‘It feels empty’: is Hollywood film and TV production in a death spiral?

Filming in Los Angeles is at a historic low, with some suggesting the city might go the way of Detroit

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When screenwriter David Scarpa visits the great Hollywood studios these days, he is struck by what is missing. “It used to be you’d walk around those back lots and you’d see many people and they were very busy,” Scarpa muses. “They were like small cities. Now often you’ll walk around and have nobody else there. It feels empty. You definitely feel the absence of life on those lots.”

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Like the once proud industrial factories of the midwest, the dream factories of southern California are in decline. Last year was the worst for on-location filming in Los Angeles since tracking began 30 years ago apart from pandemic-hit 2020. Of all the TV shows and feature films that North American audiences watch, only one-fifth are now made in California.

This is because Hollywood is facing intense competition for film production from domestic rivals such as Atlanta and New York, and international challengers such as Australia, Britain and Canada, all offering more aggressive financial incentives. California’s politicians stand accused of resting on their laurels too long.

Donald Trump has a plan but, critics say, it will be no more effective for Hollywood than his notorious tariffs for the rust belt. The US president’s appointment of the actors Mel Gibson, Sylvester Stallone and Jon Voight (combined age 233) as “special ambassadors” to rescue the local industry met with widespread scepticism. Instead campaigners are focused on the hard graft of legislating new tax incentives in California’s state government.

Scarpa, whose recent credits include Gladiator II and Napoleon, adds: “The state and the city are both struggling with big fiscal issues and in a way it becomes an arms race: is LA going to be able to compete with eastern Europe? We have the best people in the world here but often producers find themselves shopping for the best price. If LA wants to remain a hub of production, they’re going to have to have some form of tax incentives to compete with them.”

Hollywood has been synonymous with film for more than a century. Southern California’s sunny weather allowed year-round outdoor filming while land and labour were cheaper than in eastern cities. Film-makers such as Cecil B DeMille and companies such as Paramount and Universal set up studios that ensured a creative ecosystem of actors, directors, musicians, writers and technicians. Hollywood burnished its self-mythology through films such as Sunset Boulevard, Singin’ in the Rain, The Player, Mulholland Drive and La La Land.

Click here to read the full article in the Guardian