Even before the devastating wildfires, Hollywood was struggling.
Squeezed by studio cutbacks and competition from other states and countries, film and television production in the Los Angeles region had already fallen to a near-record low last year, imperiling the livelihoods of not just casts and crews but also the caterers, drivers and many others who depend on the entertainment industry. Some, seeing their work dry up, were leaving for other states that have lured productions with tax credits.
Then the fires swept through, dealing yet another blow to a region, and an industry, that had been buffeted in recent years by a pandemic and then strikes that halted production amid a rapidly changing entertainment landscape. The Southern California fires have given new urgency to efforts by state and local officials to keep Los Angeles a place where films and television shows are made, and not just greenlit by studio executives to be shot elsewhere.
At stake is the future of a defining industry that helps make Los Angeles a vibrant creative capital, employing tens of thousands of workers in a wide variety of fields — people like John W. Rutland, a cinematographer, and his wife, Marta Gené Camps, a television writer.