It's time to stop the outsourcing of our workers, said Melissa Gilbert, the actress and Screen Actors Guild president, at a Wednesday presentation at the National Conference of State Legislatures meeting in the Salt Palace.
While a handful of actors, directors and high-level craftspeople work on productions abroad, the vast majority are left behind, said Gilbert, who noted that the average guild member is paid less than $30,000 a year and most never see red carpets and limousines.
Gilbert reeled off several major Hollywood productions made outside the United States. The Oscar-winning Chicago was filmed in Toronto, not Chicago; the Civil War drama Cold Mountain was shot in Romania; and an upcoming remake of Gilbert's old TV series, Little House on the Prairie, is being made in Alberta.
In addition to what filmmakers are paid, Gilbert said, movie productions create a ripple effect as crews spend tens of thousands of dollars in goods and services, and provided work for local residents.
Many factors decide movie locations, from weather to a big star's whim, but mostly it's all about cost, said Lisa Rawlins, a senior vice-president at Warner Bros. The studio now has eight TV series filming outside Los Angeles - four in Canada, two in New York City, one in North Carolina and the WB series Everwood in Utah.
Everwood, though set in Colorado, came to Utah, Rawlins said, primarily because the labor costs are marginally lower here, and there is some infrastructure here - such as trained movie crews and available equipment.
Many states offer tax breaks to movie productions. Utah, as of July 1, gives a sales-tax exemption for crews that buy, lease or rent movie equipment. Utah also offers a rebate on the transient room tax for hotel stays over 30 days, a deal that frequently benefits movie crews.
The Utah Legislature this year ponied up $1 million for a pilot program to provide a 10 percent rebate to some small productions, Utah Film Commission Executive Director Leigh von der Esch said. A task force of legislators and industry representatives is discussing other incentives.
Other states do more. Louisiana, for example, offers a sizeable investor tax credit - up to 15 percent for productions whose budgets exceed $8 million.
Louisiana is the hottest [state] right now, Rawlins said. Gilbert added that she just finished an independent film in Louisiana that would not have been made without the tax break.
In a competitive market for movie production, incentives can swing the difference. Rawlins pointed to the crime drama Jonny Zero, a midseason replacement Warner Bros. is making for Fox. If the New York Legislature passes a new incentive package, the show will shoot in the Big Apple; if not, Toronto.
Though final numbers are not in yet, von der Esch said movie production in Utah declined in the last 12 months. She cited the $30 million annual income lost from the cancellation of Touched by an Angel, plus another 20 percent drop as networks scaled back on TV movies in favor of cheaper-to-make reality shows.
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