Hollywhere? Los Angeles unable to halt film exodus

Feature film production in the Los Angeles area plunged 15.4 percent in the first quarter amid high industry taxes and few local government incentives, a report has found.

In the first three months of 2015, there were just 926 Shoot Days (SD) compared to 1,094 for the same time frame a year earlier, the non-profit organization FilmLA said on Tuesday.

The news is a touch more encouraging than the figure in the last quarter of 2014, when filming slid 28 percent -- disastrous news for the capital of the US entertainment industry.

It has been over a decade that sunny California has been struggling from a problem it never imagined it could have: losing chunks of the entertainment industry and film industry. Just since 2006, production is off by 50 percent.

In 2009, the state put in place some incentives which ended up favoring the TV industry; its filming was up 1.7 percent in the first quarter of this year.

Meanwhile, production crews have headed to other US states, to Canada and other countries where subsidies can be as high as 30 percent.

"We are grateful for the increased production, especially in television, associated with the current tax credit," said FilmLA President Paul Audley.

"We remain hopeful that the region will also see gains in the feature category" as new incentives are put in place.