Written by on Feb 23, 2015. Posted in Incentive News

Los Angeles Mayor launches new campaign to promote boosted filming incentives

A new campaign has been launched by the Mayor of Los Angeles to promote California’s boosted filming incentives. Dubbed 'Greenlight Hollywood', the campaign will involve Los Angeles’ ‘film czar’ and his deputy meeting with film industry executives through March and April.

“Our entertainment industry is essential to our city’s identity and economy, and this campaign represents the next step in a strategic agenda to ensure Los Angeles remains the entertainment capital of the world,” said Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti.

“Now that we’ve won a tripling of the film tax credit and we are cutting red tape at City Hall, we’re launching this campaign to make sure decision makers understand all of the incentives we can provide for filming in L.A.”

For the past few years California has had only a very limited filming incentive with tax credits allocated via a lottery system. The result has been a major runaway production problem.

Big-budget films and high-end TV dramas have largely filmed in parts of the country that offer more generous filming incentives. Many have left the US altogether for places like the UK and Australia.

The controversial lottery system will run for the last time in April this year and then in May applications will open for an additional USD 230 million in tax credits. Most of the money is set to be allocated to TV production, with a large chunk of the boosted fund marked out to incentivise television series to relocate to California from elsewhere in the US.