Dreamaker Productions

Dreamaker Productions Dreamaker Productions is a full service production company based in Marrakech, Morocco. The company was established in 1999.

Features & Short Films
EMIR CHITO S. RONO (Cultural Center of the Philippines)
AZAAN - PRASHANT CHADHA (Action Concept Films)
AGENT VINOD SRIRAM RAGHAVAN (Illuminati Films)
PEGASE MOHAMED MOUFTAKIR (Dreamaker Productions)
INTL. BOWIE FUN CLUB SABA HAIDER (Dreamaker Productions)
CHANT FUNEBRE MOHAMED MOUFTAKIR (Dreamaker Productions)
THE PRINCE OF OUARZAZATE FOUAD CHALLA (Dreamaker Produ

ctions)
30 ANS CHRIF MOHAMED TRIBAK (Dreamaker Productions)
THE WALK MARK BROZEL (Granada)
FLIRT JAAP VAN EYCK (Corrino Films)
A SENSE OF GRAVITY DAVID ANDERSON (Mapfilms / BBC)
NO WAITING ON AN ANGEL HANS BEENHAKKER (Egmond Film / BBC)
THE KINGDOM OF DAVID MITCH WILSON & CARL BYKER (PBS)
MIDNIGHT FLY JACOB CHEUNG (Filmko Ltd)
CREATIVE VLADIMIR CHEVELKOV, Ministry of Culture (Russia)
SMOKE AND MIRRORS Michael DOUGLAS (Loc.Scout) Initial Entertainment Group


Commercials & Stills
FIFA ANTI-DISCRIMINATION - TVC - IMG Sports Media - George Miller

GACKT IN MOROCCO - STILLS - STILLKING FILMS Shoichi NOMURA
AIRTEL - TVC - NIRVANA Prakash Ravindranathan VARMA
BAJAJ AVENGER - TVC - MAD ENTERTAINMENT LTD Francois MERLET
SENTA - STILLS - CROSS MARKS Ruud BAAN
DECO - STILLS - CROSS MARKS John SLUYTER
FAYROUZ - STILLS - ADAMSKY Tommie Bisse BENGTSSON
TRIBAL SPORTSWEAR - STILLS - GARTH AIKENS STUDIO Garth AIKENS
BAJAJ MOTORCYCLES - TVC - MAD ENTERTAINMENT LTD Francois MERLET
FAST TRACK - TVC - MAD ENTERTAINMENT LTD Nikhil ADVANI
GETTY IMAGE - STILLS - SYMPHONIE.BIZ Betsie VAN DER MEER
MTN - PROMISED LAND - TVC - CHAOS FILMS Stafford ROBINSON
WORLD CUP WITH MTN - TVC - CHAOS FILMS Stafford ROBINSON
FRANCE GALOP - TVC - BANDIT Stephane BARBATO
PLATINUM - TVC - PSB Thed LENSSEN
DBS 90 DAY CREDIT CARD - TVC - GREEN SPOT PRODUCTIONS Eric HU
DBS 90 DAY CREDIT CARD - STILLS - GREEN SPOT PRODUCTIONS Ching KWONG HAU
INTERNET UNIVERSAL REACH - STILLS - Ashley CAMERON
LAPIN MAGAZINE Vickie STYLANIOU
NUON PPS Matthijs VAN ROON
AQUA FRESH - TVC - GREY Tomas GISLASON
VASTO - TVC - GREEN SPOT PRODUCTIONS Lee Gigo CHA GIGO
VASTO - STILLS - GREEN SPOT PRODUCTIONS Chiang KAR WAH
CREDIT SUISSE - STILLS - SWISS FOOTBALL NATIONAL TEAM Christian AMMAN


