into the state's Hollywood Affairs Liaison Office in Burbank.

"Miss Anderson, you're moving a little slowly. ”

In the conference room, a middle-aged man with eyes looked at Bella Anderson and said, "Of the twenty-three places for next year's preferential policy, twenty have already belonged, and in the last three places, there are more than twenty-five films competing for them." ”

Actually, it's not that easy to get a discounted spot.

Bella Anderson has been here a few times before, done a lot of work, and got a roster of all the competitors.

She looked at the others in the room, and in addition to the middle-aged man with eyes, there were four people she hadn't seen before.

Originally, she had talked about it with the middle-aged man with eyes, but something suddenly appeared in the middle, and she called her yesterday to ask her to come over and explain the situation.

Bella Anderson glanced at the four people without a trace, knowing that these four people could probably affect the determination of the final spot.

After following Matthew for many years, she is no longer the little assistant she used to be, and she handles the daily work of Studio 13, and she also has a certain amount of decision-making power.

What is needed in this situation?

The middle-aged man with his eyes said at this time, "Miss Anderson, why are we giving a discount to American Sniper?"

Bella Anderson could hear that this seemed to be a question, but it was actually a hint.

At this time, on this occasion, what is needed is not those small actions that cannot be seen, but a high-sounding reason, which is not for her to convince these people in front of her, but for these people to be able to openly persuade the public and others to the outside world.

"Everyone, apart from 'American Sniper,' what are the other films on the shortlist?" Bella Anderson said seriously, "I don't mean to be disrespectful to these films, but I want to remind you that among the more than 20 projects, the highest investment is only $25 million, and it is still a romance film with very few people." ”

The four of them had been silent for a while, when one of the bald men asked, "The quality of a film is not determined by investment, right?"

Bella Anderson didn't answer directly, but said calmly, "But the tax and jobs that a film project can provide are directly related to the scale of investment." ”

The balding middle-aged man was silent for a moment, why did the California state government formulate these preferential policies? Not to help Hollywood make so-called good movies, but to create jobs and increase financial revenue.

"Gentlemen, let me make a point. Bella Anderson said directly, "With a production budget of $100 million and more than 2,000 employees, American Sniper is expected to provide employment for at least 1,800 Californians over the next two years." ”

"Please don't forget, this is a movie starring Matthew Horner, and our expectation is $300 million in North America and $600 million worldwide, which in turn will provide a large tax revenue for California!"

The four men suddenly whispered.

Once they were done, Bella Anderson continued, "Look at other projects, Grinder, Mad Women, Frail Life, etc., which don't employ more than a hundred people on the crew. ”

Big-budget films are simply not comparable to small-scale independent film projects in terms of job creation.

The people needed for a war drama are more than ten or twenty times the total number of these crews.

The middle-aged man with his eyes answered, "Can what you said about employment opportunities be reflected in a written agreement?"

Bella Anderson said without hesitation, "Of course. ”

Since the film was going to stay in Southern California to shoot, it would definitely give priority to hiring locals.

With that, Bella Anderson looked at the four unfamiliar faces again.