It still feels surreal in Los Angeles. A GoFundMe for a crew member’s medical costs flashes across feeds as silent soundstages, shuttered prop houses and closed costume shops dot the landscape. Those who once created worlds now struggle to earn a living as the hope surrounding California’s modernized Film & TV Tax Credits crossfades to quiet concern.
This is what the production slowdown looks like in close-up. Not even the best hair and makeup artist can cover it up. It’s not just fewer filming days or fewer permit applications; it’s the unraveling of an ecosystem that supports hundreds of thousands of jobs. When filming stops, everyone feels it, from grips to restaurants to countless small businesses across our region.
I’ve worked in production enough to see this isn’t a rough patch; it’s a systemic failure. Despite new state tax credits, local procedures are often cost-prohibitive and lagging. This pushes commercials, a key source of jobs and revenue that were unfortunately left out of the state program, to other regions. High fees and bureaucracy hinder low- and mid-budget films, and cause daytime dramas, vertical series and game shows to lens elsewhere. Each lost production means lost wages, earnings and tax revenue. Local reforms can address these gaps and promote growth.
For most of us, this isn’t glamorous or high-paying work; it’s a middle-class profession with a century of proof that creativity can indeed be sustainable.
This isn’t about celebrity; it’s about survival. It’s about the family that depends on union health care, which lapses when minimum hours aren’t met. It’s the post-production teams, musicians and office workers whose livelihoods are disappearing off-screen. It’s someone who can’t pay his or her mortgage or rent. It’s the teacher, nurse or veterinarian forced to move when half the family’s income is gone. It’s a once-vibrant community watching its identity and economy slowly fade to black.
It’s time to implement changes
Los Angeles certainly has the talent, expertise and infrastructure to rebound. What we lack is the coordination and leadership willing to modernize how this town supports production in a fast-changing industry.
Fixing this isn’t complicated. It just requires focus and political will. We’re not just losing out to other states and countries. Sacramento offers tax rebates of up to $250,000, and San Francisco provides refunds of up to $600,000 through its Scene In San Francisco program.
Closer to home, here in “Zone 1,” Santa Clarita has earned a reputation as one of the most film-friendly places in the U.S for being predictable, coordinated and affordable. Productions know what to expect and when. Santa Monica recently launched its film office and Burbank is actively planning to launch its own film commission. Cities such as Simi Valley, Long Beach and Pasadena are far more film-friendly than the City Of L.A. And being film-friendly is being business-friendly.
Culver City approved new measures, including predictable timelines, coordinated approvals and clear cost structures, to attract and retain production by instituting its reforms in November. In doing so, it acknowledged the importance of ensuring that all projects can shoot here, not just large ones. Los Angeles can do the same by modernizing a system that still feels designed for another century.
That means lower location costs, less bureaucracy, transparency, a single point of accountability, tiered permitting, reduced fees and better customer service. It means enforcing rules against gouging practices like “donation fees” and “nuisance charges.” Making filming easier boosts one of the country’s strongest economic engines, with our region’s talent base serving as a key asset.
In April – nine months ago – the L.A. City Council unanimously passed a motion to cut red tape and reduce filming costs. There was no concrete action in 2025. Simple reforms continue to face delays and deflection. Nine months is a long time for people to lose their homes, health care, purpose and sometimes their lives.
In December, the L.A. City Council introduced a package of nine motions to modernize how the city supports film and television production by reducing red tape and lowering costs. The momentum is welcome, and the intent is clear. What comes next is execution. These reforms must move quickly, pass in full, and be implemented without delay. In an industry where decisions are made rapidly, delays in implementing reforms that would make L.A. competitive effectively become lost opportunities, jobs and tax revenue.
It’s time for the local leaders to fulfill their promises. They auditioned and got the roles: now they must hit their marks. Because when the cameras roll here, Southern California thrives not just on screen, but in every home and neighborhood that depends on a working set.
No one unites and supports one another like Angelenos. Only swift cooperation and real action will give us what everyone wants: a Hollywood ending.
James Babbin is a film and audio producer, actor and a member of Stay In LA, an all-volunteer grassroots coalition of industry professionals working to bring production back home to Los Angeles and California.
