Posted on 01/14/2009 9:01:28 AM PST by NormsRevenge
Runaway production costs pushed the number of feature film shoots in metropolitan Los Angeles to a record low in 2008 as studios sought cheaper locations out of state, an industry tracker said Tuesday.
The report from FilmL.A., which coordinates location permits in the region, said feature filming for the year tumbled 15 percent from 2007. The fall was especially steep in the last half of the year - down an annual 38 percent in the third quarter and 47 percent in the fourth quarter.
There were 7,043 feature production days last year, the fewest since the nonprofit FilmL.A. began to keep records in 1993. Last year's total was 50 percent below the peak of 13,980 production days in 1996.
Film industry officials and economists blame legislators for not coming up with tax and financial incentives that would help keep production in the world's entertainment capital.
"This is money flowing out of the local economy," said Jack Kyser, vice president and chief economist at the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp.
"The faucet is broken and the people in Sacramento don't have the smarts to fix it."
But some have tried, said Camille Anderson, spokeswoman for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, at one time one of Hollywood's most bankable stars.
During budget negotiations in November, Schwarzenegger proposed tax credits for production studios as part of an economic stimulus plan. But the state still does not have a revised budget or a tax credit for film companies.
"This is another indication of how the national economic downturn has affected industries across California and the nation - and why Gov. Schwarzenegger is aggressively pushing the state legislature for an economic stimulus package to help get our economy back on track," she said.
But FilmL.A. President Paul Audley said that California is not sufficiently competitive and needs to create an environment that brings high-dollar film productions - and their jobs - back into the local economy.
He also notes that feature film production has fallen for 10 of the past 12 years.
"We should stop talking about runaway production. It's `ran-away production,"' he said.
Incentives can be a powerful deal maker.
For example, it costs about $110 million to make a feature in the Los Angeles area and $120 million to make the same movie in New York. But factoring in New York's incentive, the production company actually saves $10.1 million by heading east, Audley said.
Making that same film in Connecticut would save the company $21 million, he said.
And competition for California's film business is increasing.
For example, Plymouth Rock Studios, a film and television digital studio complex in Plymouth, Mass., is scheduled to open next year. It will include 14 sound stages and a 10-acre back lot, plus production offices, post-production facilities, a theater, offices and an amenity village.
The project will create more than 2,000 high-income jobs and provide the infrastructure for sustained growth of the entertainment industry in New England, according to the company's Web site.
The industry was also racked by the 100-day writers strike early last year and helped drive down location shooting of comedies and pilots by 25 percent and 41 percent, respectively.
The FilmL.A. report also showed that:
On-location commercial production days dropped 17.4 percent in the fourth quarter of 2008 compared to the same period of 2007 and finished the year down 10.9 percent.
Overall on-location television production saw quarterly gains of 14.4 percent to finish the year up 8.4 percent. Within television's subcategories, reality programming led with annual gains of 19 percent, followed by dramas at 6.9 percent.
But that gain comes with its own harsh reality, Audley said.
"The reality is the economic impact for California is that fewer people are working in that part of the industry and it returns less money to the economy," he said.
In terms of morals or revenues? I didn't think the former could go below zero.
Crap movies. Low class, loudmouthed untalented actors and actresses, lousy stories...the list goes on....
They were included on the 700B bailout already. I guess it wasn’t enough.
...but they're going to push to raise taxes on all other businesses and job producing individuals. No worries; those jobs/individuals will continue to flee the state.
Boo Hoo. Time for middle AMerica directors to shine!!!
Let it die. If a film can’t come up with investors enough to fund a project without tax incentives, then it is probably best not made. We have far too many bad movies floating around as it is.
Interesting that the socialist Hollywood crowd is crying that their industry cannot survive without lower taxes, but I’m sure they would deny that tactic to any other industry. After all, they are “artists” and “special”.
So I guess helicopter rides to the Wilshire Golf Course are out this year... Studio heads will need to take the stretch limos instead. Just dammm!
What, did they run out of comic books?
Hollywood is a steaming trash heap. If they make one good movie a year we’re lucky.
That can't be right, surely. It's easy to confirm on the Web that there are dozens of films released every day.
Wait...
The Brits have emerged as the new leaders and are making some great films that avoid politics, political correctness and are actually entertaining. (The Golden Compass, Lord of The Rings, The Chronicles of Narnia, etc,,).
They’ve been operating in the negative for decades.
It is difficult to find a quality film. We recently watched ‘Dan In Real Life’. After 20 minutes, which we painfully endured, I hit the stop button. The film was as phony as the Hollywood elites, and the characters were as unrealistic as a Chia pet.
I also watched a portion of Eagle Eye. It should have been titled Evil Eye, or perhaps Evil American Eye because it was your typical “America is evil!” film.
Good stuff!!
Went through the whole "Christmas" season without there being a single movie I wanted to see.
“Went through the whole “Christmas” season without there being a single movie I wanted to see.”
ditto
The only one the interests me at all is GRAN TORINO with
Clint Eastwood.
It's entirely because they have so many weird accents within one smallish geographic area; they even sound like mythical beings to each other.
I am sure that quite a few of them were "special needs" kids when they were young. Some have not changed.
They're referring to the film quality, right?
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