California's share of U.S. feature film production dropped to 31% in 2008 from 66% in 2003, according to the California Film Commission. That largely reflects a falloff in the Los Angeles area, where feature filming activity in 2008 was nearly half what it was at its peak in 1996.You'll want to read the whole article. Those high California taxes can't help much.
Television production, which recently has been a more reliable source of jobs in the region, is also declining. A recent survey from FilmL.A. Inc. found that 44 of 103 TV pilots this year were shot in such disparate locations as Canada, Illinois, Georgia, New York, Louisiana and New Mexico.
More than 30 states have sought to outbid one another with tax credits and rebates aimed at luring productions away from California. Sacramento has responded with its first-ever film-tax credit program, but most analysts think the credits are too small and restrictive to have much effect.
"L.A. is at risk of losing a good part of one of its signature industries, just like it did with the aerospace industry in the early 1990s," said Jack Kyser, chief economist for Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp.
Sunday, July 12, 2009
As the Hollywood machine abandons L.A., its supporting workers struggle
The L.A. Times reports:
