California

California Is Doubling Its Film Incentive, but It May Be Too Late to Stop Runaway Production

Published

7 months ago

May 28, 2025

California Is Doubling Its Film Incentive, but It May Be Too Late to Stop Runaway Production

“Mad Men” was set in 1960s New York, but it was mostly filmed at a studio just west of downtown Los Angeles. Sienna DeGovia was one of hundreds of people who worked on the show. Someone needed to re-create the food of that era, like savory Jell-Os and the carrots cut into one-inch cubes that used to be served on airplanes, and that’s what she does — she’s a food stylist. She started as an assistant 25 years ago and after learning the craft, became a lead stylist.

Los Angeles is full of weird jobs like that — or at least it used to be. But content production peaked in 2022, and the world’s entertainment capital has since been battered by a global contraction.

“The beginning of 2024, everything fell off a cliff,” DeGovia says. “I called all my old mentors and begged to be taken on as an assistant. I never had to do that in 20 years.”

The lack of work in Hollywood has renewed age-old calls for government intervention. Her father, Jack DeGovia, was a production designer who worked on “Die Hard” and “Speed.” In response to a downturn in 1999, he organized the Film and Television Action Committee, which took aim at “runaway production,” particularly the then-new phenomenon of shooting American films in Canada because it was cheaper.

“They were taking the bread out of our mouths and attacking our families,” says DeGovia, now 84. “They were making believe they were America. They’re not; they’re Canada. We were willing to play hardball with these guys.”

DeGovia led rallies in L.A. and Sacramento, where crews chanted “Film American!” and demanded a state tax incentive to match Canadian subsidies. That effort fizzled out. But a generation later, California has a production tax credit and is poised to double it in response to foreign incentives.

Governor Gavin Newsom unveils an expansion of California’s film and TV tax credit program in October 2024.
Getty Images

“We have to be more competitive,” Gov. Gavin Newsom said on May 14, noting that the business is on “life support.”

That may not be enough. Doubling the program should generate 4,000 to 5,000 jobs, according to state estimates. But in the past two years, California has lost 40,000 production jobs, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

“Trying to be competitive, or close to competitive, is going to require not only a state effort but some sort of federal incentive,” says film producer Chris Bender, noting that at least 70 countries have a national subsidy. Jon Voight, a “special ambassador” appointed by President Trump, has pitched a national incentive as part of a plan to save Hollywood.

The industry has been dreaming about that idea for generations. Ronald Reagan backed a federal tax break to counter runaway production when he was governor of California in 1970. Twenty years before that, as president of the Screen Actors Guild, he lobbied President Truman on the issue.

“Runaway production is not new,” says Russell Hollander, national executive director of the Directors Guild of America. “What is different now is that we are experiencing a tremendous global contraction in film and television production.”

According to DGA data, every major production center — California, New York, Georgia, Canada and London — has seen a downturn in the past couple years. But it’s been more severe in the U.S. than overseas.

“Under these circumstances, every job that leaves the United States to chase foreign tax incentives takes on added significance,” Hollander says. “Recapturing that work has to become an even more important priority.”

In Canada, production subsidies are a matter of cultural sovereignty. Without them, Canadian movie theaters and TV screens would be overwhelmed by American content.

“We want to see ourselves reflected on our airwaves, as does every other country,” says Norm Bolen, former president of the Canadian Media Producers Association. Bolen is skeptical that the U.S. needs a federal subsidy. “From a Canadian perspective, that’s absurd,” he says. “Hollywood dominates everywhere. What’s the deficiency that needs to be addressed?”

He also disputes the idea that Canada offering subsidies to international producers caused a loss of U.S. jobs. “They weren’t really taking jobs away from Americans,” he says. “They were providing financial resources that allowed these productions to be made. They wouldn’t have been made at all.”

In 1986, Stephen J. Cannell was producing an L.A.-based action show for NBC called “Stingray.” Facing declining network fees, he hit on the idea of saving money by filming in Canada.

“We didn’t have much choice,” says Michael Dubelko, who was president of Cannell’s company. “We were a small company. We did it for survival.”

The company ended up in Vancouver, which had almost no production industry at the time. Cannell turned a former distillery into a TV factory, churning out “21 Jump Street,” “Wiseguy,” “The Commish” and other shows.

“We didn’t know what we were doing when we started,” Dubelko says. “It was crazy.”

In his view, filming on location in Los Angeles had simply become too expensive. Homeowners would demand $5,000 or $10,000 to rent their house for a day. Once the crew got there, a neighbor would fire up the lawnmower and demand to be paid to turn it off.

“We go to Vancouver, and they’d say, ‘Come on in and shoot for free,’” he recalls. “We weren’t being ripped off all the time.”

And with a favorable exchange rate, Dubelko estimates they saved at least $100,000 an episode — or more than $2 million a season. Of course, leaving L.A. behind created some backlash. “We took heat for it,” he says.

But soon, others followed.

Producer Stephen J. Cannell at his production offices at Paramount Studios in 1983.
Getty Images

The British Columbia film industry now employs thousands of people. Dubelko remembers being in Vancouver with Cannell a few years before he died. “We were going down the street, and people were stopping us, saying, ‘Oh my God, we’re in the business because of you,’” Dubelko says. “It was not one or two. Maybe 20 people came up to us and told us how grateful they were to him. He was really the one that pushed all this stuff. He was really a visionary.”

Lately, though, Vancouver has been hit hard by the contraction. According to the local crew union, only 25% of its members are working.

“We have been dead,” says Tonya Hartz, who has worked as a location scout in Vancouver for 28 years. “Production levels have been incredibly slow in 2025.”

Hartz knows people who have lost houses and are struggling to afford groceries.

Trump’s threat to impose a 100% tariff on foreign-made films, coming on top of blanket tariffs on Canadian goods and threats of annexation, has added to the strain.

“You can imagine the panic that rippled through our membership,” says Crystal Braunwarth, business representative of IATSE Local 891 in Vancouver, who fielded at least 50 calls after Trump’s threat.

While a movie tariff would probably be unworkable, some worry that U.S. producers may nevertheless shy away from filming abroad, exacerbating the downturn.

“This is a global industry,” says Spencer Chandra Herbert, B.C.’s minister of tourism, arts, culture and sport. “Trying to shut the door on it being a global industry misunderstands how the industry works.”

Canadian-based Gary Lam, an editor whose credits include “District 9” and “Terminator: Dark Fate,” says it’s not a zero-sum situation. “If it’s slow in Hollywood, it’s slow here,” he says. “We want Hollywood to be busy. When they get so busy they have trouble finding crew, that’s when we tend to get the call.”

Several in the Vancouver industry agree that the business moves in cycles, and they expect the slow period will not last forever. Lam says it’s also up to local governments to do what they can to help. “I do think that tax breaks and government support are the way to go,” he says.

So does the B.C. government, which recently increased its production incentive. “We’ve made this a priority,” Chandra Herbert says. “We’re responding to the same thing everyone else is. The major studios have reduced how much they’re spending. It’s been very hard on our workers.”

Dubelko isn’t convinced that a U.S. incentive is a great idea. When he was making TV, there were about 50 shows on the air. They would get Nielsen reports, and they all fit on one page. Now there are 500. “All this production that currently exists couldn’t have been done in one city or one state,” he says. “The business became very mobile in the mid-’80s. It was a very natural evolution that it would start being done outside Los Angeles.”

“How do you get that business back?” he says. “I don’t know. I don’t see how that happens.”

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California

Missing California 9-year-old Melodee Buzzard found dead, grandmother says

Published

2 hours ago

December 23, 2025

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Missing California 9-year-old Melodee Buzzard found dead, grandmother says

Melodee Buzzard, the 9-year-old whose disappearance was reported by Santa Barbara County educators in October, has been found dead, a relative confirmed to The Times on Tuesday.

Melodee vanished during an unusual road trip with her mother earlier this year, sparking a months-long investigation.

Her disappearance captivated and confounded true crime watchers around the nation as FBI investigators and armchair detectives alike tried to solve the puzzle of what happened.

On Tuesday, Melodee’s paternal grandmother confirmed to The Times that her body has been found by investigators.

“The detective called me this morning to let me know that they found the baby and the baby is with her dad,” said Melodee’s grandmother Lilly Denes. “I knew he was telling me that the baby is dead.”

Melodee’s father, Rubiell “Pinoy” Meza, died in a motorcycle accident in 2016.

Local TV news station KSBY captured video of Melodee’s mother Ashlee Buzzard being taken into custody shortly before 7:45 a.m. Tuesday. During the road trip earlier this year, Buzzard changed out the license plates on her rental car and wore wigs in what detectives described as possible attempts to avoid detection, according to the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office.

The Sheriff’s Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but has planned a 2 p.m. news conference to provide updates on the case. Here is what we know about the events that led up to Tuesday’s tragic discovery.

