Some Issues Discussed with IFTA

I mentioned before I fell off a cliff that I had a really great meeting with the President and CEO of the Independent Film and Television Alliance. It's taken me this long to write up the notes, and as I promised, I am sharing them with you.
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Fact Finding Mission

Identifying What can be Done to Keep Film Production in California

June 15, 2010



Meeting Participants:

Jean M. Prewitt - President and Chief Executive Officer - IFTA
Jim Horwitz - Advisor to LA City Councilman Bill Rosendahl
Sharon Spencer Schlesinger - Council District 11 Volunteer


Objective:

Identify specific actions that the LA City Council could take to encourage individual film productions to remain in California.


Background:

There are many groups, organizations, and individuals that have come to the obvious conclusion that California has lost it’s premier position as film capital of the world, or at a minimum had the foundation of that industry severely undermined. Horwitz who has the support of Bill Rosendahl, LA City Council from the 11th District is meeting with various industry leaders to identify what the City can do to make it easier/more feasible to film in California. Schlesinger is a small business owner who has seen the devastating economical impact of unemployment and agreed to volunteer for this fact finding mission.


Preliminary Findings from the Meeting with IFTA:

Jean Prewitt, as the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Independent Film and Television Alliance (IFTA) provided insight into the issues faced by the independent film producers and what real world solutions might make a difference.

According to Prewitt, “California is coming late to the party…” They’re drinking our milkshake to paraphrase a recent movie line. The ‘they’ meaning, many other states in the US as well as countries around the globe.

We are not marketing ourselves to the international producing community. Other states and countries are actively pitching their locations in the different international film markets. In November 2010, the American Film Market (AFM) will be held at the Loew’s in Santa Monica. Prewitt has never seen anyone marketing California. Will anyone be there? Do we have comprehensive marketing materials that show why anyone would want to film here? All of the progress that the LA City Council, Film LA, the State, the CA Film Commission and others have made needs to be quantified in collateral materials that explain why producers should film here from all around the world.

California’s true advantage is in it’s wealth of choices: many locations have one production facility, California has a myriad of facilities. That is just for starters. But if we don’t market ourselves, we will continue to lose market share.

Seventy percent of films are made by independent film makers, yet they cannot make their own deals with the unions. They are required to follow the same contracts that have been negotiated by the studios. In 2000 there was a failed attempt to negotiate a separate contract between the unions and the independent film makers. Independent film producers have been able to make use of California’s Tax Incentive Programs because the majority of their films have budgets of less than $75 million which is the cut off for application to that program.

Ms Prewitt stated that CA is “not that bad a place to film”. In fact, she suggested that we focus on the number of amazing films that have been made in California. Tourists and producers alike might find a tour of film sights exciting and thought provoking. What better marketing tool do we have than the catalogue of diverse work that has been filmed here.

It was suggested that we look at the comparisons of the different jurisdictions that each producer considers when making a decision as to location for filming. (Usually the comparison is between three different jurisdictions) It would give us some idea of the factors used to made that decision, although at the end of the day the question is, “can you make your numbers?”

Two markets we might focus on are the TV movies of the week made by Lifetime, Sci-Fi, Bravo, Oxygen. Most are made in Canada and the goal is to deliver a movie that looks like it had a budget of $1.5 million for just $750 thousand.

Some additional leaders in the industry that might help us understand the issues are:

NuImage Trevor Short, Avi Lerner, and Danny Dimbort
Cinetel Paul Hertzberg
Summit
Lakeshore
Lionsgate
Morgan Creek

Two other issues of concern discussed were piracy and media consolidation.

Conclusion:

Ms Prewitt was generous with her time and very open. She is on the Board of FilmLA and is a supporter of the effort to make California more competitive to the entertainment industry.

Respectfully submitted
Sharon Spencer Schlesinger