News
April 25, 2014
April 25th News Report from your Los Angeles Representative
TORONTO ONTARIO film office - A partnership of the Ontario Media Development Corporation, City of Toronto and FilmOntario.
WEEKLY UPDATE April 25, 2014
from Kelly Graham-Scherer, Los Angeles Representative - torontoontariofilm@gmail.com
Happy Friday everyone,
Over the last several months I've been following the movement to increase and extend the California tax incentive and this week brought another boost to its advocates. For reasons detailed below the editorial board at the Los Angeles Times has come out in favor of the expansion bill currently making its way through the legislature.
http://www.latimes.com/opinion/editorials/la-ed-film-tax-credits-20140421,0,6564036.story
The Baltimore Sun this week also published an editorial piece in favor of expanding tax credits in Maryland. The columnist writing below is just one person who fears that popular Netflix show House of Cards will shoot its upcoming third season elsewhere as a result of a failed negotiation between the state's House and Senate which left the show in limbo when $3.5 million in tax incentives were left out of a final bill subsidizing the film industry.
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/oped/bs-ed-house-of-cards-20140417,0,5609684.story
The venerable New York Times took an in-depth look at the movement to expand California's film and television tax incentives this week, noting that the proposed bill has faced criticism from the California School Employees Association and the California Teachers Association. One only needs to read through the comments posted to the web version of the story linked below to get an idea of the type of opposition it faces.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/18/business/media/hollywood-begs-for-a-tax-break-in-some-states-including-california.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&_r=0
New York City's new mayor Bill de Blasio has hired a film commissioner and in doing so, put to rest fears that he might not be as supportive of the industry as his predecessor Michael Bloomberg, under whose leadership the city - and the state - became a production powerhouse. As reported in the L.A. Times below, de Blasio's new hire, Cynthia Lopez, has spent her entire career working in the television and film industries in New York.
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/envelope/cotown/la-et-ct-new-york-film-commissioner-20140418,0,1071142.story#axzz2zoqphgPp
And finally this week, an L.A. Times story about a new deal brewed between FX network and MillerCoors got me thinking about the increasing importance of product placement is a world where TV production costs are rising but fewer people actually watch commercials. Under the terms of the deal reported below, FX Networks will still be able to sell commercial time to other beer makers, however, MillerCoors will have exclusivity on any product-placement in FX Networks' programs and a first-look deal for future shows.
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/envelope/cotown/la-et-ct-fx-coors-20140423,0,7839043.story#axzz2zoqphgPp