L.A. IS LOSING ALLURE FOR FILMS JOBS GO AWAY AS OTHER STATES OFFER INCENTIVES.Byline: GREG HERNANDEZ Staff Writer Having a movie star governor in California California (kăl'ĭfôr`nyə), most populous state in the United States, located in the Far West; bordered by Oregon (N), Nevada and, across the Colorado River, Arizona (E), Mexico (S), and the Pacific Ocean (W). has done little to stop feature films from abandoning production in and around Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. -- once the undisputed movie capital of the world. A year-end report released Wednesday by FilmLA Inc. showed that location production for big-screen movies dropped by 7.4 percent in 2006. This comes as other states in the U.S. including New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of , New Mexico New Mexico, state in the SW United States. At its northwestern corner are the so-called Four Corners, where Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, and Utah meet at right angles; New Mexico is also bordered by Oklahoma (NE), Texas (E, S), and Mexico (S). and Louisiana are now offering significant financial incentives that California does not. ``It is frustrating frus·trate tr.v. frus·trat·ed, frus·trat·ing, frus·trates 1. a. To prevent from accomplishing a purpose or fulfilling a desire; thwart: ,'' said FilmLA Executive Director Steve MacDonald Steve Macdonald is a filk musician (singer/songwriter) from Michigan, who also appears at Renaissance Faires as "Gallamor the Bard". He served for several years as the Pegasus Award Evangelista, and was responsible for many changes in the award process that led to much greater . ``When you look at the percentage increases in other jurisdictions, you have to realize that a lot of that is coming at the expense of jobs and revenue in California. If you look at the success of other state programs, you would think there would be a desire to do something that would take back production that has gone to other areas.'' Sacramento has done little to try to remedy the situation. A bill introduced last year was modeled after New York's incentive package and proposed offering a 12 percent refundable Refundable Eligible for refunding under the terms of a bond indenture. tax credit based on qualifying state expenditures. It never made it to the floor of the state Senate and the deadline to re-introduce it or any new bills is next month. New Mexico, which offers a 20 percent tax credit, saw its production spending leap from $71 million in 2005 to $142 million last year. A recent study conducted by the commission and the Los Angeles Economic Development Corp. estimates that a feature film with a production budget of $70 million generates close to $11 million in state taxes and can pump up to $200 million into the local economy. ``In the face of all these incentives it's kind of a depressing picture,'' said the LAEDC's Chief Economist The Chief Economist is a single position job class having primary responsibility for the development, coordination, and production of economic and financial analysis. It is distinguished from the other economist positions by the broader scope of responsibility encompassing the Jack Kyser. ``Now that Canada has cooled a little bit, you see states like Michigan all of a sudden discovering there is a Hollywood and offering incentives. The auto industry is hurting so they are saying, `Let's lure lure the skin-covered object which runs on a monorail on a Greyhound racing track and which the dogs are schooled to chase. The lure must be kept 30 to 40 ft ahead of the leading dog so that the field is stretched out. production away from California. At the end of the day, the message to Sacramento is: `Why are they doing this?' It's jobs and tax revenues!'' FilmLA's 2006 numbers end two consecutive years of growth in feature film production which MacDonald said now appears to have been ``an anomaly Abnormality or deviation. Pronounced "uh-nom-uh-lee," it is a favorite word among computer people when complex systems produce output that is inexplicable. See software conflict and anomaly detection. .'' Features dropped seven years in a row (1996-2003) before rebounding in 2004 when a spate of Los Angeles-based films were made, including ``Collateral,'' ``Million Dollar Baby,'' ``Crash,'' ``Spanglish,'' and ``Lords of Dogtown.'' That was followed by a slight uptick Uptick A transaction occurring at price above its previous transaction. In order for an uptick to occur, a transaction price must be followed by an increased transaction price. in 2005 that MacDonald said was spillover spill·o·ver n. 1. The act or an instance of spilling over. 2. An amount or quantity spilled over. 3. A side effect arising from or as if from an unpredicted source: from the robust 2004 activity. Permits for feature production in 2006 totaled 8,813 days, down from 9,518 days in 2005. This also represents a 37 percent tumble from the peak year 1996 when Los Angeles enjoyed a total of 13,980 production days. Another troubling sign is the first year-to-year decrease in the location production of commercials since 2000 -- the year the commercial industry had a six-month strike. Steve Caplan, executive vice president of the Association of Independent Commercial Producers, said the 3.4 percent drop in 2006 would have been far worse had the industry not had a fourth-quarter surge. ``Earlier in the year we were down by 15 percent,'' Caplan said. ``Like the television and features industries, we are attracted to incentives. It's a very competitive marketplace and other places around the U.S. have had an impact and we also continue to see a lot of work go overseas.'' When figuring in feature films, commercials and television production, L.A.-area numbers actually increased by just under 1 percent in 2006. FilmLA coordinated permits for a total of 55,399 on-location production days during 2006, compared to 54,876 in 2005. But the closeness in the numbers was mainly due to a 52.7 percent surge in reality television production which does not provide anywhere near the same economic boost as a feature film. Industry experts estimate that the average cost to produce a reality episode is $700,000. Figures for reality and scripted programs combined for a 10.2 percent gain in overall TV production during 2006. On-location sitcom production rose 12.6 percent, while dramas were up 6.2 percent. greg.hernandez(at)dailynews.com (818) 713-3758 |
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