Productions Flee to Other States, Crew Workers Follow

Landscape, weather and film crews make California the film and television production capital of the world and much of that business is rooted in the greater San Fernando Valley region. It may not be that way forever, though. As other states make a strategic effort to create their own film and television industry by offering tax incentives that studios can hardly refuse, they’ve lured production away from California and the Valley’s ideal landscape and sunny weather — and the crew talent has followed the jobs. David Thornsberry, a longtime Valley resident and film crew worker, packed up his wife and two kids and moved to Louisiana last year. Now living in Metairie, La., some 1,800 miles away, he says he sees familiar faces from California on set. “It is growing by the day,” said Thornsberry. “I’ve run into prop guys, grips and electricians.” To keep business and workers like Thornsberry from leaving the state for work, area entertainment industry professionals are pushing to extend the state’s film tax incentive program for another five years at a cost of $500 million. Without action, the program expires in 2013. The bill is pending before lawmakers in the Assembly Appropriations Committee, chaired by lead sponsor San Fernando Valley Assemblyman Felipe Fuentes. A full Assembly vote could take place by the end of the month. If it passes, the bill moves to the Senate for review. The program, started in 2009, offers a 20 percent credit for TV movies, mini-series and feature films with budgets up to $75 million and a 25 percent credit for TV series that move into California from out of state. Meanwhile, other states — Louisiana, New Mexico, Georgia and North Carolina, among them — offer productions more lucrative incentives over a longer period of time, scooping up business that some argue may have otherwise stayed in state. And increasingly, as studios weigh their location options, so too are location managers, gaffers, special effects artists, makeup artists and the like. To be sure, some lawmakers and observers say extending the tax credit incentive program for five years is inappropriate, considering the state is facing a $15.7 billion budget deficit and making cuts to public education and other services. The incentive program, while important, should only be extended a year at a time, they say, noting a one-year program is better than no program. Leaving the Region While it is unclear how many film and TV production workers are leaving the region, anecdotal evidence suggests it’s happening more than one would think. “Although California is a player in the game, we’re far behind the value of incentive programs in other states,” said Ed Brown, business manager of IATSE Local No. 44. “It is not uncommon for my office to field calls from long-standing members who are relocating to other states.” With 6,000 members working as set decorators, construction coordinators, prop makers, carpenters, and special effects artists, Local 44 is the largest of the nine unions representing entertainment industry workers in the Los Angeles area. But without enough work to keep all those members busy, the local has a 30 percent unemployment rate, Brown said. “They are following the work,” said Thom Davis, business manager of IATSE Local No. 80, representing grips, craft service and best boys among other positions. “It is not a whole lot different from what Detroit suffered as the car factories closed and relocated to the South. There was a migration there, as well.” Crew jobs are not considered glamorous work in Hollywood. Those who work behind the scenes log countless hours, starting before dawn and working well into the night. According to a study by the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp., the motion picture and video industries provided 159,291 jobs in California in 2009, with another 69,000 freelance artists, writers and performers. The state accounts for 39 percent of motion picture and video-related jobs in the U.S., the study found. Threatening that dominance are states where tax incentives are drawing in feature films and television series. Georgia, for instance, has 25,000 residents employed in the entertainment industry, according to the state’s film office. In Louisiana, film crews can support up to nine simultaneous projects and IATSE Local No. 478 has 1,100 active members from the 100 it had a decade ago. Thornsberry first worked in Louisiana in 2008, when he was securing locations for “Cirque du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant.” After relocating three years later, Thornsberry said he immediately got hired onto a feature film and his wife found film work, too. “We have not stopped working since we moved to Louisiana,” Thornsberry said. Preserving Jobs But just as some film production workers are making the decision to go, others are choosing to stay here and roll with the opportunities as they come and go. Ed Gutentag, a cinematographer and camera operator for features and made-for-TV movies, is among those who have made the Valley region their home. Now running a blog he started two years ago, called Shoot Movies in California, he’s joined the ranks of those in the business who are trying to influence legislators to approve the extension. He said he thought about moving to New Mexico more than 10 years ago, after production work began migrating north to Canada, and then quickly abandoned the idea after some more thought about the impact. “I went, ‘Wait a minute, I am not going to chase the movie business all over the country and break up my family,’” said Gutentag, who lives in Topanga Canyon with his wife and daughter. “I am here for the long haul. I would get out of the business before I had to move.” Those in the industry say the film tax credit program is the key to maintaining the region’s native industry. The program has provided $400 million in financial assistance to 147 feature films, television series and other filming projects since it started in 2009. On June 1, the California Film Commission, which administers the program, begins accepting applications for the final $100 million allocated. Two studies on the tax program conclude it succeeds in preserving filming and jobs in the state although they differ on the financial impact. An LAEDC July 2011 study released in July 2011 showed that the first two years of the program generated $3.8 billion dollars in economic activity statewide, created more than 20,000 jobs and over $200 million dollars in tax revenues. The Headway Project, a nonpartisan think tank and issues advocacy firm, hired the Institute for Research on Labor and Employment at UCLA for its study released in February 2012. That report put the benefit at $1.04 in revenue per tax credit dollar. Still, supporters of the program may have a challenge convincing some lawmakers to approve the five-year extension. When the same proposal came before the Senate last August, President pro Tem Darrell Steinberg reduced the length of the program to a single year. The move frustrated those in the industry who say producers, especially for television, want certainty that tax credits are available for an extended period, should the show become a hit and continue filming for years. “Having it for the year was better than not having it at all,” said Alicia Trost, communications director for Steinberg, D-Sacramento. In the end, supporters of the incentive program say they are saving the last of Southern California’s great home-grown industries. The auto plants and tire factories are gone, and aerospace is not the job creator it once was. Those were the industries that provided for the middle class just as the entertainment industry does with crew jobs, said Davis, of Local No. 80. “Every time one of these jobs transfers out it is an erosion of the tax base and that is the missing factor in this discussion,” Davis said.