Real Estate Southern California

For the past two decades, Jack Kyser, chief economist of the Los Angeles Economic Development Corp., has been sounding a warning call over runaway film production, calling attention to the fact that other states and other countries are offering greater incentives to capture as much of Southern California's lucrative entertainment business as possible.

[IMGCAP(2)]Data from FilmL.A., a nonprofit that coordinates permits for entertainment shot on-location in the City of Los Angeles, unincorporated parts of Los Angeles County and other local jurisdictions, shows that on-location feature film production posted its weakest quarter since tracking began in 1993, with 7,043 production days logged in 2008 amounting to about half of the peak of 13,980 production days in 1996.

Most big-budget features are no longer filmed locally, according to the group. "With feature film production days being down 10 of the last 12 years, we should stop talking about 'runaway production.' It's 'ran-away production,'" FilmL.A. president Paul Audley said in a statement earlier this year.

Kyser notes that the state's incentives to combat the filming flight haven't done the trick."The incentives are too lucrative to pass up," he notes, adding that the industry's response to the state's incentives "was somewhat of a yawn. So far the industry has been sort of less than enchanted with it all."

However, overall, "with all the creative talent in Hollywood and the companies they build, you will see that these companies will be a major factor in the Hollywood market going forward," states James Malone, a senior vice president in the West Los Angeles office of Jones Lang LaSalle Americas Inc.

To read more of the Hollywood feature, visit Real Estate Southern California's digital edition.

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Hollywood Update: Sounding the Warning Call

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