TV Programs
EXTREME CUISINE Jeff CORWIN - Citizen Pictures - Food Channel
CIA HOUR ONE - CIA JAWBREAKER Doug SHULTZ - Partisan Pictures - National Geographic
CLASH OF THE GODS - 7 EPISODES Chris CASSEL / Jessica CONWAY - KPITV - History Channel
MAN'S FIRST MIGRATIONS Chad COHEN - National Geographic
SCANDALS OF EGYPT Chris CASSEL - KPITV - Discovery
EGYPT UNDERWORLD Rob LYALL - National Geographic
DUTIFRI IN MARRAKECH Javier SARDA - BCN TV & Gestmusic Endemol
YEAR OF EATING DANGEROUSLY Alicia WADDELL - Waddell Media
GACKT IN MOROCCO Jun OKUMA- Stillking Films
CHINA'S SECRET MUMMIES David SMITH - Part 2 Pictures - 2 EMMY AWARD NOMINATIONS
YOGA TOUCH Claire MISSINGHAM / Malachy McANENNY - Yoga touch
KINGS OF ISRAEL Rene HEIJNAN - National Geographic
DEAD SEA SCROLLS Rene HEIJNAN - National Geographic
CAIN & ABEL Rene HEIJNAN - National Geographic
SECRET JESUS Tom JENNINGS - National Geographic
THE NATURE OF THINGS WITH DAVID SUZUKI Michelle METIVIER - CBC Television
LET'S SHOP Cheryll GILLESPIE - Resource Media
MARRAKECH SHOPPING Brighton Television
STRANDED WITH CASH PETERS Travel Channel Discovery
EXODUS Gary GRIEG - National Geographic
LOST CITIES Gary GRIEG - National Geographic
ARC OF THE COVENANT Gary GRIEG - National Geographic
STORY OF 1 Nick Murphy BBC / Impossible Pictures
HOLIDAY SHOWDOWN Kristy PAINT RDF Media / ITV
THE UNTOLD STORY OF TRIPOLI Patrick TAULERE - History Channel
CHASING TIME IN.....MARRAKECH Jon BARRIE - National Geographic
$100 TAXI RIDE Lisa FRYKLUND - National Geographic
INTER RACIAL MARRIAGES T.L.C - USA
WANDERING TRIBES VANDALS Christian TWENTE ZDF / ARTE - Germany
JULES SYLVESTER'S WILD ADVENTURES Bart ROEN - Discovery
EUROMED 2002 European Commission EEC
ROAD TRIPPIN' Niall DOWNING BBC - UK
CHURCHILL Lucy CARTER ITV / PBS - UK
THE MAGIC OF ESSAOUIRA Fred CHALLA Dreamaker Productions


Music Videos
FNAIRE - YED EL HENNA Ivan HERRERA
SARU Shristi VORA
DESPINA VANDI - GIA Stuart GOSLING
JASON NEVINS Andreas TIBBLIN

🚹 Don’t Miss This! 🚹Join us TOMORROW for our exclusive Panel Session – your chance to dive into the world of top-tier fi...
15/02/2025

🚹 Don’t Miss This! 🚹

Join us TOMORROW for our exclusive Panel Session – your chance to dive into the world of top-tier film production! 🎬✹

đŸ”č Get insider insights
đŸ”č Learn about exclusive opportunities

📍 Click below to learn more âŹ‡ïž

[🔗 Panel Session Info- https://www.canva.com/design/DAGdfKTpaWg/YpKHcqSC02SJbGX6y1_W3Q/view?utm_content=DAGdfKTpaWg&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link2&utm_source=uniquelinks&utlId=h66008e39e7&fbclid=IwY2xjawIdlYRleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHTl-7RIirn4ezH193VVjIGltPWP72zpSqYxyP4qnpwgDcYWkVVIsUASsDQ_aem_842g3lZjnXhe2JXdsKFMJw ]
[📅 Book a 1-on-1 Meeting- https://calendly.com/marrakechfilmcommission/30min ]

JOIN US IN BERLIN FOR THE EXCITING 30% REBATE INFORMATION AND LOT MORE.
04/02/2025

JOIN US IN BERLIN FOR THE EXCITING 30% REBATE INFORMATION AND LOT MORE.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBwoSa3n8Yc&t=15sDirector: Martin CampbellProducer: Moshe DiamantLine Producer: Fouad Ch...
10/01/2025

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBwoSa3n8Yc&t=15s

Director: Martin Campbell
Producer: Moshe Diamant
Line Producer: Fouad Challa

dreamakerproductions.com

Dirty Angels - Watch the trailer now! In Select Theaters and On Demand December 13. Starring Eva Green, Maria Bakalova, Ruby Rose, and Jojo T. Gibbs.Subscrib...

24/10/2024

Increíblemente brillante pieza de arte caligráfico hecha por la artista polaca Barbara GaliƄska

