TV Production Decline: 'A Darwin Sort of Event'
FilmLA releases new data to me as cast/crew hiring declines outpace series cutbacks as shorter seasons, offshoring hit jobs hard
This is latest in my series examining the entertainment job market. So far I’ve looked at career fields still growing in Hollywood, and current job postings at Disney, WBD and Amazon, as well as Netflix and NBCU.
Fire trucks, Ferraris, taxi cabs, hearses, the Scooby-Doo van. You name it, Studio Picture Vehicles owner Ken Fritz has probably got it. He’s been renting out his fleet of 900 automobiles to TV and movie productions for decades. It’s been a very lucrative business — until now.
“We thought after the strike it’d be busier than heck, but it came back nothing,” says Fritz. “Everything went out of state. We lost lots to New Mexico, lots to Georgia, lots to Texas.”
Ahead of the WGA and SAG-AFTRA work stoppages in 2023, business was pretty good, he tells me, with his vehicles on loan to about 42 shows in production. Now he’s down to 18. That’s a reduction of more than 57 percent.
The septuagenarian has been in the business for 50 years, and like so many other longtime shop owners and industry workers I’ve spoken with lately, he thought things would’ve gotten back in gear already, four months after the studios and actors resolved their contractual issues. But amid the tail end of a pandemic, a barely profitable streaming economy and a production market that seems hellbent on leaving California — to hear production veterans tell it, this moment in Hollywood history is proving to be nothing short of an existential crisis.
Many of the stories I hear mirror that of Property Masters Guild president Jeffrey Johnson, who has worked props on such shows as Jack Ryan and Parenthood.
“I've only worked probably a handful of days [this year],” he says. “My unemployment has run out, and it won’t renew until July. Really, it's shocking because I've worked nonstop for so many years.”
The 30-year industry veteran has experienced a number of economic downturns and labor stoppages. But something about this go-around feels different. “It doesn't feel typical,” he says, “and I can't really put my finger on it.”
In this issue of Series Business, I try to examine what’s happening, when and if this paralysis will end, and more about the following:
Why Hollywood still seems so quiet (hint: it’s about more than the aftermath of the strikes)
The latest production permit and soundstage usage figures from FilmLA, shared exclusively with The Ankler ahead of its official quarterly report
The impact on local businesses that support production
The existential distress facing California as the center of Hollywood
Why decades-long professionals of the industry say this moment feels different — and when they expect business to rebound