Wednesday is Numbers Day

Last week overall production days for TV, film and commercial shoots was down over 14% from last year. However, love that word however, because it spells hope. However means, forget about what I just told you because there's something more going on that sounds better.

This sounds better. FilmLA released a report on Tuesday that shows "across the board gains for on-location filming of movies, commercials and TV shows in the three months that ended June 30." Remember, a production day is one crew's permission to film at a single location over a 24 hour period. In the second quarter of 2009, production days numbered 9,597; compare that to 1,134 production days in the same quarter for 2010. That's a good, fat, juicy however.

One driving factor in the increase has been the tax credit program enacted by the State of California last year. So far 16 productions have taken advantage of the tax credit. Would they have filmed here anyway? Who knows. What we have to keep in mind is that California must continue to come up with innovative ways to make this State competitive. If you are in a position to ask Meg Whitman or Jerry Brown or any of your elected officials what their position is on tax incentives for the film industry, we can help position this issue up front where it needs to be. Ms Whitman put out a comprehensive marketing piece that focuses on her position on jobs and tax incentives for everybody else, but no mention of the film industry. And as for Jerry, he hasn't even begun to campaign, so who knows where he stands.

Let's be pesky.

Sharon