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_2_7EvjoiDE&d=w
08/08/2024

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_2_7EvjoiDE&d=w

Ű§Ù„Ù…ÙˆÙ‚Űč Ű§Ù„Ű„ŰźŰšŰ§Ű±ÙŠ Ű§Ù„ŰŽŰ§Ù…Ù„ LE7TV LE7TV ۟ۧ۔ ŰšŰ§Ù„ŰŁŰźŰšŰ§Ű± Ű§Ù„ŰąÙ†ÙŠŰ©ŰŒ ÙˆŰ§Ù„Ù…Ù†ÙˆŰčۧŰȘ Ű§Ù„Ű«Ù‚Ű§ÙÙŠŰ© ÙˆŰ§Ù„ŰłÙŠŰ§ŰłÙŠŰ© ÙˆŰ§Ù„Ű„ŰŹŰȘÙ…Ű§ŰčÙŠŰ© ÙˆŰ§Ù„Ű±ÙŠŰ§Ű¶ÙŠŰ©ŰŒ يŰȘولى Ù†ŰŽŰ± وŰȘŰčميم Ű§Ù„Ù…ŰłŰȘۏۯۧŰȘ Ű§Ù„Ű·Ű§Ű±ŰŠŰ©ŰŒ ÙƒÙ…Ű§...

08/06/2024

It seems there’s a disconnect between the reality on the ground for producers (commissioning slowdown, majority of freelancers out of work) and the money end of TV.

The advertising slump is over. Inflation is back down to 2.3%. Viewer decline has stalled.

And last month, ad research body Thinkbox published a report which found that TV investment is pretty healthy as well.

Adspend is growing again, viewer decline is the lowest in years, and the shift to online has been overblown.

Here’s the headlines:

1.⁠ ⁠Ad investment returned to growth in 2024 after declining in 2023.

2.⁠ ⁠Despite talk of an exodus to social, advertisers are sticking with TV. 84% of video advertising is now on TV screens.

3.⁠ ⁠TV viewing patterns have stabilised. Broadcaster viewing is down just 1.7% - the smallest decline since 2016 (even amongst 16-34s) and SVOD growth has stalled.

4.⁠ ⁠Decline in linear viewing is more than offset by growth in broadcaster VOD. Linear is down 6% but BVOD is up an astonishing 23% - which means viewers are sticking with broadcasters.

5.⁠ ⁠Demand for unscripted content has never been higher. 6 of the top-10 shows last year were unscripted, and amongst 16-34s the most-watched show was Clarkson’s Farm. People are now spending more time watching documentaries than films.

Not only does this report suggest that we’re through the worst – it suggests we’re six months clear of it. So where’s our upturn?

One by one, the reasons given for the downturn are falling away.

It’s time for broadcasters to start investing in content again, and help producers get back on their feet.

31/05/2024

Inside Cannes 2024: Adapting to Struggles and Shifts in the Independent Film Market

Despite the outward optimism at Cannes this year, a sense of weariness lingers among buyers shaken by increasing asking prices while theatrical demand plummets.

Several prominent presale packages found buyers. The most notable from a non-streamer was Ruben Östlund’s “The Entertainment System Is Down,” with Keanu Reeves and Kirsten Dunst, for which A24 acquired the US rights for over $10 million.

Netflix and other streamers are still investing in select titles, but not at previous levels and typically exclusively for worldwide rights, taking away popular titles from traditional international distributors.

Streaming giants Amazon Prime Video, Netflix, and Apple capitalized on the most audience-centric presale packages. Amazon secured multiple territories for several star-driven projects in pre-production and post-production.

Apple outbid all others with a reportedly $40 million worldwide presale acquisition deal for “Tenzing.” Netflix made a strong return with a $34 million presale deal for “Monsanto,” to star Glen Powell and Laura Dern.

These direct-to-streaming acquisitions deprive independent domestic distributors of the opportunity to rejuvenate the independent cinema market. These deals also highlight streamers’ aggressive tactics in expanding their content libraries with high-profile projects, underscoring their ongoing efforts to attract and retain subscribers in a changing digital landscape..

High asking prices for distribution rights remain a significant hurdle for buyers. The end of the Hollywood strikes and the return to production have driven talent costs up, compelling independents to pay premiums to retain star attachments.

Minimum guarantees have recently increased across most territories, which is unusual given the substantial decline in demand for independent films. These increases are even more perplexing, considering revenue from home entertainment (EST and VOD) is almost entirely absent. And while SVOD remains robust for popular titles, television revenue is mainly missing from the equation. Distributors must rely on massive box office receipts to recoup distribution advances, but admissions haven’t recovered after the 2020-21 lockdowns.

Financing arrangements made during stronger buying periods and rising inflation further complicate the pricing landscape. Buyers without solid Pay-1 deals struggle to meet these high costs, indicating a need for strategic financial planning and negotiations in the current market.

The strain is especially severe with A-list market packages. Independent producers, battling to attract and keep talent in a post-strike environment, are battling exorbitant fees for talent offered by studios and streamers. This intense competition has forced sales agents to hike territorial distribution minimum guarantees to recover investment capital. Sales estimates set in a pre-strike time, when streamers were more actively spending, coupled with inflation, have only worsened the situation.

