There could be new hope for the California film industry. As we ourselves recently reported, feature films have been notable only in their absence in recent rounds of film funding in the state. However, it seems that more features are reconsidering the Golden State, and that’s great news. To share more, we have our industry insider, entertainment lawyer from Blake & Wang P.A., Brandon Blake.
Stemming the Exodus
As a filming location, California has seen big-budget films flee the state for several years now. There’s no one factor to cause it, but rather a combination of a difficult and bureaucratically hampered permitting environment, high labor costs, a lackluster tax credit offering, and plenty of other alternatives rising.
While the state has taken considerable steps to address some of these concerns, a look at the latest list of applicants through FilmLA’s shows that, despite plenty of indie projects, feature films are only noticeable by their absence.
New Hope
However, production tracking service ProdPro, which follows global filming trends, has a new hope to offer. While we may only have seen 15 movies with big budgets ($10M +) filming in the state so far this year, it suggests there are 95 titles that meet that benchmark in active development currently. More popular than the alternate destinations, New Mexico, Georgia, and New York, put together. This could be the result of some of those recent overhauls and an upswing of positivity around California as a filming destination.
It’s also seen a 17% increase in TV productions filming in the state, the highest levels since Q1 last year. Dramas (9.5%) and reality TV (29.5%) saw the biggest increases.
There’s still work ahead for LA if it wants to reclaim its iconic status as a filming location. However, there’s definitely room to be hopeful about the future, if current trends continue and larger productions continue to consider the state.
Film and Television 