Film production in United States

Locations at a glance

The table shows June and December daylight for each location — the two numbers a schedule hinges on across the year.

What that means for planning

Anchorage has the widest swing at 13h 48min, Honolulu the narrowest at 2h 34min. The wider the spread, the more a schedule has to differ between summer and winter — same setup count, different hours to fit it in.

Concretely: in December, the sun in Anchorage sets at 15:41, with golden hour starting as early as null. Put the exterior at the end of the day and you shoot it in the dark, or not at all.

TillyGen folds each location's sun position straight into the schedule. An exterior that no longer fits before sunset in December is flagged in the plan, not discovered on the day. The same calculation sits behind every location page for this country.

Film incentives and rebates

Georgia grants a 30 % transferable credit with no annual cap — the reason so many US productions shoot there. The uncapped, transferable credit made Georgia the US's series location no. 1; Trilith and Assembly Studios outside Atlanta carry the infrastructure.

What that means in practice depends on the qualifying share: on a €1m budget with 80 % qualifying spend, the 30 % rate returns roughly €240,000. Provided without warranty. Permit and incentive conditions change; the responsible authority is always the binding source.

• Georgia Film Tax Credit (USA): 30 % of qualifying spend (as of 2025-01, georgia.org (GDEcD))
• California Film & TV Tax Credit 4.0 (USA): 35 % of qualifying spend (as of 2025-07, film.ca.gov (CFC))
• New York State Film Tax Credit (USA): 30 % of qualifying spend (as of 2025-01, esd.ny.gov)
• New Mexico Film Tax Credit (USA): 25 % of qualifying spend (as of 2025-01, nmfilm.com)

As of: 2025-01 · Source: georgia.org (GDEcD)

Permits and local requirements

Filming permits are granted locally almost everywhere, not nationally: the city or district you shoot in is the responsible body, and processing times differ considerably within the same country. Public space, traffic areas and drone flights each run through separate procedures.

File early enough that a refusal still leaves room for a cover location — not so late that the permit becomes the condition for the only possible shoot day. Only the responsible local authority gives binding information.