The state of film and television production

Hollywood is rewriting the rules, and traditional production models, they may never look the same. Why is the entertainment economy shifting and so fast? Well, and also, how are independent creators and veteran producers surviving this shift and crunch? Award-winning television producer Patrick Caligiuri, you are back. You've spent over 20 years building hits for network and streaming platforms alike, and now you're going to break down what is happening because we are ending the year with quite a bang. And quite a merge. Yes. It's been a while since we were back. It's been a while. It's been a while, but it's good to be back. It's good to have you back. It's my home away from home, for sure. Let's talk about the Ellison in the room, shall we? Yeah. It's been the talk of the town for months. It finally happened before the end of the year. How does this merge really affect everyday people? You know, I think... It's a lot of the things that we've seen before. We saw what Paramount happened when it merged with Skydance before, and it lost about, what, 10% of its workforce. So we just see that those layoffs are happening across the city. I mean, Disney just announced that they laid off about 1,000 people too. So it's just not looking good. For the traditional model and for the Hollywood that we've kind of known for the past 40 years, but we're also seeing sort of emerging systems also be developing at the same time. So we're in like this transition period. So, you know, and I think the industry is trying to figure itself out right now. Has the have the unions, especially SAG-AFTRA, have they caught up with These changes because that's I think what's hurting a lot of people the most a lot of actors, you know, they're they're about to lose their health insurance. Yes, at the end of the year. And so if only we can maybe update these contracts a little bit. We have these new micro dramas that are coming out. Verts are are big. So maybe those can help them keep their hours. Yeah, absolutely. You know, and I can't speak on behalf of what the union's policies are, but I do see, you know, through my own social media platforms that there's a lot of lot of disenchantment and there's a lot of like kind of frustration with the unions for people that thought they would be covered and then they keep seeing the rates being raised and they keep seeing also union members making salaries that just seem way high for people who are losing their medical coverage right now. So there's a lot of unfairness and a lot of discussions being had. Can we also ask what a vert is? No, of course. Vertical dramas. How long are they? So it depends, but, you know, usually they keep them really short. The idea is that they're kind of like tiny soap operas that you're just digesting, you know, and it always ends with a big cliffhanger. You walk in the room and somebody is in bed with another person's husband. But, you know, scroll to the next one. I do. I watch them on TikTok. They find me. And animated fruit ones. I did. I started with the animated fruit. But now I go on to the other hard drug. Are you saying that these smaller types or different unconventional types of production, though, is keeping business here? That's from a lot of actors that I hear. They're constantly getting pulled into these, you know, these vertical shorts. And, you know, again, like television came in and disrupted the system, you know. Basically, social media came in and it's disrupting the system. It's how we're kind of consuming on screen. What do actors think about this? Yeah, like, actors are like, oh, book me for a vert. I don't think there's want and need, you know? Right, it's like that. It's really what it comes down to is, like, if this is the only place where there's work right now, you know, that's going to be the place that I'm going to go to. It's just so wild because back in the day, like, a big actor would never do TV, and now that's what they do. Right, and television streaming is prime, right? That's right. That's prime space. I know someone who just... They just booked being on one of those, and they were able to pay their car payment because of it, and the day is shorter, the day is a little bit shorter because there's not as much to film. And I think it's sort of a system, especially in LA right now where beggars can't be choosers, it's really like the- Yeah, there's a lot of people out of work right now. Exactly, production is down just across the board, and the numbers are down, like 15-20% of production is down from just this time last year, which was already down on a five-year Another trend. You know, basically, people are going to where the work is. So production is down just here or overall in the industry? It's There's places that are actually spiking up. New York right now is getting almost neck and neck to where California is as a production rival. But also New Jersey, which is right across the river, opened up their incentive program. So you actually see two states that are kind of working together to kind of build their industry, which is, you know, California is really kind of on its own. Well, there are guardrails and parameters now that were set up after this big... This big merger, right, where they have to do X number of productions per year. But I've heard like some like there's always a catch, right? Right. So I've heard also if Skydance decides to turn the company back to private, those those rules no longer apply. So there's things where you start saying, OK, well, also these guardrails are only in place for three years. You know, that's a short term protection. And then basically the game's off and the company could do whatever it wants. But again, where the company is tied in sort of the legacy media sense is we're starting to see new other production companies, studios, even models really starting to take hold because people are saying, well, I'm not going to fit into this legacy system anymore, so let's try something new. Hey, what have we got to lose? And a lot of times, sometimes the calls coming from within the house on butting heads. The city and the state have to be on the same page. Yes. Because if they are not, this is why we are losing production as well. The fees, locations of where you can film. Right, the permitting process. The state can say, here are these incentives, do with it what you will. And the city can be like, well, you know what? That's going to cost you. That said, though, we have a new incoming mayor. That's right. That's right. You do. And also, I see, you know, there's also been the city actually trying to help, you know, jumpstart productions. They're now saying if you have a crew of 10 people or less, you know, you're not going to have to pay permits anymore. Right. Or we're even lending out some of our city space for you can rent it a dollar a day. Right. So the production, you know, so Los Angeles is trying to take the defibrillator out and at least get independent productions going or small productions going. Is it too late? You know, what we're going to have to see, but, you know, better late than never, but at the same time, we could have done this two, three years ago when, you know, everybody was just saying, please look at this, but, you know, bureaucracy of government. It's just wild to think that people go overseas to shoot something and that it's cheaper to do that. And it's sad because a lot of families then have to decide, well, I'll stay here with the kids or hold down the house for months on end just so that they can put food on the table. And so a lot of it starts in our backyard. So I have heard if you are a local business and you see a location scout come to your neighborhood, make it almost. It's as inviting as possible to have them film on your street or they will eat. The crew will go to your deli and eat. The crew will go to your cafe and eat. And that's a good thing for our economy. And that's the same thing to say is the city also has to want it. It can't just be neighborhoods being like, I hate these production trucks in my street. I don't want it here because also that's pushing the production out too. So L.A. has always been the entertainment capital, but it has to embrace that and say, hey, you know what? We welcome filming around the city. And they do spend money. There's a lot of crew to feed, and they will go to the local restaurant first and feed their crew. So it is the domino effect for good and unfortunately for bad. Yes, exactly. I'm hoping for a fruitful 2027 as all of us are because this industry is our backbone of our city. You know, it's really what founded Los Angeles. This is the city of dreams, and you really don't want to lose that. You know, we're all gonna, it really takes a community effort to really kind of, you know, want to make sure that this remains in the community. Yeah. May it be bustling for 2027. Thank you as always for giving us your time. Happy holidays. Happy holidays to you.