Hollywood in trouble

The Hollywood backlot in Los Angeles features a replica New York City street. There are diners, newsstands, brownstones, bodegas and subway entrances.

It is part of the Radford Studio Centre, Studio City’s vast production hub. In 1928, silent film actor and director Mac Sennett built the studio on what was once a lettuce ranch. Classic TV Show Gunsmoke, Gilligan Island and Mary Tyler Moore Show Everything was made here. The same was true of the hit TV shows in the 1990s. Seinfeld.

“There’s a lot of positive jus on this stage,” says Zach Sokolov of Radford’s Soundstage Nine. Seinfeld tape. Sokoloff is Senior Vice President of Hackman Capital Partners, managing Radford Studio Centers and Studios around the world.

Riding in a studio golf cart and in a backlot, Sokolov points to where the show’s famous episode, “The Soup Nazi,” was made.

Lots are recognizable and full Seinfeld Spot: “There’s a balcony where Jerry threw marble rye,” he says.

Sokolov explains that the studio built this backlot Seinfeld In 1994, a massive 6.7 magnitude earthquake rocked Los Angeles and destroyed much of the set.

“I was scared about staying in LA, so instead of going to New York, I decided to bring New York to production,” he says.

Building a replica of New York City took Seinfeld to persuade him to stay in California, Sokoloff said. But maintaining production has become a challenge in this region and even within the country at a time when film and television productions were increasingly moving elsewhere.

The issue caught the public’s attention this month when President Trump stayed in a true society to declare that “the American film industry is dying very fast.” He announced that he would allow 100% tariffs on films made outside the US.

Trump’s declaration – prompted by a visit to John Voight in Hollywood from one of his “special ambassadors” – shocked the film industry around the world and visited the confused film industry. However, the president immediately stopped to consider the idea. He said he would meet industry leaders because he wanted to “make them happy.” Since then, Voight and fellow “ambassador” Sylvester Stallone have written a letter urging the president to consider enacting federal tax incentives to increase US film and television production and adjusting certain tax provisions.

The entire episode opened up a conversation about the decline in television and filmmaking and what can be done about it.

Global competition for production work

Production has yet to recover from the Covid-19 pandemic, with delays caused by the writer and actor strike in 2023, according to Filmla, which issues a film permit. The studios and streamers haven’t ordered as many shows as they have seen in recent shows either.

“Less work to avoid increases competition for what remains,” says spokesman Philip Sokoroski.

Most states have some kind of financial incentive for productions. So is nearly 100 countries, including Canada, the UK, Ireland and Australia.

“Even in Thailand [has incentives],” says Joe Chianze, senior vice president of Entertainment Partners, a global production services company. ” White lotus It was photographed entirely in Thailand. With the large number of incentives in the US and around the world, producers really have many options. ”

Chianese consults with producers about production methods, incentives and taxes around the world.

He says that productions can bring more money to the community at once. “This is a real stimulus for the economy and creates jobs.” The trend of what is known as “run-control production” began in the late 1990s, he says, when Canada introduced tax credits to film and television production, “I saw you unfold in other countries.”

Since then, there has been a global competition for entertainment work and bragging rights.

Even within the US, states compete for production

In the US, states are joking about showing business work. Last week, New York passed its budget with a $100 million increase in production incentive-specific funds, securing a total of $800 million.

This week, thanks to a New Jersey tax credit, Netflix broke the ground at a new sound stage, backlot and post-production facility at former US Army base at Fort Monmouth.

And in Texas, the proposed state bill that provides more incentives to film there has been boosted by several well-known celebrities.

“A small portion of the Texas budget surplus could turn this into a new Hollywood,” actor Woody Harrelson said in a recent video in collaboration with Matthew McConaughey, Billy Bob Thornton, Dennis Quaid and Rene Zelweger.

“There’s no shade in Texas, but people want to shoot in California,” says Steven Jaworski, vice president of production at A&E Studios.

Jaworski is responsible for budgeting the Netflix series Lincoln’s lawyerA legal drama produced at Los Angeles Center Studios. Not too far from city hall and other downtown locations where the show frequently shoots.

“The reality is that this show can be filmed anywhere,” he says from the set of Lincoln’s lawyer. “LA is a character in our story… But as costs increase, whether it’s inflation or the way of the economy, there may be a mission to “you have to cut your costs” and the only way to continue the show is to move.

Long before Trump’s announcement, Jawolski and others had issued warnings about productions leaving California.

“The situation is very disastrous,” he says, “If anything is not done this summer, I really believe California is the entertainment capital of the world and the production capital of the world. I think it will be a thing of the past.”

California needs a comeback, studio executives and grassroots groups agree

It wasn’t until 2009 that California began offering tax credits to films there. By that time, production had already moved elsewhere to take advantage of advantageous credits. California law was called “The Ugly Betty Bill.” This moved its production from California to New York after the HIT ABC series for tax credits.

However, according to Casey Bloys, chairman and CEO of HBO and MAX Content, California’s existing tax credit programs need to seriously update their renewals.

“Talent is here, infrastructure is here. hackHe said earlier this month at a Milken Institute panel. “But if you try to plan, you have to get into the lottery and you don’t know if your show will get a tax credit.”

President Ravi Ahuja, CEO of Sony Pictures Entertainment, also insisted on supporting the state.

“The fact is that a lot of production has left the US, but it’s even worse for California,” he said on the panel. He and other studio executives said they liked filming in Los Angeles, but they also said they could shoot and film in locations around the world.

To resolve this issue, California Gov. Gavin Newsom has already pushed for more than double the California tax credit program, with two bills passing through the state legislature going to expand production of the types of credit qualifying.

After Trump introduced the idea of ​​tariffs for the film, he accused Newsom of allowing Hollywood jobs to leave. Newsom stands by the California program, and the increase in incentives he has already proposed. He also volunteered to help the president make $7.5 billion. Federal Government Tax credit plan. “The United States continues to be a film powerhouse, and California can all bring more production here. Based on a successful state program, we are keen to partner with the Trump administration to further strengthen domestic production and make American films again,” he said in a statement.

Despite recent attention to maintaining domestic production, California industry leaders say the program needs help. Supporting California’s budget and revising the tax credit program would provide compensation to productions made in the state, rather than punishing tariffs for producing outside the United States, says Pamala Buzik Kim, co-founder of a grassroots group called Stay in LA.

The group has lobbyed for enhanced incentives to maintain production in California.

“A lot of people outside of LA think when you say Hollywood, everyone is rich,” Kim says. “I hope that’s true. But 99% of us in production are truly your everyday working class people.”

Kim says Trump’s idea of ​​film tariffs “is wonderful, although it definitely sent a swirl of confusion through the industry and international markets.”

Kim says it’s important to maintain LA’s heritage and its biggest exports.

“We have people in this business that are in this field and we have the best and best people, and we need to protect them.”

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