Ashlee Buzzard’s ‘hard knock’ childhood

When Ashlee Buzzard was just 9 years old — the same age as her daughter Melodee when she went missing — she and her mother, Lori Miranda, became homeless after fleeing Buzzard’s abusive father, Miranda told the Santa Maria Times in 1995.

The article, titled “Lessons From the School of Hard Knocks,” describes how Miranda and her daughter arrived on the streets of Santa Maria with no job, home or car and only $40 to support them.

They had previously moved from place to place to get away from Miranda’s husband, who she said struggled with substance use and episodes of violence. In June 1994, Miranda decided to take her daughter from Orange County to the Central Coast to be farther away from him, and they briefly lived at the Good Samaritan Shelter in Santa Maria before moving into an apartment.

“I was so scared,” Ashlee told the paper, describing her early days in Santa Maria. “I knew no one [here]. I felt very uncomfortable.”

According to Melodee’s paternal relatives, Buzzard had a contentious relationship with her mother.

When Buzzard was in the 11th grade at Santa Maria High School, she filed a petition to be emancipated from Miranda, according to court records. The judge rejected the petition, noting that Buzzard was still living with her mother and had not submitted adequate information pertaining to her income and expenses.

A birth and a sudden death

Melodee was born Feb. 10, 2016, to Buzzard and Meza. Six months later, Meza died.

In Melodee’s early years, Meza’s family continued to have a relationship with the girl, according to Denes. She was a lovable child, always smiling and well-behaved, Denes said.

Lilly Denes, the paternal grandmother of missing California girl Melodee Buzzard, in her home in Orcutt on Nov. 6.

(Carlin Stiehl / For The Times)

In 2021, another of Denes’ sons took care of Melodee while Buzzard was hospitalized for several weeks, she said.

During this period, Denes said she was working with social services to gain custody of Melodee as she was concerned about Buzzard’s ability to care for the child. But before Denes had finished the background check process, Buzzard was discharged from the hospital, picked up her daughter from school and left Santa Maria, Denes said.

After that, Buzzard relocated to the nearby neighborhood of Vandenberg Village and refused to let the girl’s paternal relatives see her. She did, however, occasionally visit Denes to ask for money over the years, Denes said.

Federal court records show that Buzzard filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in 2017. She’s also had five collections and one small claims lawsuit for alleged unpaid debts filed against her in Santa Barbara County Superior Court, the most recent of which was filed by Capital One Bank in May.

In August, Buzzard enrolled Melodee in an independent study program at the Lompoc Unified School District. Sheriff’s detectives believe that she had previously been homeschooling the girl for several years, but the California Department of Education has no record of her submitting the required paperwork to do so, according to a department spokesperson.

A strange cross-country road trip

Lompoc, Calif. - Sheriff's detectives are releasing an updated timeline

On Oct. 7, Buzzard and Melodee left their Vandenberg Village home and traveled to Nebraska, according to the Sheriff’s Office. During the trip, Buzzard switched out the California license plates (9MNG101) on the car with New York plates (HCG9677). When she returned home Oct. 10, the original plates were reaffixed, according to the Sheriff’s Office.

Both Melodee and Buzzard were apparently wearing wigs during the journey and the mother reportedly changed wigs throughout, according to the Sheriff’s Office. The last confirmed sighting of Melodee was on Oct. 9, when she was seen on surveillance video near the Utah-Colorado border.

The investigation

On Oct. 14, school administrators reported Melodee’s prolonged absence from her independent study program to the Sheriff’s Office.

Investigators then visited Buzzard’s home, where the mother refused to answer questions about her daughter’s whereabouts, according to the Sheriff’s Office.

On Oct. 30, the FBI joined the case and assisted the Sheriff’s Office in serving search warrants for Buzzard’s home, the rental car and a storage locker.

Detectives then mapped out Buzzard’s road trip route and focused on the return route, from where Melodee was last seen in Utah to Vandenberg Village.

Investigators believe that Buzzarde traveled through the following areas on or around October 9, 2025

During October, relatives and concerned community members often gathered around Buzzard’s home, chanting, “Where is Melodee” and leaving posters with messages such as “Bring her home.” The investigation became a national sensation, with videos produced by true crime sleuths racking up thousands of views on TikTok and Instagram.

Buzzard arrested following accusations of false imprisonment

Buzzard was arrested Nov. 7 in an incident unrelated to the investigation into her daughters disappearance, according to the Sheriff’s Office.

She was accused of unlawfully violating the personal liberty of Tyler S. Brewer after disclosing sensitive information to him.

Brewer, a paralegal and acquaintance of Buzzard, said in a statement that he visited Buzzard at her home to offer assistance in the search for the missing girl, and that the situation quickly escalated.

