Well there goes my career

[raloria]

State cuts incentives for filmmakers

State legislators are cutting both the state's tourism office and an incentive program for filmmakers in order to balance the budget.

"It's devastating," said Amy Lillard with Washington Filmworks. The company had been hired by the state to offer Hollywood incentives to movie makers, but lawmakers have decided not to renew those incentives.

Over the years, those movies have contributed to the Washington economy, Lillard said, "About $132 million of economic impact over the last four years."

But, now Lillard says thousands of crew members will soon be out of work, and the film industry will just go some place else.

"We become the quintessential fly-over state," she said. "Why come here if you don't get a production incentive to do so?"

As if the economy wasn't bad enough with most productions going instead to Vancouver or Portland, now the Washington state government cuts us off completely. A couple of years ago there was some hope, with a few larger independent films coming up here from LA to film. However, it never really went anywhere (not like in the late 80s when lots of productions were filming here) and with the state in major straights they're taking cuts everywhere: schools, museums, parks, the arts, you name it.

Guess my days of working in films as a Script Supervisor are well and truly over. :(