Festival selections with significant buyer interest have also seen aggressive pricing. Many mid-market projects now demand up to $1 million for territories like Italy, Spain, and Scandinavia, which was unthinkable not long ago.

Recent acquisitions for North American rights reflect ongoing caution among US buyers, who lack robust Pay-1 deals to support sizable minimum guarantees. This void also has a cascading effect on international distribution. These shifts underscore the evolving and increasingly competitive landscape of the post-lockdown film market.

US buyers largely stayed on the sidelines during Cannes, reflecting a cautious stance amidst market uncertainties. Neon continues to glow after securing its fifth consecutive Palme d’Or win with “Anora” taking the top prize at Cannes, joining A24 as active market buyers.

Debt-laden studios and their independent distribution labels are navigating a tumultuous transition in the evolving streaming landscape, resulting in a lack of domestic deals. This void exerts downward pressure on international distribution. Films without a US distributor face deteriorating values over time, making it increasingly challenging to recoup production budgets.

More traditional independent distributors previously active in the US market are absent altogether, waiting to see if theatrical audiences return.

Despite these hurdles, there has been a rise in worldwide rights deals, particularly with streaming platforms. These deals are fostering new financing models and opportunities. However, buyers are predominantly interested in films featuring solid casts that can guarantee audiences.

Distributors seek the assurance of marketable names that audiences will recognize, leaving many mid-market and specialty producers and distributors struggling to secure these lucrative deals. This focus on top talent effectively sidelines a significant portion of the independent market.

In the French Riviera sun, enthusiasm burns bright, but after traveling back to the office, the allure of film packages can fade fast, leading to extended closing periods and cancellations.

Amid the outward positivity of this year’s MarchĂ© du Cannes, the underlying atmosphere was one of caution. Buyers meticulously evaluated opportunities over days before making offers or walking away. Many festival titles that generated buzz initially with significant interest faded by mid-market and challenged to draw meaningful distributor attention. Such hesitancy indicates a selective buying trend, focusing on high-potential titles while others await further scrutiny.

Cannes is a critical barometer for the industry’s fortune for the rest of the year. As the market navigates these changes, the question remains: how will the independent film sector adapt in this new reality?

Buyers flinch in Cannes as sellers ramp up asking prices

Amid a generally positive market the familiar gripe of high asking prices has sent a clear message that buyers and sellers are finding it increasingly tough to reconcile their respective financial models.

The tension remains particularly acute on A-list market packages, where independent producers have fought (and paid) to attract and hold on to talent in a post-strike world where hefty offers from studios and streamers, driven by talent agents, have been hard to resist.

The ripple effect has forced sales agents to push up their asks in order to recoup financiers’ investments. Sales estimates set more than a year ago, when deep-pocketed streamers were more active in the market, coupled with inflation, have also made the situation challenging.

Sellers have been aggressive on buzzy festival selections that have popped here, too. Screen has heard Goodfellas bumped up its $600,000 price tag on Italian rights to Jacques Audiard’s Competition entry Emilia Perez to $1m.

Similarly, buyers have spoken of eye-watering asks on territories for Coralie Fargeat’s The Substance and Mohammad Rasoulof’s The Seed Of The Sacred Fig.

Neon picked up North America on Rasoulof’s film amid ongoing caution among US buyers lacking robust pay-1 deals to back big bets; a situation that also affects international buyers.

San Fu Maltha of Dutch distributor Perisccop, whose market acquisitions have included the documentaries Black Box Diaries from Dogwoof and Hung Up On A Dream sold by Utopia, was nonetheless among several Benelux buyers ruffled by prices.

“I don’t want to offer at this point,” he said. “Prices were slightly too optimistic when packages were put together two years ago, when the market was more buoyant and there was more optimism about streamer deals and distribution companies needing content
 We’ve seen films hit the market and not deliver on those estimates.”

UK sellers have reported a positive market, although attendance from Japan, Australia and New Zealand was believed to be soft, while the Russians have been buying. Several Hong Kong sellers said the market still had not rediscovered pre-Covid momentum, while Asian buyers in China and Singapore have been active.

Singapore independent distributor Thomas Chia’s Lighthouse Film Distribution acquired All We Imagine As Light, the first Indian film in competition in three decades; Media Asia clocked up new sales on-site for Hong Kong action thriller Twilight Of The Warriors: Walled In, with deals closing for South Korea (Contents Panda), India (Indo Overseas), Eastern Europe (Polemedia), and Indonesia and Cambodia (Westec Media).

