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Hub AI
Runaway production AI simulator
(@Runaway production_simulator)
Hub AI
Runaway production AI simulator
(@Runaway production_simulator)
Runaway production
Runaway production is a term used by the American Hollywood industry to describe filmmaking and television productions that are intended for initial release/exhibition or television broadcast in the U.S., but are actually filmed outside of the immediate Los Angeles area (including Hollywood), whether in another country, another U.S. state, or in another part of California.
In a 2005 production report by the Center for Entertainment Industry Data and Research (CEIDR), the trend of runaway productions is more frequently linked to American films and television being lured away from U.S. locations to out-of-country locations. A large reason for these productions leaving are foreign subsidies offered to American companies ultimately reducing the cost of making the film. According to the CEIDR report, "The analysis reveals that, while there are certainly general economic factors at play, such as relative labor and exchange rates, the data over the past several years strongly suggests that proliferation of production subsidies around the globe has been one of the most significant factors affecting the choice of production venues for a significant volume of production."
The report further states that "the connection between the advent of Canadian Production subsidies in late 1998 and the dramatic increase in production that occurred in the following year (as reflected by the 144% increase in dollar volume for the 2000 release year films) appears unassailable as there were no appreciable changes in exchange rates or labor rates to justify this dramatic shift from one year to the next, other than the subsidy programs".
Los Angeles has traditionally played a large role in the history of the film industry, both in the United States and internationally. The first American film production companies emerged in New Jersey and New York. The relatively poor quality of early recording media and lighting systems meant that films had to be shot in sunlit glass studios. In turn, the unstable weather typical of the northeastern states frequently hampered production. Eventually, a trend developed towards using the western states as ideal locations for shooting.
During the early 1910s, Los Angeles was an advantageous location for filmmakers. It featured clear, dry weather that allowed them to film outdoors much of the year. Southern California also offered a broad variety of terrain. More importantly, its distance from New York City meant distance from the Motion Picture Patents Company (i.e., the Edison trust) and its patent enforcers.
Camille Johnson-Yale has argued that from a semantics perspective, the term "runaway production" (and the discourse surrounding it) arises from an implicit interpretation of Hollywood as "the authentic home to global film production, and all others as its inauthentic, even criminal, harborers." Throughout the rest of the 20th century, Hollywood remained the dominant global filmmaking center in part because the aggregate cumulative experience of its film crews made the process so much more efficient. Runaway productions have to cope with the time-consuming mistakes and inefficiencies that inevitably arise from hiring novice film crew members. For example, Rob Lowe has noted that on one film production he worked on in Atlanta, the dolly grip was having trouble hitting his marks. It was the dolly grip's first time on a set: "He'd applied for the job because he'd worked a dolly at Costco."
Runaway production is almost as old as Hollywood itself. During the 1940s and 1950s, American studios experimented with some of the earliest forms of runaway productions in Continental Europe, where they sought to access cheap labor in economies devastated by World War II and also make use of box office revenue frozen in place by foreign exchange controls intended to protect those fragile economies.
The term "runaway" as applied to Hollywood productions shooting overseas first appeared in press coverage of union hostility to such outsourcing in Motion Picture Daily and Daily Variety in September 1949. It is unclear who coined the term and when they first started using it, but it is clear that by that point, outsourcing was already "creating enough anxiety among unions that they needed an expression to anchor a campaign to fight the phenomenon".
Runaway production
Runaway production is a term used by the American Hollywood industry to describe filmmaking and television productions that are intended for initial release/exhibition or television broadcast in the U.S., but are actually filmed outside of the immediate Los Angeles area (including Hollywood), whether in another country, another U.S. state, or in another part of California.
In a 2005 production report by the Center for Entertainment Industry Data and Research (CEIDR), the trend of runaway productions is more frequently linked to American films and television being lured away from U.S. locations to out-of-country locations. A large reason for these productions leaving are foreign subsidies offered to American companies ultimately reducing the cost of making the film. According to the CEIDR report, "The analysis reveals that, while there are certainly general economic factors at play, such as relative labor and exchange rates, the data over the past several years strongly suggests that proliferation of production subsidies around the globe has been one of the most significant factors affecting the choice of production venues for a significant volume of production."
The report further states that "the connection between the advent of Canadian Production subsidies in late 1998 and the dramatic increase in production that occurred in the following year (as reflected by the 144% increase in dollar volume for the 2000 release year films) appears unassailable as there were no appreciable changes in exchange rates or labor rates to justify this dramatic shift from one year to the next, other than the subsidy programs".
Los Angeles has traditionally played a large role in the history of the film industry, both in the United States and internationally. The first American film production companies emerged in New Jersey and New York. The relatively poor quality of early recording media and lighting systems meant that films had to be shot in sunlit glass studios. In turn, the unstable weather typical of the northeastern states frequently hampered production. Eventually, a trend developed towards using the western states as ideal locations for shooting.
During the early 1910s, Los Angeles was an advantageous location for filmmakers. It featured clear, dry weather that allowed them to film outdoors much of the year. Southern California also offered a broad variety of terrain. More importantly, its distance from New York City meant distance from the Motion Picture Patents Company (i.e., the Edison trust) and its patent enforcers.
Camille Johnson-Yale has argued that from a semantics perspective, the term "runaway production" (and the discourse surrounding it) arises from an implicit interpretation of Hollywood as "the authentic home to global film production, and all others as its inauthentic, even criminal, harborers." Throughout the rest of the 20th century, Hollywood remained the dominant global filmmaking center in part because the aggregate cumulative experience of its film crews made the process so much more efficient. Runaway productions have to cope with the time-consuming mistakes and inefficiencies that inevitably arise from hiring novice film crew members. For example, Rob Lowe has noted that on one film production he worked on in Atlanta, the dolly grip was having trouble hitting his marks. It was the dolly grip's first time on a set: "He'd applied for the job because he'd worked a dolly at Costco."
Runaway production is almost as old as Hollywood itself. During the 1940s and 1950s, American studios experimented with some of the earliest forms of runaway productions in Continental Europe, where they sought to access cheap labor in economies devastated by World War II and also make use of box office revenue frozen in place by foreign exchange controls intended to protect those fragile economies.
The term "runaway" as applied to Hollywood productions shooting overseas first appeared in press coverage of union hostility to such outsourcing in Motion Picture Daily and Daily Variety in September 1949. It is unclear who coined the term and when they first started using it, but it is clear that by that point, outsourcing was already "creating enough anxiety among unions that they needed an expression to anchor a campaign to fight the phenomenon".