Los Angeles is going through a rough patch right now — well, for a few years actually — but there’s a silver lining ahead, at least for some film and television productions who can secure subsidies in California’s newly expanded tax credit program.
That was the gist of the blue skies mood in Burbank at The Ranch Lot Studios where a group of state and local officials, union leaders and Hollywood notables gathered to take a victory lap over the passage of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s proposal, which lifts incentives for film and TV projects from $330 million to $750 million annually, in the CA legislature.
“The world we invented is now competing against us,” Newsom said, reeling off a list of competitors — from Toronto and Vancouver, to New Zealand, to the United Kingdom, to Georgia and Louisiana and, recently, Texas — that have real footholds in the production landscape. He then ceremonially signed the bill while noting that the application window opens for the next round of credits on July 7, six months to the day since a string of devastating wildfires hit the city.
“We put our feet up, we took things for granted,” he added of California’s approach to its production rivals.
After taking a shot at Trump’s “Alligator Alcatraz” presser on July 1 in Florida, Newsom pivoted to saying that he hoped the President can work with the entertainment industry to help boost film and TV work stateside (“We’re going to need Trump,” he added). So far, there has yet to be any public federal effort from the White House or Trump’s special ambassador team of Jon Voight, Sylvester Stallone and Mel Gibson that has made it in to proposed legislation.
“Four out of ten people that visit the state of California announce they visited the state of California because of the images you produce,” the Governor told the industry crowd, describing his office’s work as promoting and protecting that Hollywood dream. Colleen Bell, exec director of the California Film Commission, said the state “should not only be the birthplace of film and television — but its home, now and into the future.”
Raising the film and TV tax incentive cap to $750 million puts California ahead of states like New Jersey ($430 million), New Mexico ($130 million) and Louisiana ($125 million) but it trails New York ($800 million) and Georgia, which does not not have a maximum allotment of state dollars. Assemblymember Rick Chavez Zbur, one of the champions of the bill in the legislature, emphasized workers across the state “finally getting the stability they deserve.”
“This is a wonderful day for the industry after several very tough years,” L.A. Mayor Karen Bass said. “From watching production slip away to the point where other states develop their own capacity — where people didn’t have to come home anymore, they could relocate.” The Mayor then forecast, “I know production, which is already beginning to return to L.A., is going to flourish.”
In a nod to the city of L.A.’s own production woes — and the groups of activists who’ve advocated the need for reform — Bass spoke about the city needing to now step up to help Hollywood do business more efficiently.
“Sacramento did its job, now it’s time for L.A. city to do our job,” Bass said. “We’re moving forward to say, ‘What is our part?’ ‘How can we make filming easier?’ ‘How can we make the permit process more streamlined?’ ‘How can we make it more cost-effective to film here?’ How can we remove the barriers so that when the tax credits go into full bloom and production is back here in a major way, we make sure that there’s no impediment on any level of government, so that our industry can flourish.”
Shoot days for films and television shows have been declining (especially for scripted television content amid fewer episode orders) in the city and soundstage occupancy has declined rapidly over the past several years. Red tape and the permitting process have also been blamed for the flight of production to other locales.
In a nod to a homegrown L.A.-based hit, Noah Wyle, who jokingly apologized for being in wardrobe and noted that he’s on loan from the Warner Bros. lot nearby where he’s filming The Pitt, was brought up to the podium to talk about the Max hospital drama’s shoot.
“Last year we filmed for about 135 days over seven months plus two months of pre-production. We employed about 350 people full-time, we then brought on an additional 1,100 people, averaging 200 new people every day,” the star said, rattling off a few more statistics. “We worked with about 1,400 background performers, averaging about 200 a day. We spent about $35 million in wages. We spent about $20 million in purchasing, lumber, construction materials, rentals, food.”
Wyle added, “This city has been growing talent for decades and decades and decades. And that apprenticeship is worth a lot when you’re going to make a film or television show. It shows up in quality.”