State Losing Movie Visual Effects Industry Along with Filmmakers

California's visual effects industry is in a state of collapse and the film industry is suffering, with only a small number of live-action blockbusters being produced locally, according to a report released today by FilmL.A.

The study examined the top-grossing movies of the past 15 years, including 108 live-action and animated movies released in 2013. It focused on the six major studios in Southern California -- Disney, Warner Bros., NBCUniversal, Paramount, Sony and 20th Century Fox. It also looked at movies from well-known "independent" studios Dreamworks, Lionsgate, Weinstein Co., Film District and Relativity.

California's share of the top 25 live-action films was down significantly from 64 percent 15 years ago to just 8 percent in 2013, according to FilmL.A.

When animated films are added to the mix, California's share of the top 25 movies showed a decline from 68 percent in 1997 to 24 percent in 2013, the report found.

Meanwhile, the state's visual effects industry also suffered major losses over the past 15 years, according to the report.

California was once home to a majority of visual effects companies, but in 2013, Industrial Light & Magic, which employs 1,000 effects artists, was the only major visual effects house left in the state, according to the report. And that company just opened a visual effects studio in London that is employing 200 artists to work on the upcoming "Star Wars" films.

The report noted that 44 of the 50 top-grossing movies of all-time relied on visual effects, the report noted.

The report comes as California lawmakers are pushing for an overhaul of the state's incentives program. The legislation, introduced by Assembly members Mike Gatto and Raul Bocanegra, would expand the incentives program to include television pilots, commercials, premium cable shows and productions with budgets of more than $75 million.

Advocates of the plan say it would make California more competitive with programs in states like New York, which has a $425 million incentives pot.

The authors of the FilmL.A. report argue in favor of expanding film incentives, asserting that such incentives are a major driver of where blockbuster films are made.

"Without exception, every competing production center that hosted primary production on one or more films offered significant, uncapped, film incentives programs," FilmL.A. researchers said.

"This report provides evidence to demonstrate that the availability of film incentives heavily influences feature producers' choice of filming location," according to the report. "It further argues that the proliferation of out-of-state film incentive programs has eroded California's one time dominance of the feature film production industry."

Louisiana was the most popular state for blockbuster movie shoots, with 18 movies shot there in 2013. Canada and California both had 15 movies, and the United Kingdom was the location of 12 movies. Nine films were shot in Georgia.

The United States in 2013 was the setting for 70 of those films, while Canada served as the backdrop for 15.

Animated films made up 10 of the 2013 movies reviewed in the report. Six were made in the United States. California hosted production for four those animated films, with the other two made in Texas and Connecticut. Internationally, two animated movies were made in British Columbia, one in India and one in France.

The report's release coincided with news that Hollywood film processing company Deluxe Laboratories will be closing in May, following on the heels of the closure of Technicolor's Glendale film lab.

But even as film loses its hold on the entertainment industry, crews started work February on the future Los Angeles headquarters of large-screen digital entertainment provider IMAX Corp.

IMAX plans to expand its West Coast operations at the Playa Vista facility, which is near the offices of YouTube, Facebook, Electronic Arts and Sony. The new home base will also be near the Hercules Studio film stage where the movies "Avatar" and "Iron Man 3" were made.

"Playa Vista is an area that shares our spirit of innovation," IMAX Senior Executive Vice President Greg Foster said. "We are excited to be a part of this emerging high-tech hot spot and dynamic business community."

--City News Service