I was sent this aticle from The Sacramento Bee by a friend that knows that I am; #1 a proponent of not moving out of California; #2 fighting to keep film work here; and #3  alerting the politicians that we need to level the playing field and not lose this legacy/homegrown industry as the filmmaking capital of the world.

The article is by Dan Morain (pronounced MO as in Moe , Larry and Curly and not More as in Moron).

Here is Dan’s email address dmorain@sacbee.com so that you can respond to his silly article (‘Really Dan, Walter The Farting Dog?, Come on, you can do better than that.)

I encourage you all to read Dan’s article and then email  Dan to tell him what its like to watch the playing field tilt in another direction and having people like him (who would benefit from film work staying in California) complain against the  California Film and Tax Incentives.

It is of my opinion that California’s legislators passed what is probably the best tax incentive of all the 40 some odd other states tax breaks, plus California has the infrastructure for filmmaking like no other place on the planet.

Now, that being said, most producers would not agree with you because California’s Fim and Tax Credit is 20% and covers “below the line” costs only. (Most of the other states rebate the entire production spend with caps on the actors salaries.)

I say “most producers”, some producers realize the hidden costs of leaving California to save money and in most cases the rebate is not what is “advertised” by these other states.

There are many  hidden costs that come up due to the following:

1. Inadequate staffing: lots of times many departments (camera,grip,electric,AD’s,hair,makeup,e.t.c) are flown in to these tax break locations and the production then has to pay to house and feed these crew members that are brought in from California or somewhere else.

2. Sound stages; Sound stages in most other tax break states are converted warehouse’s that are far from sound proof and do not have the rigging capabilities that a proper “Hollywood” soundstage has.

3. Crew (see #1) and equipment resources. Most other states do not have the crew (as stated in #1) and equipment resources that California has. In Los Angeles you could have an Elephant delivered to your set much faster than you could in any of the other tax break states. Shipping an elephant to Michigan is probably pretty costly.

Many of these writers (like Dan) are now talking about how the incentives are not working in Michigan and New Mexico and Massachusetts.

Of course they are not working, they were doomed from the start!

You cannot compare any other state or country that is giving away tax credits or cash rebates to California.

California has the 9th largest economy in the world.

Michigan does not have the diversity that California does, so therefore , somehow they come up with a huge incentive package that is now not working in terms of the dollars that it is putting back into the economy.

It took many years to get the incentives in California passed because the legislators in Northern California feel like they are giving Steven Spielberg a break and not the average ordinary guy or gal working on a movie.

Politicians from Southern California had to fight to get these passed a few years ago.

Here are some stats from The California Film Commission on how the incentives are working:

The California Film & TV Tax Credit Program specifically targets the types of productions most likely to leave the state due to incentives offered elsewhere.

70 projects approved for tax credits in the first year of the program will hire 18,200 crew members, 4,000 cast members, and over 100,000 background or “extra” players.

In the first two years of the California  Film & TV Tax Credit Program, productions are estimated to bring $2 billion in direct spending to California communities, which includes $740 million in wages paid to “below-the-line” crew members (electricians, grips, drivers, costumers, etc) – generating much needed tax revenues for California.

And……. for those of you that are not aware of the report by Kevin Klowden of the Milken Institue, here is a link to a report called

Film Flight: Lost Production and Its Economic Impact on California

by Kevin Klowden, Anusuya Chatterjee, and Candice Flor Hynek

Please pass this blog on to others, even if they are not in the movie industry.

The movie and tv industry has a trickle down economy that spreads to the masses.

If you think we cannot become the next Detroit, think again.

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