FilmProduction Tagged Articles at Cinematical
Location Shooting in L.A. on the Rise
Filed under: Action », Drama », Sci-Fi & Fantasy », DIY/Filmmaking », Newsstand »
This is good news, especially for those of you who toil away working on film and television production in Los Angeles. According to the L.A. Times and FilmLA, a nonprofit group that handles permits for on-location production in L.A., production is on the rise in my fair city and I couldn't be happier. This increase is a welcome change from what was happening only a few short years ago.Back then, the local L.A. industry was hit very hard by the triple-threat of impeding strikes by the Screen Actors Guild and the Writers Guild of America, as well as the unfortunate trend for producers to take production out of L.A. and up to Canada or elsewhere. These three factors served to depress further an L.A. economy that was already down and also served to put many of my friends out of work.
Some of the shows that recently shot in L.A. and are helping with the recent boom include Sam Rami's Spider-Man: 3, Michael Bay's Transformers and the unfortunately named Live Free or Die Hard, directed by Underworld helmer Len Wiseman. Plus (yes I know this is not a TV site) there are several TV shows currently shooting in L.A. and contributing to the economic upswing as well -- including the new ABC hit Ugly Betty, The Nine and Jericho, starring Skeet Ulrich of Scream fame.
Now that the trend of sending production to Canada seems to have wained slightly -- mostly due to it being less of a bargain to shoot there than it used to be -- and with no potential strikes looming on the horizon, it seems like things are looking up for the L.A. based film and TV community. Unfortunately, even with this upward trend, production is still down overall from its 1996 peak, so there's still a long way to go.
Governator's incentive bill unlikely to pass
Filed under: DIY/Filmmaking », Politics »
The
crystal ball over here at Cinematical Headquarters is on the fritz, but even without it, I'd be willing to bet that the
issue of runaway production will be to 2006 what The Slump was to 2005. Don't believe me? Then why is Governor Arnold
Schwarzenegger (yup - it still hurts) talking about resurrecting an already-proposed, already-unpopular bill that would
pump $100 million of state funds into keeping production from fleeing California? But according to the Hollywood
Reporter, he's unlikely to have much luck at it. Though the money for the program, unavailable in last year's budget,
now exists, there's a massive financial black hole on the horizon. When Schwarzenegger gives his State of the State
speech on Thursday night, he's expected to present a plan to overhaul both the state budget, and the entire California
infrastructure, at the possible cost of up to $50 billion. Pundits suspect that the production incentives will likely
get lost in that shuffle. It's interesting that Schwarzenegger would bother to resurrect the same old bill at all
– since protecting the local entertainment industry is vital to the state's economy on the whole, one would
imagine that the Governor would take it upon himself to incorporate that order of business into the state's massive
overhaul. But I suppose one would imagine a lot of things...
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