Los Angeles Outpost

There's more of this going on than you might imagine.

Boston-based visual effects firm Zero VFX has opened a new 5,000-square-foot office in Los Angeles this week, with eight employees to start. ...

"Many companies in our position would go to Canada, to Vancouver, Montreal or Toronto because there are some phenomenal tax incentives there but for us we always knew we wanted to have an L.A. office because studios are housed there," said Zero VFX co-founder and head of production Brian Drewes in an interview. ...

Small visual effects studios are moving into town to pick off work on television and various movies. We're a long way from the boom-times of Digital Domain and Rhythm and Hues, when it seemed all the major visual effects houses were clustered in Southern California or the Bay area, but at least things are moving (however incrementally) in the right direction.

It also helps that visual effects are supported in California's tax subsidy bill.

Television animation, which has suffered from runaway production for decades, didn't get in, but we'll work to rectify that oversight three years hence. Most of Canada subsidizes animation, as does the state of Georgia. Long-term, California's cartoon industry could be damaged if the playing field isn't leveled.