State Assemblyman Nick Schultz is committed to carrying a bill aimed at creating an independent postproduction tax incentive in California, a field spokesman for his office announced at a town hall for Hollywood professionals Wednesday night.
Amanda Faisal says a state representative will soon introduce legislation in an effort to return more editing, sound mixing, VFX and other post work to the state. Postproduction costs can qualify for tax credits in California if physical production also takes place in the state, although other states and countries offer this perk to companies with the cost, but currently do not qualify for incentives of its own.
Initiative a A successful lobbying effort Hollywood doubled the film and television tax credit from unions and grassroots groups in 2025, expanding the program from $330 million to $750 million. Like that effort, it aims to make the state competitive with rivals like New York and Georgia and countries like the UK and Australia, all of which offer highly competitive postproduction incentives.
“We’re so excited about this announcement, I’ve been getting butterflies all day thinking about it,” Faisal told an audience of post-production creatives and executives, without elaborating on the bill’s language.
Faisal’s news drew loud applause during a town hall for the California Post Alliance (CAPA). Like physical production, local postproduction has declined amid increasing competitive incentives from other jurisdictions and studio and streamer cost-cutting.
Wednesday’s event at Evergreen Studios in Burbank is the latest example of how the postproduction industry is responding to a significant drop in work over the past few years. Conversation about the issue grew in early 2025 after an open letter from Encompass Music Partners and Encompass Creative founder Peter Rotter. letterwhich was “the infrastructure of the LA recording industry [was] Fail,” leading to a town hall in April 2025. At the event, production insiders Serious concerns were raised Los Angeles is becoming another Detroit because it is losing ground on its signature industry.
The mood at Wednesday’s event was slightly more optimistic — even as CAPA leaders discussed potential solutions, they described the impact the work downturn had on locals. labor and companies. In a speech opening the event, Rotter said the slowdown is “killing our community, its heart and soul.”
He said, “Families can’t pay their rent because there’s little work left. Editors are driving Uber instead of cutting reels. Sound designers are selling gear just to eat. The whole ecosystem is bleeding and nobody’s coming back.”
Two-time Oscar-winning sound designer Karen Baker Landers (MaXXXine, Scream VI) says she lost four to five jobs because California doesn’t offer the independent postproduction credit that other jurisdictions do. Jennifer Freed, founder of Trevanna Post and Trevanna Tracks, whose company has offices in L.A. in addition to London and New York, says she’s seen the production exodus on her own balance sheet. “The production map is being redrawn, as studios seek tax breaks and lower overheads,” she said.
California’s share of US postproduction work will decline by more than 11 percent between 2010 and 2024, according to data shared by CAPA on Wednesday. During the same period, California had a nearly 17 percent decline in payroll employment, while the US as a whole saw a 2.5 percent increase.
Initial economic modeling from Adam Fowler, founding partner of CVL Economics, estimates an additional $1.63 billion in annual economic input to California lost over the past 15 years by 4,451 jobs.
He cites the entertainment industry’s high retention rate, or money spent in the film industry that stays in the economy — 93 cents in Hollywood’s case. “As companies leave and the supply chain starts to thin, that retention rate declines and the multiplier effects for everyone else weakens, and it becomes a self-perpetuating cycle,” he warns.
One of his slides reads ominously: “California built this industry in 100 years. It will take less than a generation to lose it.”
CAPA’s solution to this dire situation, at least initially, lay in advocating for a Schultz-sponsored bill. To accomplish that, the group hired a lobbyist and campaign firm, one of whose publicists encouraged Wednesday’s attendees to post about the event on social media. CAPA Haja Raina encouraged them to become members and financially support the effort.
One of the obstacles the group faces in lobbying for Schultz’s bill is bringing the low-key work of editors, composers, sound mixers and others on their team to the attention of policymakers. CAPA President Marielle Abounza said, “We need to come out of our dark rooms… Now we need to take a moment to turn the camera and the light and shine it on us. Now we need to tell our stories.”
