L.A.'s New Film Works Program: Will it Silence Moaners, Lessen Runaways?
December, 14, 2010 6:12 pm | Comments On #FilmLA, Media, MoviesThis week saw the launch of a new public and privately funded film production campaign in Los Angeles called “Film Works L.A.,” which aims to bring filmmakers back to Hollywood.
Billed by its organizers and supporters – who range from NBC’s “Law & Order: Los Angeles” to Mann Theaters and from Warner Bros. studios to the Screen Actors Guild – as “a stakeholder-driven education and outreach campaign centered around filming in Los Angeles,” this bold multi-media and marketing program aims to combat the problem of runaway production (when filmmakers and studios leave California to shoot elsewhere in America or around the world, because it is more cost-effective to do so) by showing the Angeleno communities just how much L.A. needs the movie industry.
And, as importantly, Film Works' job will be to highlight...
Read MoreSlicing Up the U.K. Film Industry Pie -- Will This Reform Work?
December, 03, 2010 4:03 pm | Comments On #Anthony Burt, MoviesFollowing the internationally berated demise of the U.K. Film Council earlier this year (see my article: “Did the U.K. Film Industry Die in Secret?”) -- where Clint Eastwood wrote a complaint letter to the Prime Minister and where the British culture secretary, Jeremy Hunt, had to fly to L.A. to calm U.S. filmmaker and investor worries (Hunt has since privately admitted the U.K. Film Council affair was handled badly) -- the new British government has finally come up with a solution to “rectify” the situation this week.
They believe the answer – in order to promote, nurture and encourage Britain’s film industry – is to simultaneously split up the U.K. Film Council’s responsibilities and hand most of them to the internationally...
Read MoreGet Out of Your L.A. Comfort Zone and Film in the Rest of California
October, 06, 2010 6:33 pm | Comments On #industry, Los Angeles, MoviesThe California film tax incentive works for LA, but not the rest of the state.
The City of Angels and its surrounding countryside, mountains, beaches and deserts have stood in as “Location Doubles” for places across the globe. If you want to film an external scene in Manhattan (but your cast and crew are all in LA) and you know a street corner in downtown LA which looks like NYC, then it saves money to stay in southern California.
That’s a no-brainer and has been happening since motion pictures began.
But, here’s the thing: those of you with the major million dollar budgets (and even those of you without this), when you go film somewhere outside of the LA "zone," you...
Read MoreB.O. Prediction: The Dark Tower Series Will Dwarf 'LOTR,' 'Avatar'
September, 12, 2010 5:59 pm | Comments On #Avatar, Lord of the Rings, Movies, Steven King, The Dark Tower
Some of Stephen King’s grand seven-book “The Dark Tower” series has its roots in the fantasy world J.R.R. Tolkien created (and Peter Jackson brought to life magnificently) in “Lord of the Rings." But the epic, winding, horrific journey of gunslinger anti-hero Roland Deschain – King’s most intriguing, deftly woven, exciting and tortured character – will, I predict, consign “The Lord of the Rings” three-film combined $3 billion box office total to the history books (and, also, with TV franchise revenues added in will also dwarf “Avatar’s” single-film $2.8billion figure too).
With NBC Universal’s announcement that it will be making a multi-media extravaganza of three feature films and, at least, two TV series in between each of the movie’s cinematic releases...
Read MoreTime to Bring Google Down a Peg or Three
August, 09, 2010 3:48 pm | Comments On #Deal Central, Google, net neutrality, Verizon
Being a journalist gives me an in-built mistrust of large conglomerates, and a natural siding with the eternal underdogs, whoever they happen to be; put two people in a boxing ring – one short and one tall – I’ll cheer for the short guy every time.
Hence my growing, stomach-tightening suspicion towards the now-gigantic Internet search engine, Google.
With its newest move marrying Verizon in what both companies are calling a “non-deal," but what actually amounts to a joining of forces and policy to create a strategic direction that will culminate in an “Elite Internet”:...
Read MoreDid the U.K. Film Industry Die in Secret?
August, 02, 2010 6:00 pm | Comments On #Anthony Burt, David Cameron, Movies, Tim Bevan, U.K. Film CouncilPossibly unbeknown to you lovely Americans, the new British “coalition government” had the clever idea of abolishing the U.K. Film Council a couple of weeks ago.
