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The MPAA blog is making for some interesting, if not frustrating, reading. For example, in a post about Louisiana today, MPAA blogger Kate Spence wrote the following: Now third in line behind California and New York for the number of productions produced, Louisiana’s motion picture and television industry is responsible for 16,483 jobs in...
Louisiana lawmakers are arguing over whether the state can afford the annual operating costs for a proposed 424-bed $1.2 billion hospital in New Orleans, nearly a decade after the state closed Charity Hospital after Hurricane Katrina: Supporters of the proposed $1.2 billion University Medical Center defended it’s strengths for the New Orleans metro area...
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...
The new economic impact report for Louisiana was released today and is available in the Report Library under Louisiana. I will be digesting it over the next week or so, but wanted to post the highlight that jumped out at me most. In 2010 alone, Louisiana spent $97.6 million to subsidize just four movies. ...
The following table is from the 2009 ERA report for Louisiana, which is available in the report library. As seen in the table, less than half of the production spending went to the benefit of the state. From 2002-2007, the combined total budgets for all features filmed in Louisiana was $2.3 billion, of which...
The producers of the upcoming film “Oz: The Great & Powerful” should be thanking Michigan’s taxpayers, but they are probably laughing all the way to the bank. According to the new annual report from the Michigan Film Office, which is available in the Report Library under “Michigan”, the state is giving the $104.8 million...
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)...
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 just added Stephen Friday’s wonderful and extensive case study about the film industry and incentive programs in Shreveport, Louisiana (and Louisiana in general) to the Report Library. Stephen is a masters student at the University of Amsterdam and was kind enough to cite my recent working paper on runaway production and utilize some...
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...
I’ve been posting quite a bit about California lately and new numbers coming out about the effectiveness of the states one-year-old film incentive, which is rather modest. And certainly, while I have called the modesty of the California film incentive a pretty smart move, I have also written about tweaks to the program that...
I just added the January 2010 Report by the Tax Foundation about state film incentive programs to the “Report Library”. The report is an excellent, crisp and relatively fast read. The report is very critical of state film incentives, which they consider to be poor public policies that hurt states financially because the cost...
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.