Arcadia Assemblyman Hears from Hollywood on Runaway Film Production

Filmmakers, actors and representatives from all facets of the entertainment industry testified Friday in an assembly hearing meant to underscore the need for continued tax credits to folks who film in California.

Arcadia Assemblyman Anthony Portantino, D-La Cañada, the chair of the Assembly Select Committee on the Preservation of California’s Entertainment Industry, has co-authored legislation that would extend for five more years the tax credits that incentivize production companies to stay in the state. The program is currently funded through fiscal year 2013-14, but Assembly Bill 1069 would extend the incentives.

At Pasadena City Hall on Friday, Portantino and Assemblywoman Holly J. Mitchell, D-Los Angeles, listened to a litany of reasons why it would be in the best fiscal interest of California to re-up the 2009 program, administered by the California Film Commission.

“The two factors are always where to shoot and who offers the best incentive,’’ independent producer Larry Thompson testified before the legislators. “In Hollywood, we look to make dreams, but we still need to make them at the best price we can.’’

Without the tax credit, Thompson said, he would not have been able to make his faith-based film for Lifetime Television. Because he qualified for the tax credit, he figured out a way to shoot in Los Angeles, wrapped in 18 days and ended up spending some $1.3 million – monies that would have gone out of state otherwise.

Passed in 2009, the California Film and Television Tax Credit Program targets productions that are most likely to leave the state. The CFC allocates up to $100 million a year to eligible productions on a first-come, first-serve basis. One example of a tax credit criterion for "a qualified motion picture'' mandates that 75 percent of the total production budget must be incurred and used for goods and services in California.

In 2009-10, the CFC allocated $176 million to 70 projects that spent some $1.2 billion in California, according to aggregated figures released by the commission. Still, the CFC maintains, feature film production in the L.A. area has declined steadily in 11 out of the last 13 years. Portantino, who left New Jersey decades ago for Hollywood, noted that movies filmed in California dropped from 272 in 2000 to 160 in 2008.

Stacey Travis, an actress and member of the Screen Actors Guild, pointed out that movies can boost tourism, such as the case with Sideways, which led to an infusion of cash for the Santa Ynez Valley. But when production companies for shows like Breaking Bad head to New Mexico and provide 400 jobs to people in that state, that’s 400 more jobs Californians didn’t get.

“Those who cannot find work become wards of the state – requiring unemployment to live,’’ she said. “This tax credit is a lifeline for many of us.’’

One animated speaker, Ken Sharp, offered the small business perspective. Sharp, owner of Modern Props, said that too often people outside the industry associate all people inside the industry with mega bucks.

“I am not wealthy, I live in a house…that’s falling apart. I can’t even contribute to my 401k,’’ he said, noting that continuing the tax incentive program is essential to the livelihood of the faceless masses, not the studio executives.

Echoing Sharp, Mitchell said her brother is an editor who is just one of  many whose names roll at the end of movie credits. He’s not a millionaire who wants to fatten his pockets; he’s just a guy who wants to pay his bills. And this is what people in California need to understand, she said.

“When you walk the floor of the legislature this [topic] doesn’t make the top five. We’ve got to figure out how to reframe the message to flip the script,’’ Mitchell said.