The Los Angeles Economic Development Corporation says it expects steady, solid growth in entertainment industry jobs in the coming years, with Hollywood adding more than 15,000 jobs for a second year in a row.
The full report won’t be out until Friday, but a summary released today contains highlights of the good news.
The region’s famed motion picture/television production industry got off to a good start this yearas well. Domestic box office receipts were up strongly over the year, the state film production incentive plan was well received, and television networks, both broadcast and cable, produced a number of pilots and series. Jobs in the entertainment industry started to rebound at the end of 2009, and for 2010, an increase of 16,900 jobs is estimated in the motion picture and sound recording sector in Los Angeles County.
Of course that forecast doesn’t take into account the possibility of a strike shutting the industry down…
Digital Entertainment Group says the home entertainment industry dropped again in the 2nd quarter, but not nearly as much as the first. Overall, it’s only down 3.3% for the first half of 2010.
The Wrap has a nice summary.
Jonathan Handel notes the Teamsters Local 399 contract expires in just two weeks, and suggests a strike “is a real possibility.” A Teamsters strike would effectively shut down Hollywood production.
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UPDATE: (WW) A strike authorization vote is expected to be taken on Sunday. But given that the difference is said to be only one percent between the current offer and the union’s demand, it would seem to me that a compromise would be pretty easy.
One of the really unfortunate things in recent contracts has been the absence of residuals for pre-1974 programming. If you’d like to talk about that (and maybe about changing it, at least for online streaming) Wednesday is the night, at least in Hollywood.
HOLLYWOOD GUILD MEMBERS: ATTEND AN IMPORTANT CAUCUS TO DISCUSS NEW MEDIA STREAMING OF TV SERIES MADE PRIOR TO JULY 1974 ON JULY 21
Attention Hollywood Screen Actors Guild and AFTRA Members
All paid-up SAG and AFTRA members who appeared in Television Series made prior to July 1974 on shows produced in the 1950s (such as Maverick), 60s (such as Bewitched) and the 70s (such as The Brady Bunch), are invited to an important caucus Wednesday, July 21, 2010 to discuss the New Media streaming of TV series made prior to July 1974.
Come early and bring your membership card. Participation is limited only by the fire rules.
Topic: New Media streaming of television programs produced prior to the advent of residuals in perpetuity.
When: 6:30-8 p.m., Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Where: James Cagney Board Room
5757 Wilshire Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90036
Email Suggestions: Can’t make it to the caucus? You can still play an active part by emailing your ideas to wandw2010@sag.org or wandw2010@aftra.com. Recommendations must be received by August 6, 2010.
The latest conspiracy theory on why IndieCon pulled a web page that incorrectly indicated that two AFTRA execs were appearing at a conference to discuss a non-existent AFTRA “Digital Filmmaking Contract” is a hoot. The claim is that AFTRA (or SAGWatch, or both) called up IndieCon and “threatened to sue them.”
Uh, sure.
That would be threatened to sue them for what?
If their post had been accurate, what would they have been sued for? Last time we checked printing something accurate isn’t illegal.
If the post was wrong, what would they have been sued for? Making a mistake? And how could SAGWatch sue IndieCon for saying something about AFTRA? Has there been a run on tinfoil that we’ve missed?
For the lack of a better explanation we’re chalking this up to the start of election season, and in Fizzler-land there isn’t much to run on other than conspiracy theories about the rest of the union and fantasies about the NLRB.
According to a tally by Nellie Andreeva on a site we don’t link to, the two year dominance of AFTRA over SAG in pilot season, which predictably meant almost all the new series picked up were AFTRA, means that for the first time in decades AFTRA this fall AFTRA will have more scripted shows than SAG. Her count is 45-38, a sharp reversal from last year’s SAG 48, AFTRA 26. If you add in non-scripted programming it means that in television AFTRA now has an overwhelming majority of all programming.
We’re expecting AMPTP producers to start to tip the balance back at least a little towards SAG this coming pilot season, but the failure to achieve a contract on time during the last cycle is continuing to have a devastating effect. SAG has endured layoffs and continues to have deficit problems, which some speculate is part of the reason Ken Howard and Amy Aquino have been pushing AFTRA very hard to start talks on future alliance (whether you call it merger or a new union with all of SAG and all of AFTRA…it’s the same effect.)
