Shoot In California Blog RSSThe 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 numbers say it all……. Click on the individual pages from the 2010 Michigan Senate Analysis, which is available in the “Report Library”, for a full-size image:
A total of five annual reports about the New York state film incentive program from the NY Dept. of Taxation & Finance have been added to the Report Library. In addition to these reports, I also added the January 2011 “Progress Report” from the California Film Commission as well as a 2007 report on...
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...
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...
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 following video aired recently in New Mexico. I don’t want to be too dismissive of the film workers there and legitimate job concerns, but the statistics thrown out in this video are just laughable, if not offensive for how inaccurate they are. Watch the video and then read below the player for actual...
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)...
The Texas Comptrollers office released an excellent report on incentives last month, including a chapter on the film incentive in that state. While the value of the film incentive overall is questionable for the state, the video game industry is a clear standout. Texas was one of the first and most aggressive states to...
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...
Almost a month ago I made a post about the MPAA’s “State by State Statistics”, which is available on their site HERE. I raised some accuracy concerns and had some questions about the source(s) of their data. During a conference call today, those concerns were fully addressed and the MPAA went out of their...
Thank you to Phil Drake for telling me about Zach Patton’s recent article in this month’s edition of Governing Magazine. The article is an excellent introductory primer on the “state” of state film incentive programs in the US. One thing that is debated about in the academic literature on international film production and runaway...
UPDATE: Mr. Paleologos took the time to respond to this story last week. Please read the comments below for our exchange. While I was happy to take and respond to his comments, the dialogue ended with virtually all of the questions I raised still unanswered (including any explanation regarding the massive discrepancies he cites...
I apologize for not being more diligent in keeping the site updated on a regular basis. Life happens. A long overdue addition to the Report Library is the July 2009 Massachusetts Department of Revenue Report on the state’s film incentive program. Turns out the popular (read: generous) Massachusetts film incentives has increased the amount...
Was James Cameron’s mega-grossing worldwide smash film “Avatar” the most expensive film ever made? From what I have read, no–not the most expensive. The estimates range from $230-$300 million, compared to the over $300 million allegedly spent on “Spiderman 3″ and “Pirates of the Caribbean”. That said, the $31.8 million ($45 mil. NZ) payout...
On Wednesday, Nov. 18, a joint meeting of the House Tax Policy Committee and the Committee on New Economy and Quality of Life will hear testimony on the success of Michigan’s film incentive program. Created in 2008, the program offers some of the most competitive tax credits in the country to filmmakers in an...
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...
The first map below is from the Entertainment Partners Incentive Group and is current as of November 2009. As you can see, only seven states do not offer film & television production incentives. Compare this to the second map below, which is from 2002 just before New Mexico passed their incentive program. Production incentives...
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...
Setting the Record Straight on the Happy Cows Commercial Production Situation (Also available at: http://www.californiadairypressroom.com/node/285) In light of an inflammatory article featured in the November 13th edition of the Los Angeles Times, the California Milk Advisory Board (CMAB) offers the following facts about the production of its highly successful Happy Cows television commercials: Fact...
Variety.com – H'w'd and D.C.