Todd Olsson, president of international sales at US-based Highland Film Group, reported a strong response across the slate, particularly on Justin Chadwick action thriller Sierra Madre starring Kiefer Sutherland, and John Stalberg, Jr.’s Muzzle: City Of Wolves starring Aaron Eckhart.

“This is the busiest market we have had in years,” said Olsson. “Everybody’s aggressively pursuing content.”

Much talk has also centred on the state of the market ecosystem itself. TIFF announced it will launch an official content market in 2026, after it emerged earlier this year that AFM is moving to Las Vegas for its 2024 edition. Last night attendees at a Marché reception heard that Ventana Sur is in exclusive talks to relocate to Uruguay later this year.

David Ellison’s Skydance Media sweetens offer for Paramount

David Ellison’s Skydance Media and its investment partners have increased their offer to Paramount Global board members, signaling the technology scion’s strong intent to take over the storied media company.

Two people close to the discussions who were not authorized to comment confirmed the new offer, but precise terms were not disclosed.

The move comes less than a month after Skydance’s exclusive negotiating window expired without a deal. Since then, Paramount board members have been considering a rival $26-billion bid from Sony Pictures Entertainment and Apollo Global Management, but those talks have been slow, knowledgeable people have said.

Controlling shareholder Shari Redstone has long preferred Skydance’s proposal, which would give her family a premium on their voting shares. Redstone, Paramount’s non-executive chair, would like to see the New York-based media behemoth her father built remain whole, rather than be carved up.

Some film producers and agents also are rooting for the Skydance bid, believing it represents the best chance to preserve one of Hollywood’s oldest studios — a famous fixture on Melrose Avenue. In addition to Paramount Pictures, the company owns the CBS television network, CBS television studios and cable channels including TV Land, Nickelodeon, BET and MTV.

Both sides recognized that previous proposals by Skydance — joined by RedBird Capital Partners and private equity firm KKR — would not pass muster with shareholders, including those beyond the Redstone family who hold voting A-class shares, knowledgeable people have said.

The new proposal, which came earlier this week, increases the amount of money that would go to shareholders, one of the knowledgeable people said.

In the waning days of Skydance’s exclusive negotiation period, which ended May 3, Skydance and RedBird increased the financial terms of the proposal under consideration by a special committee of Paramount’s board. At the time, the bidding group had offered $5 billion, which included about $2 billion to buy out the Redstone family shares.

But board members and the Ellison team disagreed over how much of the remaining $3 billion would be used to pay down debt and how much money would go to shareholders.

Redstone has the power to push through the deal she wants because her family’s National Amusements Inc. owns 77% of Paramount’s voting shares. However, she and her fellow board members also have a fiduciary duty to look out for the interests of all shareholders.

Redstone’s willingness to work exclusively with Ellison to forge a complicated two-phase transaction, which would lead to a roll-up of Ellison’s smaller Skydance production company, infuriated investors. The wrangling caused months of tensions in Paramount’s boardroom and contributed to the ouster of Chief Executive Bob Bakish, who was open to considering the Sony-Apollo deal.

The deal envisioned by Sony Pictures and Apollo would buy out Paramount shareholders and retire Paramount’s existing debt. Sony was expected to be the lead investor and absorb Paramount’s film studio operations and franchises. Apollo, which has television station holdings, was expected to claim the CBS side of the business.

But there’s been little momentum in their talks with Paramount’s board, knowledgeable people said.

During a presentation for Sony investors Wednesday night, Sony Pictures Entertainment Chief Executive Tony Vinciquerra said the company would be disciplined in its approach to dealmaking.

“We will not make investments that don’t complement our current strategy,” he said. “Our strategy is to have more [intellectual property], more product, more library to sell.”

Unlike Hollywood’s other major studios, Sony has not lost billions of dollars trying to create a stand-alone streaming service. Instead, the Culver City studio has profited by selling its shows to other distributors and streaming services, including Netflix.

Vinciquerra made it clear there were boundaries to Sony’s investment interests, suggesting the company wasn’t about to bulk up on cable television channels, a sector of the business that has been under particular strain in the shift to streaming.

“We’re not going to get into a general entertainment streaming service,” Vinciquerra said. “We’re not going to be operating other businesses that are outside the strategy that we’ve defined.”

Hollywood crews in ‘crisis’: ‘Everyone’s just in panic mode’ as jobs decline

After more than two decades in the industry, Keith Dunkerley still loves nothing more than working on a set. The 47-year-old director of photography and camera operator, who’s had consistent work since he moved to Los Angeles 23 years ago, said his is “the best job in the world.”

