Posted on 06/06/2014 7:56:02 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
When Hollywood leaves Hollywood, you know things are bad.
Sony Pictures Imageworks is moving its headquarters from Culver City to Canada.
The visual-effects unit, which employs about 270 people, said it was moving a bulk of its operations to Vancouver, where it already has a satellite studio, the Los Angeles Times reported.
A small staff will remain in Los Angeles. The move will cut costs due to Canadian tax breaks, the Times said.
For the moment this is just the visual effects unit, but considering how much filming is done abroad, it’s not a good sign.
Movies are going where the tax credits are. Canada is already tied with California.
California produced 68 percent of the top 25 movies at the worldwide box office in 1997. In 2013, it was down to eight percent. Of the 26 live-action films with production budgets over $100 million, just two — “The Hangover Part III” and “Star Trek: Into Darkness” — were filmed primarily in California.
Los Angeles however won’t be getting the sequel as LA proved too expensive for Darkness’ budget.
If California loses the film industry and pushes out non-Green energy companies, it’s going to be left with the tech industry and a giant welfare state that the tech industry will flee.
Hollywood Studios are Leaving California.
I like the sound of that but pity the people where they land.
It’s not a lecture. It wasn’t intended as one. But it is true.
Everyone hates California, and would love for it be true that the film and TV business is fleeing, but it isn’t.
Sony Studios is the old MGM. They have 16 stages. They’re booked constantly. They moved a few hundred people whose jobs are done on computers? They still employ thousands in Culver City.
It also indicates that maybe Sony felt it could sub out effects work rather than run their own shop. Shipping it off to Canada is a way to lay off a bunch of people who aren’t willing to move without the PR headache of firing a bunch of industry pros who make a lot of money.
Every single major motion picture company, broadcast network, and major cable network is located within 25 miles of each other in Los Angeles.
Try booking stage space in LA. It’s impossible.
Keep hoping for the collapse of California, haters. I don’t understand all the hand rubbing and glee directed at the greatest state in the union, but whatever. It’s a gorgeous day here today. Still got ice, Michigan? You’ve also got a movie studio sitting empty your taxpayers built.
Psych
How does a movie cost $100 or $200 or $250 million?
You think they were still using film with silver in it.
Typical liberals: Foul your nest and leave. It’s what they did when they left the Least Coast for California in the first place since in the ‘30s.
There are lots of reasons. One is that movie and television production is a high wage industry, even on a non-union production.
Another is that while technology advances have made the product better — you can get a camera at Best Buy good enough to shoot a TV show — you still need two skilled operators to use it. The cost of that labor and the basic size of a crew never goes down.
Also studios have enormous overhead. The costs to run them are spread out over every single movie and TV show the studio produces. That comes right out of the budget for a given film.
Marketing a film isn’t visible in the final product, but it’s incredibly expensive, and comes out of the film’s budget.
Comic book films are expensive because they rely heavily on computer effects. Effects are cheaper to do on a computer than they used to be... But they take a long time, paying high wages to skilled operators. You can shoot a film in a few months; you can be in post production making guys fly for a year or two.
There are lots of reasons for films costing a hundred million dollars, but those are some of the big ones.
I thought it was the cost of the cocaine and hookers that drove up the cost..... :)
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