Shoot In California Blog RSSI tend to stay out of the debate about copyright and online piracy. For the major studios in Hollywood, led by the MPAA, piracy is the monolithic issue, especially because of pending legislation in DC that has pitted Hollywood and Silicon Valley against each other. Even if the pending legislation is as bad as...
It’s time for California to wake up. California is under attack. In the late 1990′s, Canada devised generous film incentives in the form of tax credits as a weapon to wage economic war on the U.S. in an attempt to capture one of the planet’s most valuable and prized industries: the U.S. motion picture...
There is a fantastic post on the Film Works blog that has a fairly detailed breakdown of the major expenditures of a major film production that spent $20.2 million over 93 days shooting in Los Angeles in 2009. Here is a sample of the itemized expenditures: Hotel room days: 213 $66,061 Car rental days:...
Below is the first half of the Film Works campaign’s analysis of the brand new LAEDC study on the economic impact of the California film incentive. It is quite thorough and is a honest appraisal of the report, which some people are attempting to spin as showing a positive return on investment for the...
If it sounds too good to be true…… The State of Georgia is making money from its film incentive program, according to a February 2011 report published by Vancouver-based (of all places) Meyers Norris Penny (MNP) and Santa Monica-based W2 Entertainment. They claim that although the tax credits issued from 2005-2010 cost the state...
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...
“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....
The New Mexico film community really needs to stop all of its over the top drama about how the world will end if their film incentive program gets capped at $45 million each year. They want to keep it at present levels, which would could mean prisons would have to close, Medicaid spending cut...
Three recently released articles published by the Film Works L.A. campaign in California are well worth reading…. The first article, Part One: “The Clear and Present Danger” of Runaway Production to California, is the first of a two-part story about the threat of runaway production to California (and therefore the nation in the long run)...
Enacted in 2002, New Mexico’s film incentive program, along with Louisiana, was the first significant film incentive in the United States on par with those offered in Canada. It was often lauded as a model program that emphasized using in-state labor, building infrastructure and fostering talent in community college programs. When it began, the...
It’s always nice to see an editorial board get it right. This week, that honor belongs to The Grand Rapids Free Press. Apparently, Michigan’s troubled film incentive is about to get more transparent and the paper, not to mention myself, could not be more pleased: Shining a light on the details of the tax...
The following video is from the ABC affiliate in Los Angeles that covered the Film Works launch event.
It’s about time. And the timing could not be better. As state film incentives across the nation begin to recede and California’s own incenitve shows more proof that filmmakers prefer to stay in California to take advantage of its overwhelming talent base and infrastructure if they have the chance comes this unveiling today….”Film Works...
I am very happy to announce that The University of Pennsylvania Law School’s Journal of Business and Labor Law (formerly the Journal of Labor and Employment Law) has accepted my recent law review article and will be publishing sometime early summer. The article, “Down the Rabbit Hole: The Madness of State Film Incentives as...
Thanks to politically active Santa Barbara doctoral student Lauren Copeland for sending the following story about the “California Cows” commercial controversy, which I covered HERE and HERE. In what should have been a “no-duh”, California is about to pass a bill that requires state tourism and agriculture commercials to shoot in California. Why is...
I’ve never had much respect for USA Today, but their August 2 article about the film industry in Louisiana made me cringe. It’s rife with problems…. Let’s start with the article’s second & third sentences: In the 1990s, filmmakers often traveled to Canada. But that eventually became less fashionable, and these days the industry...
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...
Over the weekend, Joe Sutton’s radio show in Los Angeles, “The Heart of Hollywood” (on AM 1260 KGIL), featured a can’t miss hour-long discussion about runaway production, the importance of Hollywood to California and L.A., and efforts to keep the industry from leaving California. It’s a wonderful exchange loaded with very thoughtful discussion from...
There was a significant report released last week by FilmL.A. First, I want to say a few things about FilmL.A. As far as I am concerned, they are the gold standard for how industry-community relations should be handled. The film production reports produced by FilmL.A. are an exquisite source of information, the accuracy of...
Variety.com – H'w'd and D.C.