There’s no business like show business—but in Los Angeles, it feels like there’s no business at all.
If that sounds melodramatic, consider this: The Art Directors Guild, a labor union representing about 3,000 film workers including set designers, art directors and many other artists, has suspended a training program and issued a statement explaining that “we cannot in good conscience encourage you to pursue our profession while so many of our members remain unemployed.” The guild’s pessimism is a reaction to Hollywood’s decline, which is reaching a critical point for the industry and Southern California.
Production has been slipping away from Hollywood since the 1950s, but the effects have never been more apparent than at present. Other regions in the United States, Canada and Europe have steadily increased incentives to attract TV shows and movies, leaving California in the dust. Georgia (which is where many Marvel TV shows and movies are shot) offers up to 30% in transferable tax credits on film and TV production costs, plus an additional 10% increase on the base tax credit if the project includes a Georgia promotional logo. Actors, directors and crew prefer to stay close to their homes in Los Angeles to film, but it’s hard for studios to pass up getting a third of their money back if they film outside of California.

Even as California lost a huge volume of production to other locations, there was still plenty of film production taking place in Los Angeles before this year—sufficient work that many people could make a living in the industry. We were kept afloat by “peak TV”, the glut of content that was required by the explosion of streaming services.
If productions in Southern California dip below a critical level for too long, the industry’s essential talent will drift away along with enormous sums of revenue. Persuading studios to film here would become much more challenging if we couldn’t offer a deep bench of local film workers, on-screen talent and local businesses that support the entertainment industry.
That’s why the California Film Commission and its Los Angeles counterpart, Film LA, now should act now, before it’s too late. These agencies and other government bodies should dramatically improve incentives to keep our current shows and attract new productions to Los Angeles. Let’s go on with the show…and make sure the show doesn’t go on without us.

The author concludes the text by emphasizing that California should strive to __.