This Film Council is the agency responsible for funding a large number of independent and studio films, using taxpayers money. In fact, in the past 10 years, the U.K. Film Council has spent over $250 million (£160 million) to help over 900 films get made. These have collectively created a worldwide bo- office profit of more than $1.9 billion (£700 million).
Not a bad return on your investment, you might think?
Apparently not: The Conservative/Liberal Democrat culture minister, Jeremy Hunt, decreed that this profit-making agency that has helped fund and promote British film tirelessly (with just 75 staff members) – and ensured movies such as "The Last King of...
Read MoreGibson: From a Brave Heart to Over the Edge of Darkness
July, 22, 2010 12:35 pm | Comments On #abuse, Anthony Burt, domestic violence, Mel Gibson, Movies, Oksana Grigorieva, peopleAs someone who spends every summer in Edinburgh, Scotland, going to the arts, film, book and fringe theater festival there during August, I remember very well when Mel Gibson’s movie "Braveheart" came out because I was very excited to see how the depiction of Scottish legend William Wallace was handled.
I realize, being English, that most of the movie was about fighting my fellow countrymen, but this is irrelevant as I loved the film. In fact, I recall thinking when it came out: Mel Gibson has taken on an epic character and story and achieved something special.
It certainly made me think twice about just how multitalented the actor-director and "Lethal Weapon" star is. Or,...
Read MoreDreamin' in California
June, 30, 2010 3:04 pm | Comments On #Anthony Burt, Hollywood, Los Angeles, MoviesI’d like you to know that I’m a dreamer.
Now I’ve got that surprise over with, let’s talk about how everyone in Los Angeles is a dreamer. At least, those working in the entertainment industry usually are ... but let’s include everyone in this, shall we? Because those people selling donuts in a cake shop in a far corner of Pasadena will dream, too: about making the perfect sugary, warm, melt-in-your-mouth, cream-filled donut.
Oh drat, bad analogy. I want a donut now.
Stick to the point, Anthony. You. Don’t. Need. A. Donut.
As a British writer in L.A. I’m very aware of the “American Dream” (which has had an unfortunate...
Read MoreLos Angeles Desertion Syndrome: How to Solve It, Now
June, 21, 2010 6:14 pm | Comments On #Association of Independent Commercials Producers, California Film Commission, commercials, FilmL.A., Green Dot Films, incentives, Los Angeles, Movies, Rick Fishbein, Runaway production, TelevisionI’ve been in Los Angeles just a short while, yet it seems many filmmakers are leaving -- hundreds of them, in fact. Permanently. Was it something I said?
Or is it something the California government isn’t doing?
As the California Film Commission works on next year’s round of film tax credits for its now-full applicant list, I began wondering why I keep hearing stories about production companies relocating to Louisiana, movies shooting in New Mexico and states such as Illinois, Michigan, New York, Georgia and Massachusetts offering much better incentives than the alleged home of entertainment, California.
Even though I’m new in town, I’m aware that so-called “runaway productions” – those productions that leave the L.A. Zone to film elsewhere – have been doing so for many years.
And they’...
Read MoreL.A. vs. N.Y.: A Tale of Two Cities’ Rivalry
June, 09, 2010 5:13 pm | Comments On #Anthony BurtAs a British writer in L.A., I do scripts and journalism, but I also write children’s books, adult thrillers and nonfiction books, too. A multimedia man, you might say.
Although I’ve written for publishers such as Macmillan, Paragon and HarperCollins, it’s always been commissioned work that pays well, but doesn’t have my name on the cover.
So, I was given the advice that – if I’m serious about success and building the “Burt Brand” – I should attend one of the biggest book tradeshows in the world, the Book Expo of America in New York City.
On a calculated whim, a couple of weeks ago, I registered myself as press (saving myself the $250 conference fee) and booked a last-minute flight to the Big Apple.
I didn’t know what to expect, but I went with some clear goals: to meet literary agents and get...
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Description
Anthony Burt is a writer, journalist and voice-over artist from south west England, U.K. Founder of Epic Creations, for the past eight years he has written and edited books, scripts and magazine/newspaper articles for the BBC, the Guardian, Macmillan, Harpercollins, Parragon and Haymarket. He's a passionate film fan who believes in chasing your dreams, so is temporarily based in L.A. pursuing a screenwriting career at the same time as writing a new novel (and getting a Californian suntan).
