Like many other local film industry veterans, he is still waiting.<\/p>\n
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Vince Gervasi, at Triscenic Production Services, in Santa Clarita.<\/p>\n
(Bob Doyle)<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been doing this for 41 years. I\u2019ve seen the good and the bad \u2014 this is a complete decimation. It\u2019s unprecedented.\u201d<\/p>\n
From florists to prop rentals to catering and beyond, production services and craft businesses are the hub and spoke of L.A.\u2019s film and TV industry. But many of these businesses \u2014 some of which have been family-operated for generations \u2014 are struggling to weather a post-pandemic slump in film activity deepened by runaway production, media consolidation and the end of the streaming boom. <\/p>\n
Film shoot days in the Los Angeles region have fallen nearly 50% since 2019, according to FilmLA data reviewed by The Times. Employment in Los Angeles County\u2019s motion picture and sound recording industry has similarly plummeted, with a loss of some 57,000 jobs in the last four years, federal labor data show.<\/p>\n
The slowdown has become a major issue in the L.A. mayoral race<\/a> as evidence mounts of the economic toll on the city.<\/p>\n Just last month major industry vendor Quixote <\/a>\u2014 whose Star Waggons trailers were once ubiquitous on the streets of L.A. \u2014 announced that it was winding down most of its sound stage business in Los Angeles, closing its operations in Atlanta and laying off 70 employees. <\/p>\n In a note to its clients and partners, Hudson Pacific Properties Inc., Quixote\u2019s parent company, said that \u201cwe have persisted through the prolonged and ongoing slowdown in commercial, television and film production. But ultimately, industry conditions have forced difficult decisions.\u201d<\/p>\n Between 2022 and 2025, more than 80 such businesses across Los Angeles have closed down, according to a list compiled by the ACME Directory, a production resource that connects TV and film professionals with specialized products and services.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s, in many ways, a much bigger reflection of the contraction we\u2019re seeing in the industry right now,\u201d said Kevin Klowden, a senior fellow at the Milken Institute, focused on entertainment and technology. \u201cThe surge in demand for streaming and the consequential demand to catch up on content hid the fact that the industry was shrinking.\u201d<\/p>\n Last October, the family-run Costume Rentals Corp. began liquidating its inventory after dressing film and television characters for 50 years. The North Hollywood firm provided costumes for \u201cForrest Gump,\u201d \u201cApocalypse Now,\u201d \u201cFast and Furious\u201d and, more recently, the 2024 Bob Dylan biopic, \u201cA Complete Unknown.\u201d<\/p>\n A year earlier, Valentino\u2019s Costume Group closed its doors after two decades in business and sold off its 400,000 items. At the time, Shon LeBlanc,<\/a> the North Hollywood shop\u2019s last owner standing, said he had endured a \u201cperfect storm\u201d of calamities and was drowning in debt following the cancellation of 15 shows in a single week.<\/p>\n Even the legendary Western Costume, which has been in business since 1912, has been hurt by the slowdown. During the 2023 strikes by writers and actors, Western Costume furloughed 43 employees<\/a>, or about two-thirds of its staff. Recently, the North Hollywood costume mecca, which has supplied such classic films as \u201cGone with the Wind,\u201d \u201cThe Wizard of Oz,\u201d \u201cThe Sound of Music\u201d and the TV series \u201cMad Men,\u201d furloughed an unspecified number of its workers, said two people familiar with the matter who were not authorized to speak publicly. <\/p>\n A representative of Western Costume did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n Marc Meyer, the owner of Faux Library Studio Props, <\/a>had strained to stay in business through the pandemic shutdown and the 2023 labor strikes \u2014 laying off 11 of his 13 employees.<\/p>\n By the start of 2024, Meyer, a set decorator who was credited with inventing the fake movie book, was drastically behind on rent, owing $500,000, he said.<\/p>\n Marc Meyer, closed the doors on Faux Library Studio Props in North Hollywood after almost 25 years in business.<\/p>\n (Mel Melcon\/Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n Meyer\u2019s landlord had given him a week to come up with more than $100,000 in unpaid rent or vacate the 89,000-square-foot warehouse in North Hollywood filled with props, books, antique furniture and other items that have decorated such film and TV sets as \u201cAngels & Demons\u201d and \u201cThe X-Files\u201d for almost a quarter-century.<\/p>\n Meyer came up with $45,000 to mollify his landlord, garnering a month\u2019s reprieve. A GoFundMe was set up during the strikes and a host of industry colleagues such as \u201cTop Gun: Maverick\u201d set decorator Jan Pascale stepped up, buying props to help fill his coffers. <\/p>\n A year later, Meyer was out of business, selling off Faux Library for parts<\/a> in a massive auction. He died last July at 77. <\/p>\n \u201cThe change in our city is palpable,\u201d said writer and director Sarah Adina Smith, a co-founder of Stay in LA<\/a>\u2019s, a grassroots campaign aimed at increasing film and television production in Los Angeles. \u201cIt\u2019s not just that so many crafts and artists are out of work, but you see small businesses, too. In L.A., we\u2019re an ecosystem fed in large part by creative jobs, and that is quickly vanishing.