Since the writers’ and actors’ strikes last year and the slow restart of production, though, Dunkerley said his work opportunities look quite different than in past years: He has worked only 18 days during the first five months of 2024.

“People outside the business don’t understand this is not a factory,” Dunkerley said. “It’s not like, ‘OK, the strike’s over, go back to the factory, turn the lights on and get the machines going.’ A lot of us knew it’s going to take some time to ramp things up.”

While Dunkerley supported his family through savings and odd jobs as a handyman on TaskRabbit during the strikes, the sluggish rebound has been difficult for him. He’s recently made more than 60 calls to friends and industry contacts to look for prospects.

What Dunkerley is experiencing is a part of the massive ripple effect of the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes that is still affecting tens of thousands of people working in entertainment and adjacent industries. Crew members, especially, have been hit hard.

“I am currently in the worst place I’ve ever been in my entire life financially,” said Heather Fink, a boom operator and director. “The industry is in a crisis. It is not back to normal. We are in debt.”

FilmLA, a nonprofit that tracks on-location permitting in the city, released a report in April that revealed a slow bounceback in production after the dual strikes. Local on-location filming in the first quarter of the year was down 8.7% from the first quarter of 2023. Television production was especially impacted, with production falling 16.2% from last year.

Paul Audley, the president of FilmLA, said these findings are startling when considering that film and television production saw a “retraction” at the start of 2023 in anticipation of the looming writers’ strike.

“What we’re facing is a combination of effects of the studios, as well as the streamers, cutting back not only the number of series they produced but in some cases the number of episodes they’re producing for shows,” Audley said.

With scarce work opportunities, many crew members are concerned about how they will maintain their health insurance, which is often directly tied to the number of hours they work. Those who have coverage with the Motion Picture Industry Pension and Health Plans must work 400 hours in a six-month period to maintain their insurance. Many veteran crew members, like hairstylist and department head Jason Orion, who’s worked on shows including “Grey’s Anatomy,” said he has never been close to losing his coverage until now.

Orion was able to keep his health insurance thanks to a job on “9-1-1.” He said because he worked down to the wire before the 2007-08 writers’ strike, he thought he’d be busy until the strikes officially began. In reality, he had “an almost nonexistent beginning of 2023.” Even the shows and films shooting in L.A. now have slashed many departments, he added, noting sets that historically employed 20 hairstylists now have just two or three.

Orion said “9-1-1” was a “very hard show,” noting that crew member Rico Priem recently died in a car accident after pulling a 14-hour overnight shift. “We were all tired, it was a very terrible thing,” Orion said after noting that hours on sets are generally “brutal and relentless.”

These tough conditions are one of the top concerns in ongoing negotiations between the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE), which advocates for film and TV crew members, and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), which represents Hollywood studios. Much like the WGA and SAG-AFTRA negotiations, wage increases, residuals and the use of artificial intelligence also are issues on the table.

Some crew members said they’re cautiously optimistic that negotiations will proceed smoothly and that work opportunities will ramp up once an agreement is reached, which members seem to believe will happen before their current contract expires on July 31.

For others, optimism does not come easily after a year of struggle. Fink said working in sound for 14 years was “honestly one of the biggest mistakes I’ve ever made in my life,” and that she feels uneasy about the future. One of her primary concerns is the increasing number of productions moving away from L.A. and California to states or countries that offer better tax incentives for production — a phenomenon dubbed runaway production.

“I’m so afraid that there isn’t going to be a job to even be concerned [about] what the conditions are,” Fink said.

California offers $330 million annually in film tax credits, but other states looking to build up their status as production hubs, like New York and Georgia, provide more attractive incentives and programs with higher or unlimited funding. New York’s cap is $700 million and Georgia currently does not have a limit.

“California remains noncompetitive with the rest of the world that is offering incentives and tax credits,” Audley said. “Everybody’s aware that California is not an inexpensive place to do business and we have, in the past, been able to overcome that 
 but it’s just noncompetitive and we don’t have anywhere near enough money in those funds from the state to draw and keep production in L.A.”

Outside of the U.S., several countries, including the United Kingdom, New Zealand and Australia, are offering cushy tax incentives for studios, where they can bypass unions and pay crews lower wages than in the States.

“For so long, American culture was the thing that we exported. It is very strange to watch everyone be OK that it’s getting imported,” said Ian Barbella, a camera assistant who’s worked on series and films including “Lessons in Chemistry” and “Wine Country.” “There’s no context of [how] that’s an American company not using American workers.”

