Did I Do That?
Mea Culpa
This weekend, I lamented the state of Los Angeles due to runaway productions.
The very next day, President Trump tweeted1 that he’ll be instituting a 100% tariff on movies produced outside the use, because “The Movie Industry in America is DYING a very fast death.”2
I’ll just say…
or…
…depending on your political persuasion.
How Would It Work?
I’m generally skeptical of tariffs, and I’m not sure how tariffs on intellectual property would even work. (No one’s sending reels of film through customs anymore.) And although he’s been working with Hollywood since before I was born, the phrase “any and all Movies coming into our Country that are produced in Foreign Lands” reeks of someone who doesn’t know how movies are made.
When it comes to making a movie, most people think of physical production. That’s the fun part, with the glamorous celebrities and the cool film equipment and, most of all, the money. Typically a third to a quarter of a movie’s budget is spent on shooting.
But most development (i.e. writing) and post-production (editing, mixing, scoring) still happen in the United States, even when shooting overseas. A lot of TV shows work that way—the writers’ room and the editorial department are on the studio lot, while the filming is done in Canada or Europe or wherever.
Plus, we’re talking about a visual art form. Not everyone films outside the US for cost reasons. What would a Mission: Impossible or James Bond movie be without their globe-trotting locations? Or Lost in Translation? You can’t shoot An American Werewolf in London in Chatsworth.
China Syndrome
Which is not to say nothing should be done. Trying to appeal to the Chinese film market is one reason why Hollywood movies have declined in quality over the last couple of decades. Not only have plots and dialogue been dumbed down and spectacle dialed up for the benefit of non-English speaking audiences, our studios have actively censored our own movies to appease the communist Chinese government.
At the same time, studio executives, producers, director, and stars have gone to China to train them in Hollywood techniques. After learning big studio methods, China has decided to limit the number of American films they allow in their theaters. And even when they do allow our films in, they take 75% of the box office.
happened to write a great overview of the situation over at just a couple weeks ago—
I don’t know what the proper response is. (Although blanket retaliation against the whole world market when China is a singular problem seems strange, at best.) It’s a complex problem that probably requires a complex solution.
Or whatever it’s called on his dumb social media platform.
[sic] the insane capitalization.
Yeah, I don't know the answer either ... but runaway production is real, and it not just hammering Hollywood anymore as more and more shows head offshore chasing bribes and lower labor costs. An old friend of mine, now a big-time rigging gaffer (he works on a lot of Marvel crap and "Jurassic Park" level tentpoles) was on a show in Atlanta a few months ago. Ordinarily, those gigs have him telling tales of woe about the unmotivated local work force down there who routinely made his job twice as hard ... but his time he was chirping like a Robin who'd just eaten a dozen worms. "It's the easiest job I've ever done down here," he told me ... and bear in mind that he'd been getting so much work there over the past ten years that he bought a condo to stay in during the shoots, and to rent to other film workers when he was on location. This job was easy because it was the only show in town, so he had all the best local juicers on his crew -- guys who know what they're doing and are motivated to do the job right. After so many years of being the beneficiary of productions fleeing Hollywood for the financial perks of shooting in Georgia, it seems that many productions that might have been done in Atlanta are now heading overseas.
It's not just Hollywood's problem anymore.
That said, I don't see how tRump's plan -- such as it is -- to tariff movies made elsewhere would work. I guess we'll find out...