FINDING THE BEST PLACE TO FILM
If you are producing a film in the U.S., where should you shoot?
Film tax incentives play a significant role in how productions evaluate where to shoot and allocate budgets.
Every state structures its program differently. Some offer refundable credits, others rely on transferable credits. Some have generous incentives but strict caps, limited funding, or complex eligibility requirements. Add in project budgets, production types, bonuses, and application rules, and comparing states quickly becomes a challenging data problem!
I built this interactive Tableau dashboard to help simplify that decision.
Using publicly available film incentive data, I created a standardized dataset covering all 50 U.S. states (plus DC and PR) and transformed complex incentive programs into a comparable scoring model. The dashboard allows users to adjust project assumptions and explore how different states rank based on financial attractiveness.
The goal was not just to find the state with the biggest headline tax credit, but to understand the full picture: how much value a production could realistically capture from each program.
DASHBOARD FEATURES
DYNAMIC STATE RANKINGS
Built a weighted scoring model that evaluates states based on:
Effective Incentive Rate at the selected project budget
Credit Liquidity
Funding Reliability
Incentive Cap Strength
ADVANCED TABLEAU MODELING
The dashboard demonstrates:
Calculated Fields
Parameter Controls
Dynamic Scoring Models
Table Calculations
Dashboard Actions
Interactive Filtering
Geographic Visualizations
INTERACTIVE MAP EXPLORATION
Users can quickly visualize incentive competitiveness across the United States and identify states with the strongest programs.
DATA PREPARATION & STRUCTURING
Film incentive programs are complex and inconsistent, so I created a structured data model to compare programs across:
Credit Rates
Annual and Project Caps
Bonus Incentives
Spending Requirements
Eligible Production Types
Funding Structure
BUDGET BASED ANALYSIS
A production budget parameter allows users to see how rankings change depending on project size and eligibility thresholds.
USER FRIENDLY DESIGN
Designed a user-friendly dashboard experience with dynamic controls, filters, and visual storytelling elements that allow users to explore incentive scenarios without needing to interpret complex datasets.
WCAG Compliant Color Gradient
In-Depth Tool Tips
Intuitive User Navigation