Friday, May 30, 2014

Bye Bye Imageworks

The effects house (and feature animation production facility) is exiting Culver City.

In a further blow to Southern California's visual-effects industry, Sony Pictures Imageworks is moving its Los Angeles-area headquarters to Vancouver, Canada..

The unit of Sony Pictures Entertainment said Thursday it was transferring the bulk of its operations to a new facility in Vancouver, where it already has a satellite studio.

Sony is expected to keep a small staff in its Culver City facility, which employs about 270 workers.

The move will allow the company to cut costs by capitalizing on generous tax breaks that aren't available in California.

Film companies operating in British Columbia, the province in which Vancouver is located, can recoup about 60% of what they spend on local labor costs. Those incentives have made Vancouver a major hub for film and TV production, as well as visual-effects work. ...

California is halfway through ginning up tax incentives of its own that will include the visual effects industry. What difference it makes ... if and when the legislation passes ... remains to be seen.

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