Web-Based Production Linked To Surge In New Hollywood Jobs
CENTURY CITY (CBSLA.com) — A surge of digital entertainment jobs in Los Angeles County is being credited for a jump in payroll numbers last year.
About 8,000 new jobs were added to the motion picture and sound recording sector of the local economy in 2014, with analysts crediting the boost to more online shows from new media outlets such as YouTube and Amazon Studios.
The gains come amid a 350 percent increase in Web-based production and have helped push the Hollywood employment rate to its highest level in about a decade, according to FilmLA president Paul Audley.
Audley told KNX 1070 NEWSRADIO that the city of Los Angeles must expand its hospitality to more Web-based productions if it wants to keep its title as the entertainment capital of the world.
"It doesn't really matter that it's skewing more to the Web in the fact that it maintains a creative community here in Los Angeles, that it maintains a vendor base here in Los Angeles, and a crew base," he said. "All of those things put together keep L.A. ready for the return of any other production as well."
Audley's outlook sees L.A. continuing its surge in Web-based production through 2015 and expects a new tax credit program set to kick in next year to lure back some dramatic TV and feature film production back to the city.