These compounding sources of stress — the fear of their jobs moving out of state or abroad, the strenuous conditions they face on set and the lack of employment opportunities — are affecting the mental health of many crew members.

Diego Mariscal, a dolly grip with 25-plus years of experience and credits including “Spider-Man: No Way Home” and “The Mandalorian,” has been running a popular Facebook group called Crew Stories for the last five years. The online community of 90,000 shares on-set experiences — both the good and the bad — and offers support through posts and fundraising for colleagues in need. Mariscal said he has seen the toll this “weird limbo” has had on his peers.

“Everyone’s just in panic mode and they don’t know what to do,” Mariscal said. Through his social media accounts, he said he has recently fielded multiple messages from crew members experiencing suicidal thoughts and severe mental distress.

Communities like Crew Stories and the friendships crew members have developed with co-workers have been a refuge for many. Jennifer Rose Clasen, a still photographer for “The Flight Attendant” and “Big Little Lies,” said her “film family” has been leaning on one another and sharing their mental health struggles as they muscle through the dry spell of work and the uncertainty that lies ahead.

“I constantly have to remind my friends this isn’t their fault because there’s a little trickle of work out there so there’s just enough for people to feel like they’re failing,” Clasen said. “That, compounded over 10, 12, 14 months, truly takes a toll on people’s well-being.”

Amid the mental and financial challenges they’re facing, some said those outside of the industry expect them to seek out adjacent careers. Dunkerley said it’s not that simple.

“I love what I do,” he said. “You definitely question what you do, you wake up [and] it’s kind of like, ‘What am I doing? What am I supposed to do now? What’s going to happen?’ And you just hope that something will pop up. I’m really hopeful. Fingers crossed.”

Los Angeles loses ground to rivals in film and TV employment but remains the biggest player

Los Angeles’ portion of the domestic film and TV economy shrank last year amid devastating industry struggles, but it remains by far the most powerful entertainment player in the United States.

According to the latest Otis College Report on the Creative Economy, released Thursday, the City of Angels posted a 27% share of domestic film and TV employment in 2023 — down 8% from 2022 but still way ahead of its fiercest competitor, New York, which made up 12% of the entertainment workforce.

Other U.S. production hubs lagged far behind Los Angeles. Each claiming 2% of the entertainment pie last year were Atlanta, Dallas, San Francisco, Chicago and Miami; while Nashville, Tenn., Austin, Texas, and Washington, D.C., each hovered at 1% — largely in line with where they stood 10 years ago.

Last year, the entertainment industry was hobbled by six months of overlapping strikes by the Writers Guild of America and Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists.

Additionally, the Otis report found that workers in Los Angeles County earned 50% of all wages across the domestic film and TV industry last year.

With the exception of New York — long a production stronghold — film and TV activity outside of Los Angeles was spread pretty evenly throughout other parts of the country, leading Otis College to conclude that there is no “New Hollywood” on the horizon.

The new report tracks the pivotal decade from 2013 — when Netflix launched the streaming revolution with the release of “House of Cards” — to early 2024, immediately following the Hollywood writers’ and actors’ strikes.

“Los Angeles is still the apex of the entertainment industry, but the industry itself is undergoing once-in-a-generation changes,” Patrick Adler, principal at Westwood Economics and Planning Associates, said in a statement.

“It is less dependent on film and television studios, more oriented toward online content creation, live events and gaming, and also much more technical and managerial than ever. What it means to work in Hollywood is starkly different today than even 10 years ago.”

According to the study, film and TV currently covers about 52% of the entertainment business in Los Angeles County, coming in 12% behind 2013. Employment levels spanning film, TV, sound, broadcasting and print media — all labeled “traditional” entertainment fields by Otis — have similarly fallen roughly 9% from 2013 to 2024.

The waning prominence of film and TV coincides with a drop in production, which is still down 9% from pre-strike levels, according to the report. Film and TV employment in Los Angeles County is 19% lower than it was prior to the work stoppages — leaving thousands of writers, crew members and other entertainment workers in a state of financial and emotional distress.

Otis College previously reported that entertainment employment in the greater Los Angeles area plummeted by 17% during the overlapping writers’ and actors’ strikes.

Previous reporting by The Times illustrates that the production and employment crisis in Los Angeles predates the walkouts and can be largely attributed to an ongoing industry contraction following studios’ overspending during the streaming wars.

As a result, film, TV, commercial and other production activity in the first quarter of 2024 was about 20% below the five-year average, according to FilmLA, a nonprofit organization that tracks on-location production in the Greater Los Angeles area.

