Everyone is missing the point about L.A. permit costs, and, as usual, that includes the bubbled dolts in the entertainment media.
The far-left Wrap dropped a story today about the absurd costs to shoot a movie or TV show in Los Angeles. And all of those costs come from the obnoxious and unnecessary requirements required by government permitting and their associated fees.
The Wrap story opens in 2019 with the story of an independent movie producer forced to pay $1,500 a day to have a fire marshal inspect his shooting location in Griffith Park.
“He shows up, looks around, says ‘great,’ and then spends the rest of the shoot sitting in the car doing crossword puzzles,” the producer explained. “As a resident, I understand the need for fire protection and to preserve our parks, especially now. But there’s got to be a better way to do this. I’m paying almost $1,500 a day for a guy to sit in his car for most of the time.”
In addition to that $1,500 per day for the fire marshal, there was “the $685 permit application fee he paid to FilmLA — that fee is $931 today — [he] also had to pay fees like $2,964 for a required monitor from the Department of Parks and Recreation, a $456 ‘reporting fee’ for that monitor, and a $1,350 film use fee.”
“That’s $10,119 that has nothing to do with our film, a film that had no major lighting and no major stunts. We were running on a putt-putt generator,” the producer said.
That’s outrageous, right?
With digital equipment and a non-union cast and crew, you should be able to shoot an entire feature movie for $10,119, but that’s not possible because the state and city gouge you at every turn.
The results of this government greed are not debatable. In just three years, shoot days in Los Angeles have dropped from 9,220 days per quarter to just 4,380. Even with the additional travel costs, producers have discovered it’s cheaper to shoot elsewhere.
Here’s how absurd and oppressive Democrat-run Los Angeles is:
“We had a spot that was going up on TikTok, and we shot it in a small bathroom in a private residence in Sherman Oaks,” Engel recounted. “But because the house was in a neighborhood where the road was on a small incline, we had to be assigned two police officers who were $1,500 a day even though we were shooting indoors, plus a site rep. We just had 10 people on that film crew but now my personnel is up by 30%.”
So far, I’m with the The Wrap. This is outrageous. Something needs to be done about it.
Let’s start with calling this what it is: a government shakedown. That’s a nice movie you got there, says the government. Be a shame if you couldn’t make it.
But why is the answer always, always, always… tax credits that make the rich richer?
For smaller productions — very small productions “with a maximum of 10 cast and crew members” (basically a student movie) — there is talk of decreasing fees and creating a more reasonable permit process. And that number might even be raised to as many as 40 on the cast and crew. Okay, great, but get a load of this…
The big productions will still face those ridiculous rules and fees and — oh, wait, no they won’t… The taxpayers will foot that bill.
For a major studio production shooting in Los Angeles like Peacock’s “Bel-Air” or Amazon’s “Fallout,” such permitting costs could be absorbed, especially with the expanded production tax credit program approved by California legislators this past July.
…
These indie productions don’t bring a vast number of jobs when compared to major studio projects like HBO’s “The Pitt,” which are the primary beneficiaries of those tax incentives.
Do you see what’s happening here? The government shakedown continues, but if you’re a big studio like Universal (Peacock) or Warner Bros. (HBO), the taxpayers will cover the cost through these tax credits for the super-rich.
Are you kidding me?
On what planet is this acceptable?
Smaller productions will still pay for permits, maybe at a lower rate, but they will still pay…
Meanwhile, the multinational entertainment corporations will enjoy a heaping-helping of corporate welfare.
Allow me to apologize in advance for my right-wing extremist ideas, but how about ending the government-run shakedown? How about lowering the fees to cost? How about eliminating nonsense permits?
But they won’t do it, and the entertainment media will never pressure them to do it. It’s always tax credits, tax credits, tax credits for the wealthy… Well, those tax dollars must be made up somewhere, and that burden falls on the taxpayer, primarily the middle class who make up the majority of any tax base.
This is not difficult…
Yes, permits should be required to shoot on-location, but that permit should be $25 and put in place for only one reason: so the authorities know who is shooting where. That way if there is damage, the correct people get fined. If you don’t have a permit, you should be fined. If you disrupt traffic, you should be fined. Fines and insurance requirements are the answer to ensure productions don’t disrupt or damage the location.
These upfront fees are total shakedowns.
No one should be force to pay them, especially middle class taxpayers on behalf of multinational corporations.
You cut taxes for anyone, and the left screams bloody murder about how immoral it is. But the very same left loves granting tax cuts to Hollywood.
John Nolte’s first and last novel, Borrowed Time, is winning five-star raves from everyday readers. You can read an excerpt here and an in-depth review here. Also available in hardcover and on Kindle and Audiobook.
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