Los Angeles to offer incentives to cope with runaway film production

The Los Angeles City Council on Wednesday appealed to film makers to keep conducting business in the city instead of moving to other cities and states.

"It's a disgrace that the entertainment capital of the planet is losing productions to other states and countries -- that's absurd," said Councilman Bill Rosendahl.

The entertainment industry is estimated to support more than 200,000 high-paying jobs in the Los Angeles area, while bringing in more than 30 billion dollars to the state of California.

But according to FilmLA, feature film production on the streets of Los Angeles dropped 14 percent last year -- its lowest level since the city started tracking the statistics in 1993.

Many production companies are opting to shoot in New York, Michigan and New Mexico, which offer various tax incentives and rebates.

To cope with the situation, the City Council is considering a host of incentives to encourage television and movie production companies to stay in Los Angeles.

Among the incentives being considered are:

-- a business tax credit for building owners who allow their exteriors to be filmed for free, and who allow their interiors to be filmed for a "reasonable rate";

-- a sales tax refund for purchases made for filming within the city when at least 75 percent of the shooting is done in Los Angeles;

-- free parking for production crews in city lots after business hours and on weekends, and business tax incentives for private parking companies who give production companies a "reasonable rate";

-- creation of power nodes that production companies can plug into, as an alterative to generators;

-- development of an ordinance that makes it illegal to disrupt a properly permitted shoot, and allows the police to conduct enforcement; and

-- expansion of the powers of FilmLA, which coordinates on-location shooting so as to prevent the agency from getting bogged down with bureaucratic red tape that takes weeks to issue permits that are readily available in other states.

Council President Eric Garcetti also proposed the appointment of a "film czar" who would be "responsible for problem-solving when production runs into an issue, like neighborhood opposition, bureaucratic red tape, traffic problems."

"Los Angeles will never be the cheapest, but we can be cheaper," Garcetti said. "We have all of the creative capital here. If we can make it worth their while to stay here where they can be so much closer to their family and get much better pre-production and post-production facilities, then we can really make the case against runaway productions."

Garcetti added, "We've just taken for granted that they'll never leave, and they have."

"If we just fool around for a few more years, we could find that we've lost this industry," Councilman Paul Koretz said. "I think we're right on the edge now. We've got to act. And we've got to act fast."

Source: Xinhua