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shot in L.A., Calif. or for saving actor and music costs?

jefferiestubes8

jefferiestubes8

Commodore
Commodore
As Not Herbert put it on a post about the Composer for music on the next Trek series
Not Herbert said:
I think one reason they are doing CBS streaming instead of broadcast, is so they can possibly pay the "alternative media" scales to SAG talent, and produce the music non-union, without an AFM contract. I won't be surprised if they shoot in BC or somewhere outside LA, and score the music like the later BSG with electronics mixed with some wind and percussion overdubs.
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As we all know Trek TV is a mostly in-studio show. This leads to where will the next Trek TV series be shot?
For previous shows Trek never went beyond California even the expensive VOY, pilot Episode 1x01 Caretaker shot within California. With the Internet allowing offsite dailies and editing production can shoot around the world with maybe a one-day delay.
So far the TV series Alex Kurtzman and Heather Kadin have been exec. producers on have shot in L.A. or NYC. I can see a show like this shooting in Vancouver to save money as the VisualFX are going to need to be top notch especially for the premiere episode airing on CBS and will be used in the majority of the trailers as promotional for 6 months leading up to January 2017.
Vancouver & California? New Mexico, Georgia? Will the premiere be shot in multiple cities for various alien planets and possibly future Earth locations?
I don't think we are going to find out more about locations until after the cast is chosen and the series goes into production as then the cast will be using Twitter from a location other than their home. Their photo's metadata from smartphones will have GPS coordinates giving away the city they are shooting in. This will in-turn send paparazzi photographers to that city to shoot photos of exterior sets to leak on the Internet.
 
Fringe moved to Vancouver for season 2. Kurtzman will likely pick whatever location offers the best tax-incentives and cheapest filming costs. The only thing that can be said for sure is they won't stick with LA because of tradition.
 
I doubt they will have the same security that the movies were subjected to, but it would be stupid for them to not take basic security precautions - filming under a code name, having PR scrub location metadata from photos and tweets; etc.

Even when Voyager was running there was little incentive for major shows to move outside of SoCal, and film industry support was a lot weaker than it is today.
Since then, Florida, Vancouver, NYC et al have become much bigger players in the film industry; although with a big ticket name funded by a prominent company, I think the new series is far more likely to be based in Hollywood.
 
I wouldn't be surprised to see it filmed in Vancouver. If it stays state side, I think Georgia could be a strong possibility with the incentives they offer and the incredible growth in the film industry they have happening now.
 
Also depends on who's starring. if they're casting relative unknowns early in their careers to do a potentially multi year series, relocating is not out of the question. If they're casting established stars relocating becomes more difficult.
 
I always wanted some sci-fi show to build a green facility, like an indoor/outdoor so they could do alien planets and street scenes and whatnot something like what stargate studios did.
[yt]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=clnozSXyF4k[/yt]
 
Outsourcing! That's what we call it when we, in the US, send manufacturing jobs out of the country. It doesn't just happen in the US obviously. Sending film and music production out of the country is also about the tax rebates that the film producers receive for filming in an other city. Even if you fly an entire cast to Vancouver from LA every week, and put them up, it still makes more sense for the budget than filming in LA. That's why the Paramount lot has shows like Dr Phil instead of episodic TV.

California and New York state, need to match those tax rebates to keep work in the film industry in town. Also, the US needs to have a public health scheme like Canada, UK, or pretty much everywhere else, in order to allow American workers to compete with their foreign counterparts. If a film crew worker in Canada makes $700/day, then the American worker makes $700/day plus a hefty percentage for benefits.

The reason that TV and film scores are recorded overseas is because the film studios don't want to pay residuals to musicians. The "secondary markets fund" pays musicians 1% of the profits of a film or TV series from secondary markets. It's too complicated to go into here. Read about it here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Film_Musicians_Secondary_Markets_Fund

Non union film and TV scores pay musicians a buyout rate. Actually, that's a lie. Non union film and TV dates pay whatever the hell the producers want to pay with no possibility of residuals, or pension and health contributions. American musicians receive health insurance through the musicians union and the contributions must be payed by the employer. No union contract means no "employer". Same goes for the pension. On the flip side, all AFM musicians pay 4% of their gross wages back to the union as "work dues". If I make $300 on a 3-hour recording session, the employer sends the money to a payroll service. The payroll service takes out all the taxes and send a cheque to the local musicians union. The union sends me an email stating that I have a cheque and I give them my credit card # and they charge me $12 in work dues and send me my cheque with federal, state, and local taxes already taken out.

