No Film School: Over the last few year, Hollywood has been dealing with the impact of the coronavirus. In Los Angeles, people moved away. And that moving has not slowed down. We had two strikes in 2023 that shut down work while the AMPTP did nothing to resolve the conflicts.
9 comments:
I’m glad that people are moving away from Los Angeles and that you no longer need to live there to work in film and television. Just as the article points out, LA is a dying city. It’s full of trash, the homeless population is not being handled well, and it’s become a landfill version of itself from its hey day. I think one good thing that came from Covid is that people learned that a lot of meetings and communication can be done virtually. It’s more affordable to not make people have to gather in person for meetings that probably could just be even an email and helps reduce the industry carbon footprint. California is expensive and definitely seeing more filming being done in Georgia has been reflected in many films I see that end with a peach Georgia logo. The dream that Hollywood is where you start has thankfully died out and maybe if Hollywood can become less of a cesspool of abuse and scandal then maybe it came make a comeback.
When I think of film and television I have always thought of Hollywood. I’m not surprised that with COVID and the two past strikes that the industry is facing a large adjustment and change and will continue to face these changes for the coming years. However, even though multiple high profile people in the industry are leaving LA and how filming works is becoming flexible, I still think LA will be the hub for the industry. It’s filled with such history that I think even as the industry continues to evolve and change, the center of it will still stay true to LA. However, if the prices of filming in LA continue to go up, as they have been, LA may only stay as the center of the industry for historical reasons rather than practical reasons. I do believe that places like Texas, Nevada, and Georgia offer more space and backdrops for filming that LA currently limits because of the lack of space in the city. I can imagine that the change in locations for the hub of the film industry will cause the prices in that area to rise and the cost of living to reach the LA threshold at some point. But in the meantime, I am intrigued to see how the film industry utilizes these new locations to their fullest potential.
I think moving out of Los Angeles is a great thing for the people who work in film and TV. Spreading out of an area that is not helping you thrive creatively is a no brainer especially when you can save and spend more money on what you love. The industry is also doing well out of LA. Why should writers, actors, and production crews live in extremely expensive areas when shooting can take place across the world? This can lead to more diverse landscapes being used to enhance the experience for the audience instead of every movie taking place at the Los Angeles Theatre. It also creates more accessibility for those who can’t move or don't want to Hollywood to also broaden the scope of content with newer views. With increased accessibility for new writers, actors, etc. brings new ideas on how to film, how to play out a scene, or how to bring the scenery to life to bring the film meaning instead of a cash grab.
I think that a migration away from such a fast paced and expensive place to live was inevitable due to the nature of the environment. In my own life, my parents lived in New York City for 20 years before they moved our family away from city life. As I’ve gotten older, I understand more the layers of what it takes to live in a city that big, and appreciate them more for moving away from it. So hearing about this happening in LA now, makes a lot of sense to me considering I had my own experience with this feeling leaving another massive city. I think this makes me hopeful for the future of the entertainment industry and not being required by career advancement to live in or near a huge city such as LA. Overall, I have little surprise when reading this article because of the trends that I have personally seen in my own life over the years. I am excited to see what changes this will bring to Hollywood and how they might influence the theatre world.
I don't find it surprising that the film industry is moving out of LA with the aftermath of covid but I am surprised that they are also moving due to raising costs. Many people know that living in LA is extremely expensive and the film industry was never able to completely provide adequate pay for their employees but due to the industry's renowned fame and president they continuously brought in people. But now due to Zoom the film industry can work with people all over the globe miles away from each other. So it makes sense that many of the smaller film houses are moving to places such as Texas where the costs are less. Along with those lower costs I feel as though it is also easier to maintain a film company in a place like Texas because it's not a bustling city. Film companies have more room to mess around and store equipment while still working with the same people.
What interested me about this article is that it seems to demonstrate a phenomena that regardless of how long standing a trend is, as soon as the conditions that created that trend dissipate, it becomes increasingly likely that the trend itself will also dissipate. Here, the environment of LA is what made it so attractive - with everyone centered around this one city for the most part for production, this caused a certain amount of flocking and prosperity with this new trend, but now that the city is continuing to struggle, costs of production are continuing to go up in LA as costs in other cities go down, and a lot of in person requirements are now becoming less important with Zoom and other online platforms being more preferred methods of communication. Ultimately, while consistency is convenient and change poses a barrier to those who wish to enact it, when there are greater opportunities elsewhere they will be pursued with an aim of putting oneself in a better position to succeed, both financially and logistically.
It’s really interesting to read about this shift in the industry. I think we’re watching in real time a dramatic shift not just in film but in work culture as a whole, caused largely because of the Covid pandemic and advancements in technology. It makes sense why people are filming less and less in Los Angeles – now that Covid has proved to the world that we can operate on video calls, there’s not much reason to be contained to LA. And, like the article says, there are a lot of reasons why not to live and work in LA in the first place. None of this means that LA was always the wrong spot for the center of the film industry, but it just isn’t anymore. I think this change will prove very beneficial to the industry – it could allow for more creativity and higher budgets. I’m interested to see how LA does as a city in the future, though – it seems to be in relatively rapid decline.
I thought this article did a good job of explaining why people are leaving LA and how Hollywood is kind of just branching out to places that arent California anymore. I'm seeing it in a lot of neighborhoods, especially at home with rising living costs, and this topic of gentrification. Overall it's clear that fewer productions are taking place, and the strikes really pushed people to look for work in more affordable areas. I liked how the article mentioned Zoom meetings becoming normal, meaning people don’t need to live in LA to stay involved in the industry. I know a lot of people that were working remotely; I feel like we were seeing that with this industry and that you don't always need to be in that place to do your job. I also found it interesting that even people like high-profile executives are moving, which shows that quality of life is becoming more important than just living in LA.
It’s nice to see people moving away from Los Angeles and the idea that it needs to be in Hollywood to be good. Los Angeles is a very expensive place to live and I have heard of other companies in other industries losing a lot of people after covid when they mandated everyone to go back in the office and so a lot of people quit from the company because they couldn’t afford to live in Los Angeles. The good thing about the movie companies that are deciding to move from Hollywood rather than stay is that they won’t have to lose people due to cost of living and can now gain people of even more talent who just happen to live in a different state. My hope is that they will also pay their workers more since the companies won’t have to pay such large amounts of money for land and storage spaces.
Post a Comment