\u201d<\/p>\n Marlon Gilbert still waxes nostalgic about the days his Commerce-based company, Gilbert Production Service, stored and transported scenery and props for TV shows including \u201cDancing with the Stars\u201d and feature films like \u201cBatman.\u201d At one time, he said, he was handling seven active TV shows in a single season.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen it was still on Fox, the \u2018American Idol\u2019 finale, we had like 20 semitrucks going in and out. Money was flowing like crazy,\u201d he said. \u201cBut eventually times got hard for them, and they cut back on their production stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n By last year, Gilbert was down to just three clients. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t sustainable,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n In December, after three decades, the family-owned business filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and shut down too.<\/p>\n \u201cI couldn\u2019t pay rent on our warehouse lease, I blew through my savings and my 401(k),\u201d he said. After his wife was hospitalized following multiple strokes in 2023, he said, \u201cI didn\u2019t have the energy to beat the bush for new business.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI would\u2019ve liked to have gone out with more panache and made a big splash and money selling the business. But there was nothing left to sell.\u201d<\/p>\n Scott Niner, president and owner of Dangling Carrot Creative, checks on a robotic machine as it fabricates at his shop in North Hollywood.<\/p>\n (Jason Armond\/Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n Scott Niner, president and owner of Dangling Carrot Creative, offers a case study in how production service businesses have navigated the tidal wave of upheavals.<\/p>\n After 18 years in business creating graphic signage, custom flooring and wallpaper to make sets look exactly as art directors dreamed up, the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last April. <\/p>\n Before the pandemic, Niner\u2019s Valencia-based business was thriving. <\/p>\n In 2014, he opened a Georgia satellite office to service the film and TV productions that had migrated to take advantage of the state\u2019s generous tax credits. He steadily expanded his workforce to 32 employees in L.A. and Georgia.<\/p>\n Production was so plentiful that he even branched into the bakery business in 2018, delivering graphics and cupcakes in the same order. At its peak, Dangling Carrot generated $800,000 a month.<\/p>\n When the pandemic shutdown hit, Niner\u2019s monthly revenue dropped to $50,000, he said. He kept his workers employed by making face shields that he donated to hospitals.<\/p>\n \u201cI hung in there, and it was painful,\u201d said Niner, who received some government assistance.<\/p>\n During the strikes in 2023, he drained his 401(k) and his union pension to keep his shop open and his workers employed.<\/p>\n Niner said he deployed a strategy of \u201cpivoting and praying.\u201d He shifted his business to focus more on fabrication, making giant 3-D-printed items for movie premieres, 25-foot-long, 8-foot-tall and 8-foot-deep ammo chests for a \u201cCall of Duty\u201d promotion and even graphics at airports.<\/p>\n Last last month, Niner sold off his Georgia business as filming in that state shifted to the U.K<\/a>. He downsized his home and moved his business from Valencia to a much smaller building in North Hollywood. He is now down to 11 employees.<\/p>\n \u201cI have a very bright outlook on the future, especially because we\u2019re getting phone calls from people who never would have called us because all the other guys are out of business,\u201d he said. \u201cThere\u2019s something to be said about the last man standing. But I\u2019m the last man standing on $2 million in debt. I\u2019m more like lying down.\u201d<\/p>\n The industry got a reprieve last week when CBS announced that it was relocating its hit drama \u201cTracker\u201d<\/a> to Los Angeles from Vancouver, Canada, after receiving a $48-million tax credit. Many view such moves, however, as small wins over comprehensive ones.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s been a fundamental change happening here over the past five years,\u201d said Cale Thomas, a makeup artist who has worked on \u201cGuardians of the Galaxy 3\u201d and the recent biopic \u201cMichael.\u201d<\/p>\n Thomas, who is a member of Stay in LA,<\/a> acknowledges that California\u2019s step last year to double its tax incentives has helped to spur an uptick in local production, but that has not stopped the outflow of productions or resolved a host of restrictions and costs that have hampered the industry.<\/p>\n He worked on \u201cThe Mandalorian\u201d and other Lucasfilm series that stream on Disney+ for five years. \u201cWe shot in Manhattan Beach Studios,\u201d he said, but noted that Lucasfilm has since moved one show to the U.K. and produced two others there.<\/p>\n \u201cThis has been devastating for our industry,\u201d he said. \u201cHundreds of generational family businesses aren\u2019t being used anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n The pain points are not confined to Hollywood.<\/p>\n Last year, Marvel Studios \u2014 which had made Georgia, known as Hollywood of the South, its primary filming center for such major franchises as \u201cAvengers: Infinity War\u201d \u2014 relocated much of its production to the U.K.<\/p>\n The impact has meant even fewer domestic productions causing an even bigger ripple effect.<\/p>\n![\"Marc](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1778407517_208_.jpeg\")
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