Feature Film Production Dives In LA County, While Webisodes & Sitcoms Up Big: FilmLA

COMMENTS (3)

• More and more productions are everywhere but CA it seems. I’ve had to travel to work on 4 features in Atlanta in the last few years. The incentives are just too tempting for many producers and production companies. It’s sad to see so much of our industry be outsourced. Some states have successfully added production to their state’s revenue stream. Not every state that’s tried it has been successful, both those who have, are seeing a bounty of production projects.

  It seems unlikely that it will get much better in CA unless something dramatic is done. $100 mill may seem like a lot to those outside of our industry, but it is a drop in the bucket, and will likely do little to stem the flow of run away production. Mostly what it does is keep lower budget projects here, which is great for some people, but they certainly do not have the same economic impact as the much larger productions do.

  Comment by Beenthere2 — Tuesday October 2, 2012 @ 3:02pm PDT  Reply to this post

• Incentives are only part of the reason production is leaving. Location prices, crew rates and fringes, permit costs, the list goes on. Other cities, states and countries have offered lower prices across the board and this has just as big of an impact on production budgets as the incentives do. The unions need to make some concessions, as do the stages and other infrastructure entities in LA.

  I say this as a union crew member. I don’t want to be come another Detroit, though I fear we may be on that path.

  Comment by Ken Stephens — Tuesday October 2, 2012 @ 8:47pm PDT  Reply to this post

• It’s not the unions. It’s things like the cops, who have an institutionalized system of graft in place. You want to put a light on a sidewalk, you gotta pay a couple of cops 900 bucks each to show up and stand around. You use a generator or have an actor light a freaking cigarette, you’re forced to hire a fire marshall at the same kind of outrageous rates. Then the price of locations, and parking are totally out of control. To blame high costs here on the craft unions is ludicrous. You think crews in new york make less than we do here? So why is NY booming right now while we’re dying? It’s the incentives, which are, in effect, nothing more than bribes.

  Comment by Dean — Thursday October 4, 2012 @ 10:09am PDT  Reply to this post