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Sad news from Michigan. But many, including myself, saw this one coming from the beginning. Raleigh’s Pontiac Studios, the flagship state-of-the-art $80 million studio complex is reportedly going to default on a bond payment next month and, tragically, the state’s pension funds are on the hook for over $600,000. From The Detroit News: Michigan’s...
The brief interview below made me gasp at the end, when I heard how much money this one motion picture catering business in Los Angeles spends at just one of its many vendors, who are also in California. I think this highlights the very real danger to California from runaway production. The losses and...
In the last of the three posts on Canada, here is a compilation of some of the more interesting charts, figures and statistics from the various Canadian reports recently added to the Report Library. Want to know how much Canada is spending on foreign productions in British Columbia? The following data is from the...
“Tax incentives are the common currency that draws film and television production to various locations throughout the world. While international competition is intense, the British Columbia tax credit programs – Film Incentive BC and the Production Services Tax Credit – continue to act as the key determinant of film and television production in the...
This post marks a new milestone for the site: this is the 100th entry on the site! Even better, March 2011 is now the busiest month on record for site traffic! Thank you readers! Since this is the 100th post, I thought it was an appropriate time to put some focus back on Canada....
Four reports/publications have just been added to the Report Library: 1. 2010 MPAA Theatrical Market Statistics 2. 2010 Massachusetts Dept. of Revenue Report on Mass film incentive 3. 2011 Ernst & Young Economic Impact of Michigan Film Incentive 4. 2010 Dept. of Canadian Heritage Report on Canadian Film Industry There is no time for...
Looks like there is some good news for Iowa, whose “two for one” 50% production incentive was, briefly, the most generous incentive in the US. Sadly, the gravy train was short lived because the people in charge of running the Iowa film office had no idea what they were doing (and that’s being kind…...
The Santa Monica-based Milken Institute, an “independent economic think tank”, released an excellent “must read” report on how runaway production is impacting California called “Film Flight: Lost Production and its Economic Impact on California”. The 46-page report has been added to the Report Library HERE. I thought the report was excellent and well worth...
UPDATE: Micheal Hiltzik sent me an email this morning in response to my post below. His email and my response are at the end of this post. Ed Gutentag’s “Shoot Movies in California Blog” had an interesting post about a recent column in the June 16th edition of the Los Angeles Times by Michael...
Writing about runaway production from an international perspective is not something I have done. At all. My perspective, frankly, is quite American and I just do not trust my own objectivity even writing from my own national perspective, as I tend to have a pro-California bias. I like Hollywood being in Hollywood, so to...
Earlier this week, documentary filmmaker Michael Moore, a native of Flint, Michigan, expressed his support for the state film incentive and bringing high-wage jobs to the state and fostering local talent while preventing it from moving to New York and LA. Moore has been critical of state film incentives in the past, pointing to...
An Iowa State Court ruled in favor of several production companies suing the state over Iowa’s decision to suspend the incentive program for complete lack of oversight resulting in millions of dollars of tax payer money wasted for out of state expenditures for items, such as luxury cars, that were not used in any...
The Hollywood Reporter’s Todd Longwell published the best mainstream news coverage of the state film incentives I have seen. From the topics hit to the states discussed, Longwell’s article nails it. So much of the article is worth commenting on that I elected to sprinkle my thoughts through out… It’s an inspiring scene, one...
California film and television production workers devastated by the effect of runaway production to Canada, other foreign nations and roughly 43 U.S. states that began offering film & TV production incentives in recent years may find that they may be the ones lured to runaway. In Louisiana, a pioneer in the U.S. for duplicating...
My new law review article is virtually complete. The only remaining section I need to complete is the conclusion, where I call for a national film incentive to replace the competing state incentives. Sticking with Alice in Wonderland theme from the title of my first article, I have titled the new one: “Down the...
Southern California Public Radio aired an excellent “roundtable discussion” about runaway production and state film incentives on July 31, 2009. This is a can’t miss discussion featuring Amy Lemisch, director, California Film Commission and Greg Albrecht, chief economist for the Legislative Office of Louisiana, among others. Click HERE to listen to the broadcast.
Variety.com – H'w'd and D.C.