isney’s megahit “The Avengers” didn’t need only big-name actors and explosive visual effects. The production also needed desks, cabinets, tables and other mundane props.

So Independent Studio Services, a Sunland prop house that has long supplied Hollywood movies, provided the furnishings. However, it did so not in California but from its recently opened office in New Mexico, where the movie was shot.

The company, like other local vendors, is opening shops in other parts of the country, where filming has been on the rise in recent years due to generous state tax incentives. In fact, Independent Studio Services now generates close to half of its $20 million in annual revenue outside of California. It expects to buy a building soon in New Orleans, where it will store prop weapons to be used in nearby productions.

“I’m chasing the productions that are chasing the incentives,” said founder Gregg Bilson Jr., Independent Studio Services vice president. “You have to evolve, adapt and move with production or you will go out of business.”

The company is one of a growing number of L.A.-based prop houses and other film industry vendors that are expanding into other states in order to deal with a decline in local filming. The trend is threatening some of the roughly 300,000 local vendor and supplier jobs – including prop masters, florists and caterers – that support the film industry.

About 40 states and many foreign countries have introduced production tax incentives in the past decade and many have been successful in luring big-budget feature films and TV series away from Los Angeles.

California offers a 20 percent to 25 percent tax credit toward qualifying local production expenses to select projects but only up to $100 million annually. A number of states go much further, including New York, which offers more than $400 million annually.

The impact on local filming has been severe. Permitted production days for feature films dropped 35 percent from 2008 through last year, according to FilmL.A., a downtown L.A. non-profit that handles and tracks on-location film permitting in parts of Los Angeles County. Especially fleeing are big-budget movies that can make or break a vendor’s year – projects that have budgets above $75 million do not qualify for California’s rebate program but do qualify for many other states’.

Ray Claridge, president of Cinema Vehicle Services, a North Hollywood company that rents custom and factory cars to productions, lamented the decline in big studio movie shoots, which can generate $1 million of revenue for his company.

“Features are where you can make a profit,” said Claridge. “There are fewer and fewer of them.”

‘Stay relevant’

The drop in local productions comes at an already tough time for the film industry. With falling DVD sales hurting the bottom line, some studios have reined in budgets and axed projects.

For Cinema Vehicle Services, which has rented cars to movies including “Fast and Furious” and “The Hangover,” annual revenue has fallen by about one-third in the last five years to roughly $6 million. While TV production has declined about 25 percent for the company, feature film work is down about 60 percent from peak times.

The company has taken several drastic steps in response, including cutting staff and merging with another company.

But Claridge realized that his best hope to keep his business intact was to expand to the areas where filming was on the rise: New Mexico two years ago and New Orleans this year. Still, he said there’s a limit to how far he can chase the work.

“You want to stay relevant, (but) we can’t be in 40 locations,” he said, adding that he is trying to pick states where he expects incentive programs to remain in effect for many years.

Independent Studio Services is also broadening its reach. In addition to expanding its New Orleans operations, the prop company has recently opened locations in New York, Georgia, New Mexico, Michigan, Massachusetts and even London.

Bilson is also willing to work in locations where he does not have offices. For 20th Century Fox’s Civil War period piece “Lincoln,” the producers needed muskets and vintage black-powder firearms, so Bilson’s company shipped boxes of the weapons from Los Angeles to Virginia, where the movie was shot.

Still, many companies are opting to establish offices rather than simply ship props to faraway shoots. That’s because some states, such as Georgia and Louisiana, require productions to spend money with in-state vendors to qualify for the tax credit.

But chasing work out of the state can be costly and challenging. And some vendors are trying to bring back local filming.

John Zabrucky, founder of Modern Props in Culver City, specializes in making and renting custom furniture and other props for TV and movies, such as “The Artist” and “Moneyball.” He had opened an outpost in Vancouver, Canada, but recently shuttered the office because it was difficult to staff with qualified people, he said.

Now he’s campaigning for producers to shoot projects locally. He’s spoken at rallies and made thousands of T-shirts and skateboards emblazoned with pro-L.A. filming slogans. He’s also sent them to local and state lawmakers.

“Politicians (have) to wake up to the fact that we have a phenomenal industry here that has been basically disemboweled,” he said.

Self-sufficient industries

Los Angeles has long been the first choice for film shoots because of the overwhelming number of experienced movie industry workers in the area, along with the infrastructure that is already in place for producers.

But some experts believe L.A.’s longtime advantage is ebbing as other parts of the country have developed self-sufficient production industries.

“One of the big things in L.A. is you don’t have any trouble putting together a crew,” said Phillip Sokoloski, vice president of integrated communications at FilmL.A. “(But) more and more people are being trained to do the work in (other) locations.”

The entertainment industry directly and indirectly supports about 586,000 jobs in the county, accounting for $43 billion in labor income, according to a report released last week from the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp. More than half of those workers are vendors and suppliers such as prop masters and caterers.

To emphasize how big the entertainment industry still is, the report said 162,000 people work full time in the industry – about 5 percent of the county’s total private-sector employment.

With so much work at stake, politicians are feeling pressure to act. In September, Gov. Jerry Brown signed an extension of California’s tax credit to extend the program through 2016-17.

Many claim that it is not enough to compete with other states.

Competition is also coming from other countries, such as the United Kingdom, New Zealand and Canada. Some argue the federal government needs to step in with additional incentives.

But with so many offers being made to lure productions, there’s a risk for overzealous vendors who are simply chasing the best incentives, Claridge said. That’s because if the government money goes away, producers can just flock to the next best deal.

“It’s not like you’re building an auto plant,” he said. “A movie goes into an area, and then they pack up and they’re gone.”