17-05-2025
How The L.A. Fires Sparked A Major Fight To Bring Back Local Film & TV Production: 'We Cannot Wait Until We Have Lost The Business'
For Los Angeles-based production workers, 2025 was supposed to be the light at the end of the tunnel. Instead, the year quickly fell into a pattern that has become all too familiar for the local industry when the hopes that things might finally return to normal were squandered yet again by an unprecedented, devastating event.
In January, two historic wildfires ravaged the city, swallowing thousands of homes and leaving more than $250 billion in damages in its wake. After succumbing to runaway production for decades, which avalanched in the last five years following pandemic-related shutdowns and 2023's historically long, dual strikes, California's film and television production had been brought to its knees. But rather than view this latest tragedy as a death knell, it was almost as if it became the jolt the local industry needed to fight back.
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'I think that really renewed our commitment to doing everything we could to keep this industry vibrant and thriving here in California,' says Rebecca Rhine, the western executive director and associate national executive director of the Directors Guild of America.
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Rhine is leading the Entertainment Union Coalition in one of two prominent campaigns that have emerged after the fires, aimed at returning to the Golden Age of Hollywood. The coalition's primary goal with its own campaign, called Keep California Rolling, has been to lobby federal and state government officials to codify solutions.
Meanwhile, Alexandra Pechman and Sarah Smith's Stay in LA campaign is not only appealing to lawmakers but also to famous faces who can wield their own influence to keep production in Los Angeles. Even as firefighters were still battling the flames, the pair amassed more than 6,000 signatures, including from the likes of A-listers like LeVar Burton and Alison Brie, in support of their initiative.
'This isn't just a Hollywood issue. This isn't just something that affects the biggest names you know,' Pechman says. 'This affects florists, small business owners, dry cleaners — all the people of our city really feel the ripple effect when this key, iconic industry is hurting.'
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From 2015 to 2020, about 50% of the 312 productions that did not qualify for California's tax credit incentive relocated to another area, resulting in an approximate loss of 28,000 jobs and $7.7 billion in economic activity, according to a recent report from the EUC. The coalition makes the case that runaway production has widespread impact beyond direct job loss, affecting tourism, hospitality and more local industries.
That doesn't mean that those big names don't help the cause. In fact, stars speaking out might be the only way to really get people to listen, Pechman and Smith say.
'That's why people do stay. Someone powerful enough, either in front of or behind the camera, just says, 'Well, I'm not going to make the project unless it's shot here,' and so that is hugely influential,' Smith says.
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Earlier this year, DGA President Lesli Linka Glatter answered that call herself during an impassioned speech at the guild's award ceremony, advocating that productions be filmed where they are set, at the very least. She also promised her next project would film in LA.
The show is Imperfect Women with Kerry Washington, Elizabeth Moss and Kate Mara, who Linka Glatter says were instrumental in the push to have the production remain local.
'There are many people that have the power to make those kinds of changes, and now is the time to do it. We cannot wait. We cannot wait until we have lost the business,' she says.
State officials had already begun exploring potential solutions to the years-long production exodus in California and, in October, Governor Gavin Newsom proposed a substantial increase to the state's Film & TV Tax Credit Program to $750 million annually, which would make it the second largest in the country. Lawmakers have also introduced a pair of bills aimed at 'modernizing' the program by allowing a wider range of projects to qualify and offering more funds to each individual production.
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Nearly everyone interviewed agreed that, while the state's response is a good start, additional funding alone will not be enough to staunch the bleeding of this particular issue.
On a local level, Pechman and Smith have also been focused on making Los Angeles 'feel more production friendly and welcome productions back home,' via overhauls to the onerous and expensive permitting system that deters many filmmakers from attempting to shoot in the city.
'It's also about encouraging studios, whose businesses are headquartered here, to invest in the creative community where they live. I mean, we have such a rich community and history of generational craftspeople, and I think that's such an undervalued resource,' Smith says. 'We have artists who are the best in their game, and if we lose them to other places… it's almost like giving away the rich soil that this place has been growing forever.'
Rhine also says the EUC is 'looking at every tool available on the federal level' to bolster statewide incentives and help states compete with international territories like the U.K. and Canada, which have been steadily poaching production from the U.S. for decades. Each state incentive program is designed to compete internationally, but given the unique challenges facing the U.S., the unions argue a federal tax incentive is also necessary.
The reality is that the Hollywood unions represent workers across the country who have been impacted by a global production contraction. Per a 2023 report from the Motion Picture Association, the U.S. film and television industry alone supports more than 2 million jobs and contributes over $180 billion in total wages, encompassing 122,000 businesses nationwide.
A report from ProdPro suggests that, while the number of global productions increased by 18% and generated an additional $16.2 billion in 2024, production levels last year still 'fell short of expectations'.
Some have wondered whether throwing money at the issue is nothing more than a race to the bottom. With so many competing territories that might just increase their own incentives in response to any moves by California and the United States, will the state eventually find itself behind the ball again?
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'It's not just tax incentives that are luring productions away,' Smith warns. 'The cost of labor, obviously, the cost of goods, the fact that a lot of places have universal health care and pensions. It's tough for Americans to compete and for Californians to compete, given a lot of those factors, but we've just reached a point where it's compete or die,' Smith warned. 'We must take action to preserve an industry that has huge cultural impact and is such an important part of our identity and legacy in Los Angeles and throughout California. I think we've been taking it for granted for too long.'
These four women are not alone in sounding the alarm on the bleak state of film and television production in California and across the U.S. In a recent episode of his podcast, Rob Lowe joked with his Parks and Recreation co-star Adam Scott that, if it were made today, the NBC sitcom likely would've been shot in Budapest. He also revealed that his game show The Floor shoots in Ireland, despite having American contestants. In short, things are looking bleak, he complained.
It's true, Los Angeles is not the bustling production town it once was. According to a recent report from FilmLA, production in Los Angeles was down more than 30% over five-year averages in 2024.
But, there are still a few lone high-profile productions that remain in the city, including ABC's High Potential, Amazon's Jury Duty and HBO's Hacks.
'The whole show is a little bit like our love letter to show business and to comedy and the entertainment industry at large,' Hacks co-creator Paul W. Downs told Deadline in a recent conversation, explaining the desire to film in Hollywood even though much of the show is set in Las Vegas.
Hacks lost an iconic filming location when the Altadena home introduced in Season 2 as Deborah Vance (Jean Smart)'s 'side mansion' was engulfed in flames. It is one of several famous structures that are now gone, only adding to the bleakness surrounding the state of film and television in the city that was once the mecca of production.
Though the path back is uncertain, the glimmer of hope remains that this will one day ring true again.
'I think our superpower in the film business is our resilience and our sense of community, and that is powerful,' Linka Glatter says. 'I do think in the worst of times, hopefully people's best selves come forward.
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