The film industry has been diversifying away from Los Angeles for many years. There’s a huge legacy infrastructure in LA, but more and more production hubs are popping up elsewhere. Interviews are done on zoom calls, actors submit self-taped audition clips, and there is less and less functional reason to be in LA at all. And now the legacy studios have largely been bought up by the streamers, and there’s no reason Comcast, AT&T, Apple, Amazon, etc. need to be invested in the disaster that California has become.
My favorite covid story was a Canadian actor, a young guy, who was reached via smartphone and invited to audition — and he was on a hunting trip somewhere in deep in the boonies. He somehow rigged up a semi-suitable space to self-tape an audition, but he had a Chinese fire drill situation to reach somewhere with enough connectivity to submit it. None of the actors or the directors had met in person until they assembled for the shoot.
Since going digital for video, audio, and Computer Generated Imagery (CGI) add-ins, the costs have dropped dramatically, allowing companies to operate out of other locations.
The Arri Alexa camera, launched in 2010, was the final nail in analog film for television and movie production, and Hollywood along with it.