City Council Recommends Financial Incentives; Proposals Include A Sales Tax Refund For Qualifying Production Companies
By Robert Goldrich
LOS ANGELES --Three months do not make a year or even a trend but perhaps they are an indication that on-location lensing of commercials in Los Angeles has picked up a bit. Still, there’s a long way to go.
Based on film permit info from FilmL.A.–the nonprofit organization that coordinates permits for filmed entertainment shot on location in the City of Los Angeles, unincorporated parts of L.A. County and other local jurisdictions–spot location shoot days for calendar year 2009 through Oct. 5 are down 21 percent as compared to the same time span in 2008.
The small silver lining to that dark cloud is that for the last three months-plus (July 1-Oct. 5) there’s been a bit of a rally–enough to show some improvement over the figures that were released for the first half of ’09 when permitted location production days for commercials were down 31 percent (2,459 vs. 3,570 production days) when stacked up against activity during January-June ’08.
While narrowing a 31 percent shortfall to one of 21 percent is hardly a stunning victory, it represents a measure of progress nonetheless, causing some to harbor hope that the gap can be closed further.
Such hope, though, has to fly in the face of what has been a steady downward trend over a protracted stretch. Barring a major rally for the remainder of ’09, Los Angeles is on track to record its fourth consecutive year of declining on-location commercial production. In 2008, there were 5.996 on-location spot lensing days, a nearly 11 percent decrease from the 6,730 tallied the prior year. In ’07, there was a fractional percentage decrease (0.2 percent) as compared to ’06. And spot lensing in ’06 fell 3.4 percent short of the level of activity in calendar ’05. The decline in ’06 ended a five-year period of growth that began after production plummeted 24.6 percent in ’00 due primarily to that year’s actors’ strike against the advertising industry.
Sans Incentives
Part of Los Angeles’ spot woes reflect the toll that the recession has taken on commercial production generally. Yet another likely factor is that while California has no significant financial incentives program for commercials, other states and countries have tax credits, rebates and the like in place to lure filming, including spots.
California earlier this year introduced a tax credit program for certain qualifying feature films and TV fare, but commercials are not eligible for those incentives.
On Wednesday (10/7), the Los Angeles City Council issued 19 recommendations in an attempt to keep and attract more filming for the City of Angels. The most substantive recommendations include a proposal calling for a refund of sales tax paid by production companies when at least 75 percent of a project’s filming is done within the City of Los Angeles. The City Council instructed the Office of Finance to report to the Council’s Jobs and Business Development Committee in 30 days on the feasibility and fiscal impact of such a sales tax refund for film project-related purchases made in L.A. In that the current language of the recommended sales tax incentive carries no restrictions as to the type of project being filmed, it’s presumed that commercials would qualify if the reform program comes to fruition.
The Council additionally directed the Business Tax Advisory Committee (BTAC) to evaluate a business tax credit for building owners in Los Angeles that allow exteriors to be filmed for free. The BTAC has also been asked to evaluate a business tax credit for building owners that allow interior filming for a “reasonable rate.”
A City Council request has also been issued to the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power for the creation of three power utility nodes as part of a pilot program in downtown L.A. so that film production companies can access power to use in lieu of generators.
And the Council has directed the Department of General Services and the L.A. Department of Transportation to implement a free parking program (except for the cost of providing security) for film crews in all available City parking lots after business hours and during weekends.
Additionally the Council asked that the 10 “hardest to film” locations in the city be identified with an eye towards making them more available and accommodating to producers.
A FilmL.A. spokesperson said that the Council’s actions and its proactive stance “bode well” for future filming prospects in Los Angeles. He observed that he has never seen the City Council “so united” in terms of wanting to address filming issues and to encourage feature, TV, commercial and other forms of production in L.A.
Review: Writer-Director Coralie Fargeat’s “The Substance”
In its first two hours, "The Substance" is a well-made, entertaining movie. Writer-director Coralie Fargeat treats audiences to a heavy dose of biting social commentary on ageism and sexism in Hollywood, with a spoonful of sugar- and sparkle-doused body horror.
But the film's deliciously unhinged, blood-soaked and inevitably polarizing third act is what makes it unforgettable.
What begins as a dread-inducing but still relatively palatable sci-fi flick spirals deeper into absurdism and violence, eventually erupting — quite literally — into a full-blown monster movie. Let the viewer decide who the monster is.
Fargeat — who won best screenplay at this year's Cannes Film Festival — has been vocal about her reverence for "The Fly" director David Cronenberg, and fans of the godfather of body horror will see his unmistakable influence. But "The Substance" is also wholly unique and benefits from Fargeat's perspective, which, according to the French filmmaker, has involved extensive grappling with her own relationship to her body and society's scrutiny.
"The Substance" tells the story of Elisabeth Sparkle, a famed aerobics instructor with a televised show, played by a powerfully vulnerable Demi Moore. Sparkle is fired on her 50th birthday by a ruthless executive — a perfectly cast Dennis Quaid, who nails sleazy and gross.
Feeling rejected by a town that once loved her and despairing over her bygone star power, Sparkle learns from a handsome young nurse about a black-market drug that promises to create a "younger, more beautiful, more perfect" version of its user. Though she initially tosses the phone number in the trash, she soon fishes it out in a desperate panic and places an order.
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