77-3123. Terms, defined.

For purposes of the Cast and Crew Nebraska Act:

(1) Above-the-line employee means production company employees involved in the creative development, direct production, and direction of a production activity including screenwriters, producers, directors, casting directors, and cast;

(2) Below-the-line employee means production company employees that are responsible for keeping production operations on schedule and preparing all lights, sets, props, and other aspects for production;

(3) Department means the Department of Economic Development;

(4)(a) Expatriate means a person that previously resided in Nebraska for at least one year but does not currently reside in Nebraska.

(b) The Nebraska Film Office shall partner with other instate film offices, production companies, chambers of commerce, and convention and visitors bureaus in the state to maintain a roster of cast and crew who are expatriates and shall make such roster available to any production company upon request;

(5) Film office means a specialized office under the authority of a government entity or an administrative office with the purpose of promoting the local region through the development of film, video, and multimedia productions;

(6) Full-length means a production at least sixty minutes in length including credits;

(7) Loan out means payments to a loan out company by a production company if the production company withheld and remitted Nebraska applicable income tax on all payments to the loan out company for services performed in this state. The amount withheld is considered to have been withheld by the loan out company on wages paid to its employees for services performed in this state. Loan out company nonresident employees performing services in this state must be considered taxable nonresidents, and the loan out company is subject to income taxation in the taxable year in which the loan out company's employees perform services in this state;

(8) Loan out company means a United States business entity in which the creator is an employee whose services are loaned out by the corporate body;

(9) Nebraska Film Office means the Nebraska Film Office within the Department of Economic Development or its successor;

(10) Nebraska supplier means a brick and mortar Nebraska-based corporation or limited liability company registered, licensed, and in good standing with the Secretary of State;

(11) Post-production means the time period after the production is completed and the editing of the visual and audio materials begins. Post-production includes, but is not limited to, all of the tasks associated with cutting raw footage, assembling that footage, and adding and dubbing music, sound effects, and visual effects;

(12) Pre-production means the planning process and execution of every task that must take place before production begins;

(13) Principal photography means the creative execution phase of film production between pre-production and post-production;

(14)(a) Production activity means production of a new film, video, or digital project in this state. This includes the scouting, pre-production, principal photography, and post-production of projects filmed or recorded in this state, in whole or in part and in short or long form and animation, fixed on a delivery system, including film, videotape, computer disc, laser disc, and any element of the digital domain, from which the program is viewed or reproduced and which is intended for multimarket commercial distribution via a theater, video on demand, digital or fiber optic distribution platforms, digital video recording, a digital platform designed for distribution of interactive games, licensing for exhibition by individual television stations, groups of stations, networks, advertiser-supported sites, cable television stations, streaming services, or public broadcasting stations.

(b) Production activity includes full-length films, animation projects, documentaries, short-length films, and over-the-air and streaming television programming, except those television programs that are exclusively for news, weather, sports, financial market reports, or instructional videos, and also includes commercial advertisements, except commercials containing political promotions, infomercials, or commercials distributed only on the Internet.

(c) Production activity does not include any project with sexually explicit or obscene material;

(15) Production company means a corporation, partnership, limited liability company, or other business entity engaged in the business of creating productions and registered with the Secretary of State to engage in business in Nebraska;

(16)(a) Production expenditure report means a report issued and submitted by a certified public accountant that verifies all expenses of a production activity and ensures all expenses have been paid in full.

(b) The production company shall pay the certified public accountant for preparation of the report and such payment is a qualifying expenditure under section 77-3124;

(17) Qualified production activity means any production activity approved by the department after application for qualification;

(18) Resident means any individual domiciled in the State of Nebraska and any other individual who maintains a permanent place of residence within the state even though temporarily absent from the state and who has not established a residence elsewhere;

(19) Scouting means finding places to shoot commercials, television shows, or movies and searching for interior and exterior venues to serve as the setting for scenes depicted in a script during pre-production;

(20) Screen credit means a logo developed by the Nebraska Film Office and mentioned in the production credits and end titles declaring the production activity was filmed in Nebraska;

(21) Screenplay means a film, movie, television show, or other motion picture in written form; and

(22) Short-length means a production more than thirty seconds and less than forty minutes including credits.

Source:Laws 2024, LB937, ยง 3.
Operative Date: July 19, 2024