News
November 21, 2014
Weekly Update from Film Ontario, November 21, 2014
Weekly Update from Kelly Graham-Scherer, Los Angeles Representative
Believe it or not the holiday season is in full swing in Los Angeles and everyone is making preparations for the Thanksgiving holidays next Thursday and Friday. Like many others across the U.S., I'll be off for the week spending time with family.
A story this week about the continued popularity of New Orleans as a production destination is a good reminder of the competition that Ontario continues to face from maturing jurisdictions around the globe. As detailed by ABC News below, productions shooting there receive a 30% tax credit, plus an extra 5% on local crews and vendors.
http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/hollywood-south-orleans-movie-making-capital/story?id=27036988
Deadline this week featured a prominent story about Americans who seek status in Canada in order to facilitate work on production that has migrated north of the border. The story below asserts "American filmmakers opting for Canadian citizenship see it as a way to recoup some of the tens of thousands of jobs lost to...unfair trade advantage".
http://deadline.com/2014/11/canada-dual-citizenship-directors-runaway-production-1201282668/
The Los Angeles Times published a really interesting and informative feature this week about Dana Walden and Gary Newman, who for the past 20 years have job shared the top position at Fox Television and were this summer named Chairman and Chief Executive at Fox Television Group. The story below contains a lot of details about the inner workings of Fox and how studios and networks operate across Hollywood.
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/envelope/cotown/la-et-ct-fox-duo-20141116-story.html#page=1
Streaming continues to become mainstream: the Times this week reports that ratings giant Nielsen has devised a way to get a grip, albeit a restricted one, on measuring viewership for streaming shows online — providing a glimpse into the performance of shows on Netflix and Amazon.
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/envelope/cotown/la-et-ct-netflix-nielsen-measuring-viewership-20141119-story.html
Dreamworks Animation CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg has been in the news a lot lately openly entertaining takeover offers from companies like Fox and Hasbro. As reported in the Times below, many in the industry are now questioning his strategy as Hasbro talks collapse and the succession of failed deals has undermined the company's stock prices.
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/envelope/cotown/la-et-ct-dreamworks-ceo-katzenberg-future-20141120-story.html#page=1