Big names in the movie business are stepping up to support Jerry Brown’s gubernatorial bid, Carla Marinucci noted in her San Francisco Chronicle blog yesterday. So what is Jerry Brown saying about saving the movie industry for California?
Here’s hoping the Steven Spielbergs and Rob Reiners of the world put in a good word along with their donations for keeping the movie industry in the state where it blossomed. And, here’s also hoping that the big time movie execs realize that moving movie productions out of California add to the state’s unemployment and fiscal woes.
Not many people would mistake Santa Barbara for New York. However, the movie, “It’s Complicated,” starring Meryl Streep, Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin debuting Christmas Day is a story set in Santa Barbara but filmed mostly in New York City. The producers swept into Santa Barbara for only three days of shooting exterior scenes. They spent months filming in New York.
The film is just another example of a runaway production that is part of the movie production stampede out of California. As more and more film companies abandon the state for production incentives elsewhere thousands of jobs and millions of tax dollars are lost.
Only five major movies with a budget over $75 million are being produced in Los Angeles this year according to one report. That compares to 21 films produced in L.A. last year and 71 in 1996.
Forty states are offering filmmakers financial incentives to film and many are building state of the art studios. With the advent of digital media production equipment it is much easier to move around. Many states offer rebates and interest free loans to lure movie producers.
How can California afford to offer a rebate given the state’s woeful economic condition? Where would California come up with money for an interest free loan when the state is cutting services? On the other hand, how can California afford not to compete to save an industry that is so identified with the state? If interest free loans are not possible, reductions in taxes, permit costs, and regulations would serve.
As Paul Audley of Film LA, which grants filming permits in the city, told BBC News last summer, “The myth that Hollywood lives here and wouldn’t leave is over.”
The Schwarzenegger administration managed to set up an incentive program for films produced in California. But there is a cap on production costs that eliminate most major films. Some have argued incentives in the California program are too little, too late.
Which brings us back to Jerry Brown and the other gubernatorial candidates. What plans do they have in helping California’s star-laden industry to thrive in the Golden State? Or will L.A. studios soon look like those post-apocalyptic ghost towns that seem to dominate the movie scene recently.
Speaking of which, the January release, “The Book of Eli” starring Denzel Washington is one of those end-of-the-world stories. It was filmed in New Mexico. In one scene, the location scouts were looking around New Mexico to find a place that could stand in for a beach in San Francisco Bay.
If nothing is done, one of these days someone will be filming a replica of the Hollywood sign in Georgia.