News
September 5, 2017
August 25th News Report from your Los Angeles Representative
Happy Friday everyone,
Los Angeles-based musicians staged a free concert last weekend to call attention to a proposed tax credit aimed at bringing scoring jobs back to LA. As detailed in Variety below, a bill recently introduced in California's Assembly would offer a 30 percent tax credit for movies shot outside North America that score in California and employ at least 35 musicians; and a similar credit for low-budget films, $5 million and under, that score in California and use at least nine musicians.
http://variety.com/2017/film/news/music-concert-scoring-tax-credit-bill-1202533714/
Hot on the heels of recent news that Disney will pull its movies from Netflix, comes a counter punch: ABC Disney hitmaker Shonda Rhimes, creator of Grey’s Anatomy and Scandal, announced last week that she will move from her home of 15 years to create content exclusively for Netflix. As detailed in Variety below, her decision is widely regarded as a blow to broadcast TV.
http://variety.com/2017/tv/news/shonda-rhimes-netflix-abc-shondaland-1202527491/
The L.A. Times took an in depth look at the implications of Rhimes' move to Netflix. It reports below, that by poaching one of television’s most successful producers, Netflix has signalled that it will doggedly pursue deals with other top-tier talent, which could drive up programming costs for major television studios and cable channels at a time when they already are witnessing a flight of viewers.
http://www.latimes.com/business/hollywood/la-fi-ct-shonda-rhimes-netflix-20170814-story.html
It appears as though the Governor of New York is about to sign off on recently passed legislation that would encourage the hiring of female and minority writers and directors by offering up to $5 million in tax credits. As reported in Deadline below, the bill is a reaction to a recent study of diversity behind the camera which found that both women and minorities were grossly underrepresented among television producers and directors.
http://deadline.com/2017/08/guilds-lawmakers-governor-cuomo-sign-ny-tax-credit-bill-women-minorities-1202153989/
Film and TV business continues to boom in Georgia and the state is ramping up programs to train the local work force. Forbes reports this week that the Georgia Film Academy, minted in 2015, had its first wave of classes up-and-running by January 2016 and, as of this June, has trained more than over 1,000 people in crafts like set construction, lighting and grip. Approximately 450 students have also received on-set internship training for productions operating all over the state.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/russespinoza/2017/08/17/to-keep-pace-with-production-georgia-is-building-a-homegrown-film-and-tv-workforce/#4c9e05912005
Finally this week, the LA Times had an interesting feature on the rise of boutique companies that have sprouted in response to the growing demand for licensing of music to films, TV shows, ads and other media. As detailed below, licensing agreements — known as “sync deals” — have become a bigger priority for independent artists and as digital platforms such as YouTube, Amazon and Netflix host an expanded range of content, the demand for new sync deals is growing.
http://www.latimes.com/business/hollywood/la-fi-ct-songtradr-music-licensing-20170822-story.html
Warmest regards,
Kelly
Kelly Graham-Scherer
Los Angeles Representative
Toronto/ Ontario Film Office