There is nothing Like Before On Hollywood Set ? It’s too quiet now Hollywood may be known as a dream factory at the heart of the global entertainment industry. But thesedays production houses mainly prefer to film in Atlanta, London, Toronto or Sydney than in Los Angeles.
Reason is that there is inexpensive labour as well as better tax breaks have encouraged the producers away from the City of Angels for years. The wildfires, where at least 29 people dead and destroyed thousands of homes, have only added to this existential crisis.
Now, many here are calling on the state – and studios and streaming services – to boost local production.
“The best thing the studios could do for fire relief is to bring work back for the rank and file LA film workers,” says Mark Worthington, a production designer whose home burned down in Altadena
Mr Worthington had already been struggling to cope with the city’s downturn, noting he hadn’t set foot on an LA set in two years. Covid, labour strikes, and the inevitable end of the streaming boom had led many producers to try and save costs by skipping town – sometimes leaving the country altogether.
Decrease of production
Productions in the US decreased 26% last year compared to pre-strike levels in 2022, according to ProdPro, which tracks global production. In Australia and New Zealand, production was up 14% and in the UK it was up nearly 1%, with Canada up 2.8%.
The actor and aerial cinematographer turned his hobby of flying drones into a profitable business in 2012 just as the streaming wars were taking off. For a decade, he was flying high above film sets, creating sleek aerial shots for movies and TV shows on Netflix, Amazon and Disney
.Now he’s on the verge of becoming homeless – again. He was evicted from the Huntington Beach home he shared with his wife and two young children and now is being booted from the Las Vegas apartment they moved to because they could no longer afford to live in Southern California.
We were saving to buy a house, we had money, we had done things the right way,” he says. “Two years ago, I didn’t worry about going out to dinner with my wife and kids and spending 200 bucks.”“Now I worry about going out and spending $5 on a value meal at McDonald’s.”
Unemployment rate in film and TV in the United States was at 12.5% in August, but many think those numbers are actually much higher, because many film workers either do not file for unemployment benefits because they’re not eligible or they’ve exhausted those benefits after months of not working.
As a whole, the number of US productions during the second quarter of 2024 was down about 40% compared to the same period in 2022. Globally, there was a 20% decline over that period, according to ProdPro, which tracks TV and film productions.