Meanwhile, job growth in “modern” entertainment sectors — identified as software publishing, video gaming, social media, streaming, performing arts, live sports and “independent artists” — rose 53% between 2013 and 2024, Otis College reported.

The fastest-growing corner of the entertainment industry in the county is software publishing (including video games), which has jumped 149% in the last decade. Film, TV and traditional publishing are the only areas that have seen a decline.

The report also determined that the number of college-educated workers in the Los Angeles entertainment industry increased from 46% to 68% between 2000 and 2022.

Creative and management positions accounted for 59% of entertainment jobs in 2013 and had risen to 66% by 2022. Meanwhile, the amount of manual occupations, such as transportation, cleaning, groundskeeping and construction, had declined.

Additionally, the entertainment workforce over the last decade has become more racially diverse. The share of white workers in creative fields decreased between 2013 and 2022, while employment for all other racial groups grew, the report indicates.

“My hope is that the trends identified in this study and our ongoing Otis College Report on the Creative Economy give industry leaders and policymakers insight into the needs of an evolving workforce,” Charles Hirschhorn, president of Otis College, said in a statement, “one that requires more training, investment and education than ever before.”

Lionsgate Studios May Make Lower-Budget Movies Just For Starz As Company Moves Ahead With Split

Lionsgate is thinking about making “lower-budget” movies for Starz as the TV streaming and linear network is set to split with Lionsgate Studios by the end of the year.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if we also made some lower budget movies specifically for Starz,” said CEO Jon Feltheimer on a post-earnings call. “And we’re talking about that and thinking about the calculus for how that works.”

Talking about Lionsgate theatrical output – from big swings to the many smaller films on its slate that he said generate 90% returns, Feltheimer noted that “at the end of the day, we take all that product, all that product, and all that huge investment, and it goes all into the library. And the new stuff drives the old stuff” in a virtuous circle.

“We’ve got a really a great ecosystem, whether we’re the same company or whether we’re two companies. I think you can expect those mutual benefits to continue.”

Lionsgate Studios recently became a publicly traded company (stock symbol LION) through a S**C merger in the first step in a separation. Lionsgate Entertainment (LGF), which still includes the studio and Starz, is trading as usual. But the plan is to spin out the studio to shareholders (except the circa 13% owned by S**C investors), leaving two pure play companies. Vice chair Michael Burns said the LGF board has authorized a special committee to work out the terms of the spin, which intends to collapse the Class A and Class B shares, with some premium for the A stockholders. There will be a shareholder vote on it all before moving forward.

“We are going through the processes, you know, regulatory, shareholder votes, notices, all of that. So I think we all believe that the sooner the better. But we’re putting that target by the end of the year and have to follow all these different processes. Also remember, there’s a Canadian aspect to us. And all those i’s and all those t’s have to be crossed,” he said.

UK Indie Film Tax Credit becomes law “in nick of time” ahead of General Election

The UK’s Independent Film Tax Credit (IFTC) has become law “in the nick of time” according to BFI chief executive Ben Roberts, moving on to the statute books just before Parliament is dissolved this week ahead of the UK General Election.

The IFTC was announced by Chancellor Jeremy Hunt on March 6 as part of the Conservative government’s Spring Budget. When Prime Minister Rishi Sunak called the UK General Election for July 4, there were fears that the IFTC – which was part of the 2024 Finance Bill – might not have time to pass through Parliament.

MPs only have until May 30 to pass remaining legislation in a period known as the ’wash-up’ before Parliament is dissolved.

However, the Finance Bill moved quickly through Parliament last week before finally receiving Royal Assent on May 24. Once a bill has completed all the parliamentary stages in both Houses, it can receive Royal Assent. This is when the King formally agrees to make the bill into an Act of Parliament, effectively turning into law.

In a comment posted on LinkedIn, Roberts said: “For anyone concerned about the security of the Indie Film Tax Credit heading into the election period – the Finance Bill received Royal Assent on Friday, just in the nick of time. There is some further ‘housekeeping’ required for the BFI to issue the interim certificates, but the IFTC is safe. Pass it on.”

The IFTC is aimed at reinvigorating the homegrown film production sector, and gives UK-qualifying films budgeted up to ÂŁ15m a tax relief of 40%. During Cannes, UK producers reported significant interest from potential international partners as a result of the IFTC.

Address

Marrakesh

Opening Hours

Monday 09:00 - 17:00
Tuesday 09:00 - 17:00
Wednesday 09:00 - 17:00
Thursday 09:00 - 17:00
Friday 09:00 - 17:00

Telephone

+212661257326

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Dreamaker Productions posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The Business

Send a message to Dreamaker Productions:

Share