Make Your Voice Heard to Boost California Production

Dear Member,

The SAG-AFTRA Los Angeles Local is a staunch supporter of the film and television production incentives offered to producers in California. We work closely with our labor and industry partners on the California Film and Television Production Alliance to encourage a competitive incentives package that would put our state and city on an even playing field with other areas of the country.

Now, I ask that you also take action to save California entertainment industry jobs. This is a critical time, and your quick action to support pending incentives legislation helps us push forward on this important effort.

Let me share some facts about the vast decline in motion picture and television production work in our state:

• Of the 54 big budget feature films of 2012 and 2013, only one was shot exclusively in California. This equates to a loss of 47,500 jobs and $410 million in tax revenues.

• From 2005 to 2013, California’s share of the one-hour TV series market declined from 64 percent to 28 percent, resulting in the loss of an estimated 8,500 jobs.

• Feature film production in Los Angeles has plummeted 50 percent since 1996, while television drama production is down 39 percent from 2008.

We are a national union and support incentives across the country, including here in California where we have suffered a huge loss of production work. Our policymakers must make our state more competitive or the film industry in California will face the same fate as have other industries, including aerospace. That resulted in hundreds of thousands of jobs permanently leaving California for other states.

So what can we do? It’s easy. Simply do your part to protect the hundreds of thousands of working actors and their families that depend on a healthy California film and television industry.

Please actively support AB 1839.

Visit the Film Works California website and:

• Write letters to your state legislators; Click here to find out more and download a letter template.
• Sign the petition on the filmworksca.com website; and
• Ask your partners, staff, peers, friends and family to do the same.

For even more information, visit the California Legislative Information website and read and follow the bill.

Please take action now so that your voice can be heard by the Legislature at the next hearing on June 25.

In solidarity and encouraging your activism,

Clyde Kusatsu
National Vice President, Los Angeles & Los Angeles Local President

Sources: FilmLA, California Film Commission, MPAA

This item was originally featured in the June 2014 local newsletter.