The largest actors union in Hollywood officially called a strike early Friday morning against several prominent video game companies after the two sides failed to reach an agreement on an increase in compensation for performers who do voice-over and motion-capture work for popular games.
The L.A. City Council voted unanimously to approve Paramount’s master plan, paving the way for the studio to add about 1.4 million square feet of space to its iconic headquarters on Melrose Avenue. The expansion was first announced in 2011 and is expected to cost the studio $700 million.
The studies, published by The American Review of Public Administration and American Politics Research, examine why states adopted or terminated film tax incentive programs and measures the effects of film tax credits in 40 states on employment and wages from 1998 to 2013. The authors found that sales tax waivers had no measurable effects; transferable tax credits had a small, sustained effect on employment but no effect on wages; and the most generous form of tax credit, refundable credits, had no employment effect and a temporary wage effect. Spending more on incentives had no lasting impact.
California has benefited more than any other state from the software explosion, the Software Alliance report said. The industry and its attendant fields contributed more than a quarter of total business research and development investment in California, the group estimated.
For the second year in a row, California is the top state in the nation for film production. But the share of movies being shot in the Golden State fell from 21 percent in 2014 to 17 percent last year, a new study found.
Location filming in Los Angeles County jumped 11 percent in the first quarter of this year over last, thanks in part to a lineup of television shows including “Veep,” “Animal Kingdom,” “Rosewood” and “Twin Peaks,” an industry tracker said Tuesday.
This study deconstructs software in San Diego beyond the region’s software publishers and IT firms, and displays how the technology is changing the landscape of all types of innovation in San Diego.
Essentially we may be witnessing two parallel, and notionally conflicting developments, notes analyst Mark Schill of the Praxis Strategy Group. There are clearly a series of regions, as identified by the report, that have achieved critical mass in software and across many other tech fields. Yet at the same time, the most rapid growth is taking place largely in non-traditional tech hubs, including places like Salt Lake City, San Antonio, and Phoenix, all seeing rapid growth in tech jobs as well as a growing concentration.
The economy and job market in Silicon Valley chalked up an “astounding” year in 2015, but the region’s boom cooled in the final three months as the stock markets weakened, according to a new Silicon Valley Index report released Wednesday. . . However, this year’s report arrived with some hazards in tow. The 2016 Silicon Valley Index warned of a shrinking middle class, fewer jobs available at mid-level wages, rising housing costs and worsening transportation. These problems, the study warned, could imperil the boom.
The expanded incentives lured four TV shows— including FX’s “American Horror Story” and HBO’s “Veep” — from other states to California and will provide funding to seven new TV projects this year.
California’s decision last year to offer more generous tax incentives for film and TV production is being credited for a sharp uptick in location shoots across Los Angeles.
In its first months, California’s expanded film and TV production tax credit has prompted producers of four out-of-state TV shows to decamp for the Golden State, according to the state’s film office.
In a propitious sign for Los Angeles’ production sector, one of Hollywood’s largest prop houses is reopening six years after it shut down.
The job reductions follow the closing of the sale last Thursday of the Union-Tribune to the parent company of the Los Angeles Times. The acquisition by the Tribune Publishing Co. will allow for the consolidation of the two newspapers’ printing operations, which will move from Mission Valley to Los Angeles, where the Times is printed daily, along with national publications delivered to San Diego County subscribers.
KCBS-TV reports (http://cbsloc.al/1cU4CSN) hundreds of workers at the publication’s Southern California office were laid off on Friday after they met their weekly deadline.