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Some 1,500 film and TV workers are set to rally this weekend in Los Angeles in support of restoring lost production jobs, as the industry continues to struggle with a content slowdown.
Union and business leaders are pushing for legislation to more than double the California production tax incentive, and to open up the program to a wider range of projects, including sitcoms and animation. Gov. Gavin Newsom originally proposed raising the incentive from $330 million to $750 million in October, but the bill must still pass through a Legislature that is facing competing priorities.
“We want to keep the pressure on all of our politicians to make sure they see this through to the end,” said Wes Bailey, CEO of SirReel Studio Services, which is hosting the rally on Sunday afternoon in Sun Valley.
California is not alone in seeing a significant drop in production jobs. According to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, none of the nation’s three largest production centers — California, New York and Georgia — has fully recovered from the decline that began even before the 2023 strikes.
The downturn has hit particularly hard in California, which remains the nation’s largest production hub.
“We knew back in 2022 that there was going to be a huge shift in our industry. What the studios were doing — the whole streaming wars — could not have been sustained,” said Pam Elyea, vice president of History for Hire, a prop rental company based in North Hollywood. “What we didn’t see coming was how long the bad time was going to be.”
Elyea is a member of the California Production Coalition, a group of studio facilities and ancillary businesses that have partnered with the Motion Picture Association, the lobbying arm of the seven major studios.
The coalition is just one of several, including California United, Keep California Rolling, and Stay in L.A. — that are urging lawmakers to help jumpstart the industry. The Stay in L.A. campaign formed after the devastating fires in January, and has called for eliminating the cap on the film incentive for three years to help aid the recovery.
“We really need to figure out what’s going on here in L.A.,” said Marie Dunaway, an L.A.-based producer, who noted the business has also been battered by the pandemic and the strikes. “It really is a moment where we are needing to get the public and the government and corporate leadership in tune in terms of the need of preserving this community in L.A.”
Last week, Sen. Ben Allen and other lawmakers unveiled revisions to SB 630, the bill to hike the state incentive program. Lawmakers intend to raise the tax incentive from 20% to 35% for L.A.-based productions, with an additional 5% — or 40% total — going to productions outside of L.A. or in economically depressed parts of L.A.
The bill is still in flux, as the MPA and union leaders continue to negotiate over some of the fine points. The MPA wants to eliminate the requirement that 75% of a production be filmed in California in order to qualify. The unions have pushed back on that, arguing that the incentive should be used to keep as many jobs in California as possible, and not to subsidize projects primarily filmed in other states or overseas.
The California Production Coalition is also pushing to add commercials, post-production and music scoring to the incentive.
“I think we’re getting close to a deal,” Allen said Friday.
He said he was “optimistic” that the expansion will be approved by the Legislature, but that it is not guaranteed.
“Global conditions are very unpredictable to say the least,” said Allen, D-Santa Monica. “We need to do our work to make sure colleagues from around the state see the merit and the benefit.”
Legislative committees have held two hearings on the bill, and heard often emotional testimony from film workers who had lost their health insurance or been forced to raid their retirement funds.
“There’s been no work,” said Cecilia Hyoun, a film editor whose last job was in 2023. “My house is in forbearance. I had two years of emergency savings. They are gone.”
While lawmakers have paid tribute to the state’s signature industry, some have also expressed concern about budget constraints and noted that the MPA also supports film incentives in Georgia and New York.
“How is the administration ensuring that we’re not getting played?” asked Sen. Christopher Cabaldon, D-West Sacramento.
Assemblyman Alex Lee, D-San Jose, said in an interview that the budget situation has gotten more precarious since last fall, in light of the fires and the Trump administration’s actions.
“The federal government is careening us toward another recession,” he said. “We are literally talking about, ‘How do we not cut MediCal for poor people?’ and ‘How do we make sure school lunches are paid for?’ We’re in that severe of a crisis. And while we’re doing all that, we’re talking about doubling the size of a corporate tax break.”
Rebecca Rhine, the president of the Entertainment Union Coalition, argued that the incentive helps boost tourism and strengthens communities by delivering well-paying jobs.
“We don’t view this is as some sort of a gift,” said Rhine, who is also the Western executive director of the Directors Guild of America. “We think the state gets something really valuable for this. We believe most legislators are going to land with us on this.”
New York is in the process of raising its film incentive from $700 million to $800 million a year, as the nation’s second-largest production locale confronts its own downturn. Georgia’s incentive is not capped, but production has nevertheless declined there as well.
Even some supporters of the expansion in California say more will be needed to restore robust levels of employment.
“I don’t think this is going to be the solve that is the end-all-be-all for the industry,” said Pamala Buzick Kim, co-founder of Stay in L.A. “But at least it makes us part of the conversation and more competitive.”
As the unions and the studios continue to negotiate, there does not appear to be any talk of going higher than $750 million — much less eliminating the cap.
“We live in a world with parameters, and we’re working within those parameters,” Rhine said. “If there were more money we would take more money. But we’re not going to let the perfect be the enemy of the good.”
