SPL LIVING
Movie Magic is Back PHOTOS/ROD MILLINGTON/ATOL Film LLC
Actors Erin Cahill and Martin Kove cook up some chicken and waffles in a scene from “A Taste of Love,” filmed around Dunedin in July.
After a year of silence, the film industry returns to Pinellas County BY MARCIA BIGGS It’s a late July morning and the heat and humidity in Tampa Bay is reaching “Excruciating” on the comfort scale, but it’s all smiles on the set of “A Taste of Love,” a full-length feature movie being filmed at the rooftop bar of the Fenway Hotel in Dunedin. The scene being shot might be Jordan’s 35th birthday party, but the astounding view is the real scene stealer — billowing clouds floating in a bluebird sky over picture-postcard Caladesi Island, seagulls swooping down to take a peek. Watching the action unfold is Tony Armer who helms the St. Petersburg Clearwater Film Commission. Armer is one happy camper lately. When the three weeks of filming for “A Taste of Love” wraps in Dunedin, the same production crew heads to St. Petersburg for another three weeks of shooting a Hallmark movie. The action is finally picking up for the film commission after a year and a half when the film industry came to a screeching halt thanks
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to the COVID-19 pandemic. “Last week I was scouting locations for a film and by the end of this year will have done scouting for four different movies,” Armer says. “There’s a flood of interest now.” That’s good news for Pinellas County. Since Florida lacks a film incentive program, the St. Pete Clearwater Film Commission smartly devised a cash rebate incentive in 2005. The program, which has helped more than 1,800 production companies, pays up to 10% on qualified expenditures in Pinellas County’s 24 municipalities. The impact of producing films and commercials gives a boost to the local economy as film crews come and spend money on everything from lodging and food to truck and equipment rentals. Electrical, video and audio professionals get hired, as do local hair and makeup artists. “A Taste of Love” is expected to spend $1.5
