On-location feature film production in the area has fallen to its lowest levels on record. Student films generated as much activity on the streets of Los Angeles in the first quarter of 2009, when only a few movies, including "Fame" and "Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel," were shot there.
California's share of U.S. feature film production dropped to 31% in 2008 from 66% in 2003, according to the California Film Commission. That largely reflects a falloff in the Los Angeles area, where feature filming activity in 2008 was nearly half what it was at its peak in 1996.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Thursday, July 16, 2009 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 4 National Desk 1 inches; 54 words Type of Material: Correction
Hollywood production drop: An article in Sunday's Section A about the struggles facing small businesses that serve the film and TV industries said that James Cella, president of Culver Studios, previously ran Steiner Studios in New York. Cella served as a senior consultant for Steiner and lobbied for tax credits that helped launch it.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Sunday, July 19, 2009 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 4 National Desk 1 inches; 56 words Type of Material: Correction
Hollywood production drop: An article in the July 12 Section A about the struggles facing small businesses that serve the film and TV industries said that James Cella, president of Culver Studios, previously ran Steiner Studios in New York. Cella served as a senior consultant for Steiner and lobbied for tax credits that helped launch it.
Television production, which recently has been a more reliable source of jobs in the region, is also declining. A recent survey from FilmL.A. Inc. found that 44 of 103 TV pilots this year were shot in such disparate locations as Canada, Illinois, Georgia, New York, Louisiana and New Mexico.
More than 30 states have sought to outbid one another with tax credits and rebates aimed at luring productions away from California. Sacramento has responded with its first-ever film-tax credit program, but most analysts think the credits are too small and restrictive to have much effect.
"L.A. is at risk of losing a good part of one of its signature industries, just like it did with the aerospace industry in the early 1990s," said Jack Kyser, chief economist for Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp.
Few know that better than Cella, of Culver Studios. He previously ran Steiner Studios in Brooklyn, N.Y., and was tapped to run Culver in 2006 after a group of investors including Lehman Bros. acquired the 14 soundstages from Sony Pictures Entertainment for $125 million.
But the studio's business took a big hit recently when NBC Universal and Endemol USA opted to move "Deal or No Deal" to Connecticut.
The show brought in more than $1 million in rental income to Culver Studios, Cella said, adding that there was little he could do to keep the producers from leaving.
"I could give them this space for free and it still wouldn't compete with Connecticut," he said.
The studio, which still hosts "The Bonnie Hunt Show" and others, has seen its occupancy rate slide to 46% from 85% in the last year.
Most of "Deal or No Deal's" 250 crew members lost their jobs in the move.
"It's a crying shame," said Lindsay Hovel, an associate producer on the prime-time version of the game show hosted by comedian Howie Mandel. "There are so many talented people, and they're just not able to work in the [entertainment] capital."
