How LA Mayor Karen Bass and Film Industry Pros Intend to Put Pressure on California for Better Production Tax Incentives
In producing Scott Cooper’s upcoming Bruce Springsteen biopic, “Deliver Me from Nowhere” starring Jeremy Allen-White, producer Ellen Goldsmith-Vein was met with a problem. Obviously the film would shoot mostly in Springsteen’s native New Jersey, but they also wanted to shoot some in Los Angeles. New Jersey though has dedicated up to $758 million to get movies to film in the state. California offers less than half that. Their options were limited, and their choice was clear.
“We shoot a very short period of time in Los Angeles largely because of the expense to shoot here,” Goldsmith-Vein told IndieWire. “We can’t get a tax credit in there. There’s just no incentives for us to do it. It makes it very difficult for filmmakers and so we are shooting in another state.”
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Goldsmith-Vein, the producer of the “Maze Runner” films, the Disney+ adaptation of “Percy Jackson and the Olympians,” and Clint Eastwood’s upcoming courtroom thriller, “Juror #2,” is not alone in observing that Los Angeles has increasingly become a less financially feasible location to shoot in. According to FilmLA’s recently released analysis, on-location filming in the city has declined 12.4% compared with Q2 of 2023 and 33.4% compared with the 5-year average.
Issues around production in Los Angeles have been brewing for quite some time now, a result of rising costs related to the pandemic, last year’s WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes, and current industry contraction. But a coalition of industry vets is working together to bring production back and put pressure on Sacramento to make a change.
LA Mayor Karen Bass last month launched the Entertainment Industry Council, chaired by Goldsmith-Vein, that has the goal of coming up with a strategy to entice production back to Hollywood and lobby state lawmakers.
The real issue, as they see it, is the state not subsidizing enough of the costs of filming in Los Angeles. Currently, the California Film Commission only releases about $330 million in tax credits, considerably less than the uncapped $1 billion+ Georgia puts into theirs or the $700 million New York offers to its productions.
Even in relation to the rest of California, Deputy Mayor Rachel Freeman acknowledges the tax credit system doesn’t work in Los Angeles’ favor.
“We know that other local jurisdictions have robust tax incentive programs, and so I think it’s appropriate for us to explore that in terms of another potential tactic to make sure that we’re keeping production here local and we’re staying competitive,” Freeman told IndieWire.
In addition to Goldsmith-Vein chairing the council, the group also includes industry professionals with experience in both production and government policy such as co-chair and Yes2Jobs co-founder Cookie Parker, filmmaker and producer Jason Reitman, deputy director of the California Film Commission Karla Sayles, president of FilmLA Paul Audley, and many more.
In a statement on the forming of the council, Mayor Bass said, “We are bringing leaders together through the Entertainment Industry Cabinet to inform solutions that will help Hollywood better reflect Los Angeles workers and make sure that the City is an advocate rather than an impediment to local film and TV production. Right now, our foundational industry needs the City’s support, so we will be taking further action to help keep production local and help Hollywood stabilize. I look forward to all that we can accomplish together.”
Freeman said the film industry has an “incredible multiplier effect” on the whole Los Angeles economy, driving billions of dollars annually throughout the city. But workers have been “facing some hard times” and are seeing fewer production opportunities.
First meeting on July 17, the group’s primary focus centered around how the city can be more accommodating not only to production but to new workers looking to grow in the field. Freeman said the group wants to advance “below-the-line job creation and below-the-line diversification of what those opportunities and jobs are here locally.” Doing this successfully, she said, will require a more efficient city strategy around catering to production that involves all city departments “helping problem-solve on the ground.”
Three subcommittees have also been formed relating to building strategy around incentives, city efficiency, and workforce development, with the first meetings of each group set to take place next week. While the entire council won’t meet again until October to discuss the strategies they’ve come up with, Freeman is invigorated by this group coming together.
“Not only is it their professional work, but everyone has this personal tie to it and I think, at the end of the day, understands what’s at stake here,” she said. “Everyone on that council is really engaged, willing to roll up their sleeves, and get to work so that we can find common and shared solutions to keep production here locally.”
Goldsmith-Vein echoed Freeman’s sentiment, but believes that within the multiple focuses the council aims to cover, the issue of “bringing production back to Los Angeles” takes precedent and will require a great deal of intervention and involvement at the state level. Ultimately, whatever strategies are formed will be lobbied for in Sacramento, including the advancement of tax credits. Should Los Angeles receive more money to subsidize production costs, Goldsmith-Vein thinks it “solves some of the other issues,” specifically in relation to workforce development and improving city processes.
What remains a largely unknown factor is how studios plan to participate in this initiative. Often they’ll be the one dolling out the cash or offering up their studio lot stages for these productions to take place, but only Netflix and NBCUniversal have representatives on the council. Though Goldsmith-Vein does believe the studios want production to “be more accessible locally,” she also thinks the problem is not theirs to deal with, but rather the state government, calling it a “Sacramento issue.”
“The great thing is that I don’t have all the answers, but what I know and what I think everyone discovered in this meeting and coming out of this meeting is, we have great valuable resources here and these people are going to be able to help us figure out how to help make this actually happen,” said Goldsmith-Vein. “I think one of the really exciting things that came out of the meeting was a sense of hopefulness and a can-do attitude like, ‘Okay, I can see that we can get from here to there.’”
As dire as the situation may be, Goldsmith-Vein doesn’t think the sky is falling and that it most likely never will. She understands that people will continue seeking out and consuming entertainment, and that desire will ultimately create the opportunity for the industry to rebound, even if it needs an extra push from this council to do so.
“I don’t really see that this is gonna have an endless impact, particularly in Los Angeles,” Goldsmith-Vein said to IndieWire. “What we’re really trying to do is grow the industry, and the way to do that is to get a lot of smart people together in a room who are really committed to bringing business back to L.A.”
As part of this initiative, Mayor Bass issued an executive directive on August 6 that assigns staff and resources toward supporting local production and film-permitting by requiring City departments to engage with the council on a quarterly basis, designate a Film Liaison from key departments, and review internal processes with the intent of streamlining permitting for filming. Bass is also streamlining the permitting and inspection for seven new studios and soundstages in LA, with more than 8 million square feet of soundstages, studios, and creative space currently in the pipeline.
“The entertainment industry is core to our economy and it is also core to our city’s identity, and City Hall is going to do everything we can to support it,” said Mayor Bass in a statement. “This executive directive is my pledge that the City is renewing its support for the entertainment industry and is expected to provide the highest level of customer service as we work to make sure that Hollywood stabilizes.”
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