But at a hearing in November, a Santa Barbara County Superior Court judge dismissed the case after new evidence came to light that called his version of events into question.

“After the initial report to law enforcement and the filing of the complaint, further investigation yielded additional evidence that was contradictory to the information that was initially provided to detectives,” said Amber Frost, a spokesperson for the Santa Barbara district attorney’s office.

“That evidence was brought out at the hearing and inconsistencies were examined by both sides. Ultimately, it was determined that the evidence was not sufficient to move this case forward to trial,” Frost said.

Times staff writer Terry Castleman contributed to this report.

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California

Placer County crews rescue baby, family from home surrounded by raging river

Published

14 hours ago

December 23, 2025

Press Room

Placer County crews rescue baby, family from home surrounded by raging river

PLACER COUNTY, Calif. (KGO) — Heavy rain and flooding impacted Northern California over the weekend, leading to rescues and evacuations throughout the region.

In Placer County, emergency crews carefully and slowly rescued a baby in a carrier, sliding it on a ladder over a rushing river.

The raging South Yuba River overtook the home, where nine people were rescued by the Truckee Fire Protection District.

As of Monday morning, the Placer County Sheriff’s Office said an evacuation warning continues to be in effect for areas along the South Yuba River between Donner Pass Road and Cisco Road.

The storm is also swamping parts of Humboldt County, where the sheriff’s office shared pictures of goats stranded on someone’s doorstep.

This is near the Freshwater area – near Arcata, where high water forced several evacuations.

Crews arrived in jet skis to assist residents.

In Redding, one person died after major flooding.

Water took over streets and entire neighborhoods.

Several people had to be rescued, and Interstate 5 was also flooded, impacting holiday drivers.

LIVE UPDATES: Storms flood parts of NorCal with heavy rain as alerts expand to entire Bay Area

In Mendocino County, Willits received more than 6 inches of rain in 48 hours, flooding parks in the area.

With more rain in the forecast, rescue crews are prepared and people are reminded not to ever drive through standing water.

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California

Flash flooding in Northern California leads to soaked roads, water rescues and a death

Published

1 day ago

December 22, 2025

Press Room

Flash flooding in Northern California leads to soaked roads, water rescues and a death

Dekoda Cruz walks through flood water while helping a friend who’s tire shop flooded during heavy rains on Monday, Dec. 22, 2025, in Redding, Calif. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)

REDDING, Calif. — Heavy rain and flash flooding soaked roads in northern California, leading to water rescues from vehicles and homes and at least one confirmed death, authorities said Monday.

In Redding, a city at the northern end of the Central Valley, one motorist died after calling 911 while trapped in their vehicle as it filled up with water, Mayor Mike Littau posted online Monday. Police said they received numerous calls for drivers stranded in flooded areas.

“Redding police officer swam out into the water, broke the windows and pulled victim to shore. CPR was done but the person did not live,” Littau wrote.

The weather in the coming days could be even more dangerous, he warned.

The National Weather Service expected more rain through the Christmas week as a series of atmospheric rivers was forecast to make its way through Northern California. A large swath of the Sacramento Valley and surrounding areas were under a flood watch through Friday.

The weather pattern was expected to intensify by midweek, which could lead to potential mudslides, rockslides and flooding of creeks and streams, forecasters warned. Up to 6 feet of snow was predicted for parts of the Sierra Nevada and winds could reach 55 mph in high elevations by Wednesday.

Southern California can also expect a soggy Christmas, with heavy rain in the forecast starting Tuesday evening. The National Weather Service urged people to make backup plans for holiday travel.

In Redding and surrounding areas, between 3 and 6 inches had fallen by Sunday night, the National Weather Service said.

As of Monday morning, local roads in Redding remained flooded as street crews worked to clear debris and tow out abandoned cars.

Dekoda Cruz waded in knee-deep muddy water to check on a friend’s flooded tire business, where the office was littered with a jumble of furniture and bobbing tires.

In the mountain pass area of Donner Summit, firefighters in Truckee extended a ladder to stranded residents at a house along the South Yuba River, the fire department posted online Sunday. No injuries were reported.

Atmospheric rivers are long, narrow bands of water vapor that form over an ocean and flow through the sky, transporting moisture from the tropics to northern latitudes.

Earlier this month, stubborn atmospheric rivers that drenched Washington state with nearly 5 trillion gallons of rain in a week, threatening record flood levels, meteorologists said. That rainfall was supercharged by warm weather and air plus unusual weather conditions tracing back as far as a tropical cyclone in Indonesia.

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