News
December 6, 2017
December 1st News Report from your Los Angeles Representative
Happy Friday everyone,
A new US federal tax plan which is expected to pass in a vote later today, is also expected to deliver big gains for the studios and to encourage more production to stay state side. As detailed in the Hollywood Reporter below, the bill reintroduces Section 181 of the current tax code, allowing deductions for the first $15 million of a production if filmed primarily stateside. When in effect, it saved studios an estimated $400 million annually, and the new bill could return that — and more — since it reintroduces the deductions without the $15 million cap.
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/how-gops-proposed-tax-plan-could-actually-help-hollywood-1062306
Last Wednesday, just as Americans were preparing to start their Thanksgiving holidays, came word that a planned federal rollback of net neutrality rules could profoundly impact the way consumers access content on-line. As detailed in the LA Times below, the current rules which are to be lifted this month, ensure that broadband providers such as phone and cable companies can't give preferential treatment to anyone — their own streaming-video service, say, over Netflix or Amazon Prime Video.
http://beta.latimes.com/business/lazarus/la-fi-lazarus-fcc-net-neutrality-20171124-story.html
The New York Times published a much-referenced editorial piece this week, warning that lifting net neutrality rules will be the final nail in the coffin of on-line entrepreneurship. It posits below that "when the rules go, the internet will still work, but it will look like and feel like something else altogether — a network in which business development deals, rather than innovation, determine what you experience".
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/29/technology/internet-dying-repeal-net-neutrality.html
On the local LA scene, a new report from film permitting and advocacy group FilmLA indicates that television production is booming. As reported in Deadline below, FilmLA partnered with Disney, Paramount, Warner Bros, Fox, Sony, Universal and six other facilities, to produce an inaugural Sound Stage Production Report which claims that there was a 96% average occupancy rate in the region last year.
http://deadline.com/2017/11/tv-production-los-angeles-sound-stages-filmla-report-disney-sony-fox-1202217411/
As new stories of sexual misconduct in the film and television industry continue to make headlines, prominent figures are continuing to lose their their jobs, but they aren't the only ones. An LA Times story this morning pointed out that hundreds of executives, producers and below-the-line crew members have also lost their jobs in the fallout.
http://beta.latimes.com/business/hollywood/la-fi-ct-hollywood-sex-scandal-fallout-20171201-story.html
Steps in Canada being taken to address sexual misconduct made headlines in Hollywood this week. Below the Hollywood Reporter details a recent meeting in Toronto of industry unions, guilds and associations, during which they pledged to "collaborate on an industry-wide response to sexual harassment, discrimination, bullying and violence."
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/canadian-industry-establish-code-conduct-hollywood-sexual-harassment-scandal-1061299
Warmest regards,
Kelly
Kelly Graham-Scherer
Los Angeles Representative
Toronto/ Ontario Film Office