I think AB2319 misses the point — and here's why. On the surface, it looks like a win for California's post and VFX workers. Keep post-production in-state. Protect jobs. Great story. But let's take the long view. This tax incentive will largely benefit multi-billion-dollar international corporations that are already profitable. Disney. Warner Bros., Sony, Paramount. These studios don't need to be saved. They don't need taxpayer subsidies. This is corporate socialism dressed up as industry support. And yes — keeping post and VFX work in California will benefit workers. For a while. But here's the reality most people aren't talking about: The workers don't own the companies doing the work. The VFX and post houses — the actual businesses absorbing this work — will see none of that benefit. They'll keep competing on low bids, razor-thin margins, and impossible deadlines. They'll keep being asked to do the impossible, often at a loss. So what happens next? → Workers still get laid off. → VFX companies keep going bankrupt. → The studios pocket the savings and will move on when there are more attractive subsidies elsewhere. AB2319 is a band-aid. It sounds great in a press release. But until we address the structural economics crushing the independent post and VFX industry, no tax incentive is going to fix what's actually broken. Look past the shiny new bill. The real problem is still there. #VFX #FilmIndustry #PostProduction #AB2319 #California #FilmPolicy
Gary Pearl in this case I’d agree w/ Scott that more in our industry need to even understand the problem of how tax incentives are not the solution. Once we are clear on that, we can even work towards a solution. Recognize the Shell game, as it is. From my perspective, until the vendors are profit-sharing in the product, the problems will exist, and may even get worse. Tax incentives/rebates: “the appearance of economic growth while mainly redistributing taxpayer money to large studios or wealthy investors.”
Dan Levitan
6d
California needs to compete on as even a playing field as it can. The idea that VFX vendors will globally band together now, with some regions currently doing quite well (UK, AU, etc) and strong-arm the studios into paying more to resurrect the California VFX Industry, just because some VFX-heavy films generate high box office is unrealistic.
I think that anyone who cannot find work would be completely unconcerned with the long game at this moment but obviously keep playing it
Ron Rauch
2w
What do you suggest is going to fix the problem for workers in Southern California? Where can we find a movie studio who wants to share its profits and its ownership with its employees? And how is it that we are having to compete with other places just to make it easier to film?
Barnet Bain
2w
Scott, it’d be great to have you consult to Nick Schultz who means well but lacks industry experience.
Gary Pearl
2w
Propose the answer not just that this is a bad bad aid. What’s the right answer?
This is why I suggest vfx houses look at opening offices in states with no corporate income tax. That is an “incentive” the vendors get to hang onto.
The world of legislation is a whole other reality. I co-wrote legislation that was introduced into the 2026 Legislative session here in Hawaii. It had to do with natural resources, scientific research and permitting modernization. The Senator that sponsored the bill, whose office provided legislative collaboration and access to the Legislative Resources Board didn't even schedule it for a hearing. Why? My guess is that if you're involved with change you have to explain yourself. You're exposed to political conflict ... and that's just the POV of a rookie. To make a difference, if that's possible, takes time and a public relations campaign that puts real pressure on them from constituents that can compete with "THE DONOR CLASS". It's a full time job to lock in the votes needed to get a bill from your head to the other end of the Governor's pen.
B.L. J.
2w
Post production workers including Vfx are the tip of the iceberg. There’s a systemic problem coming our way. Foolish companies, thinking they should lay off employees and replace them with AI. Is the real threat. Plus there are way too many people that graduated from “Film schools” trying to enter the Post industry, which should have stayed much smaller. Yet brilliant universities and colleges are in the business of tuition in the United States. Not really educating a useful workforce that I actually will have jobs. Poland’s biggest Film school graduates five directors per year. How many did UCLA graduate from The Director’s program? — again the US is facing a much larger problem.
I’m just reading this thread and it’s the same thing I said 25 years ago. As long as you’re a vendor your employee. If you want the job you end up having to marginalize what you’re doing. The movies I shot in Canada they’ve managed to make work with incentives, but the people working there were artists only wanted to do the best job. Somewhere along the way we became a vendor driven business and I think the incentives have caused a lot of that. We need a different working model as this clearly hasn’t worked. That’s why I suggested we work our way backward because a lot of what I’m reading. Here is just more of the same and I remember having these conversations when Schwarzenegger became governor. We’ve just lost and not iterated to make a new model work. And I’ve done new models that have worked in the Indy Phil area. I wish people would listen, but I think we’re just so far down that valley that no one’s willing to explore new options.