If anyone is interested, I'll attach a pdf of the AFM THEATRICAL MOTION PICTURE AND TELEVISION FILM AGREEMENTS. I just need to figure out how to attach a pdf.
 
@Herbert: Use Dropbox, Copy or Google Drive to upload the PDF and link it here, if anyone is interested.
We now live in a global economy. Vancouver has some major advantages over LA, but in sheer size it cannot compete - Hollywood has dozens of studios with soundstages and the like, and all the supporting industries like prop and set fabrication, model shops, costume designers etc around it.
 
Jedman67 said:
Yup it works. Dunno if anyone is interested.
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The point being is that is is chump change to pay for an orchestra. Why bust the union, just do everything in LA like all the other Trek series, yes?

I figure it would cost $24000 in salary for a 40-piece orchestra for a double session. Figure on an other $10k - $15k for composer fee. So it could cost around $40k to record a new Trek score in LA. This is inline with what a major TV budget should allow. The producers could scale it back to TOS proportions with a 29-piece orchestra (or less) recording a score in 1 (3-hour) session.
 
I think the industry has changed since the 60s, 80s and 90s, it might have made more sense to film in LA back then, but now it likely doesn't make as much sense.

If they save money by filming in Vancouver rather then LA, maybe they could put that money towards better production values.
 
The Overlord said:
I think the industry has changed since the 60s, 80s and 90s, it might have made more sense to film in LA back then, but now it likely doesn't make as much sense.

If they save money by filming in Vancouver rather then LA, maybe they could put that money towards better production values.
Click to expand...

Recording an acoustic score in LA with AFM musicians IS better production values.
 
Not Herbert said:
The Overlord said:
I think the industry has changed since the 60s, 80s and 90s, it might have made more sense to film in LA back then, but now it likely doesn't make as much sense.

If they save money by filming in Vancouver rather then LA, maybe they could put that money towards better production values.
Click to expand...

Recording an acoustic score in LA with AFM musicians IS better production values.
Click to expand...

But this just the music score, not where the filming would be (I also think other places could produce a musical score that is just as good, New York for example, has a lot of good music studios). Even in LA would make the best music score, which is very debatable, they can still do the score there and film somewhere cheaper.

The fact is, LA has priced itself out of the filming market:

http://variety.com/2014/film/news/e...-shooting-elsewhere-to-save-money-1201125523/

Why would Star Trek continue to film in LA, if it could save money by filming in New York or Vancouver or anywhere else? They could spend the money they saved on better special actors or better actors.
 
The Overlord said:
Not Herbert said:
The Overlord said:
I think the industry has changed since the 60s, 80s and 90s, it might have made more sense to film in LA back then, but now it likely doesn't make as much sense.

If they save money by filming in Vancouver rather then LA, maybe they could put that money towards better production values.
Click to expand...

Recording an acoustic score in LA with AFM musicians IS better production values.
Click to expand...

But this just the music score, not where the filming would be (I also think other places could produce a musical score that is just as good, New York for example, has a lot of good music studios). Even in LA would make the best music score, which is very debatable, they can still do the score there and film somewhere cheaper.
Click to expand...

It costs the same to record a score in NYC. The AFM contract is the same in all of North America. The good studios in NYC for an orchestra are mostly gone.
 
Not Herbert said:
The Overlord said:
Not Herbert said:
Recording an acoustic score in LA with AFM musicians IS better production values.
Click to expand...

But this just the music score, not where the filming would be (I also think other places could produce a musical score that is just as good, New York for example, has a lot of good music studios). Even in LA would make the best music score, which is very debatable, they can still do the score there and film somewhere cheaper.
Click to expand...

It costs the same to record a score in NYC. The AFM contract is the same in all of North America. The good studios in NYC for an orchestra are mostly gone.
Click to expand...

Again, what evidence is there that you could only get a decent score done in LA, what evidence do you have no other location could not do a decent score?

Also they can do the score and film the series in two separate locations, you really have not made a good case on why this series should be filmed in LA.
 
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