Things are progressing glacially slow in so many ways. Year over year, Hollywood is down 8% overall currently, vs. this time last year. It's really nowhere near where it was at it's peak before the pandemic which started affecting Hollywood nearly 5 years ago.
In the LA region, commercial shoots remain the same as last year, TV episodics are 63% of last year, while feature film shoots are more than double. With what we're seeing in the breakdown stream, it looks like the feature film budgets are far lower than normal.
Interest rates are slowly dropping, initially the Fed announced a 0.5% cut, then in November an additional 0.25% cut. There's a chance of another cut this month (December 2024). Then the next will come in February 2025.
It's pretty clear that Hollywood is leaving Hollywood, as per the title for a story that ran recently in Business Insider. According to their perspective, with projects moving out of state to studios all over the country, as well as outside the US, that leaves top talent casting and film packaging as pretty much all that's continuing in the LA region.
Film packaging is the developmental stage where you get a script, and assemble a team with director and other top behind the lens folks, plus the top talent. The package also includes the appropriate materials for pitching, which might be treatments, pitch decks, sizzle reels, on sheets, and more - basically your advertising materials. Then you take that package and pitch it appropriately to investors, studios, networks, and so on.
So it makes less and less sense for in front of the lens beginner performers to migrate to the LA region in hopes of hitting the big time. There's other places that might make sense to start or grow a career, such as a city with studios that would need background actors, bit players, day players, etc. There's production hubs like that sprouting up all over now.
Where are we getting our information? Mainly by watching the various industry trade publications, including Variety, Deadline, The Hollywood Reporter, and more. A new one we began with recently is The Wide Shot, which is a weekly newsletter delivered by email that you sign up for. It's published by The Los Angeles Times, and is mainly for money people, as it shows the projects getting traction in the majors. That's where the industry tracking data came from in the first paragraph of this blog.
So hang in there! Keep creating!