HOLLYWOOD — In an industrial yard tucked behind Burbank’s Bob Hope Airport, dozens of orange forklifts and 135-foot-high aerial booms stand idle, gleaming in the afternoon sunlight.
As recently as two years ago, the yard was largely empty because the equipment was busy being used to hoist cameras, rig lights and build sets for “Iron Man,” “Get Smart,” “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” and other movies shooting throughout Southern California.
“I’ve been doing this for 25 years, and I’ve never seen such a sustained down time,” said Lance Sorenson, owner of 2 4/7 Studio Equipment, who recently had to lay off two of his drivers and has imposed three- and four-day workweeks for the rest of his 44 employees.
Across town in Culver City, at the landmark studio where “Gone With the Wind,” “Citizen Kane,” “The Adventures of Ozzie & Harriet” and “The Andy Griffith Show” were filmed, there’s a similar story. Now an independent production facility known as Culver Studios, the soundstage complex just lost one of its largest tenants, the syndicated game show “Deal or No Deal.”
That program will tape future episodes in Waterford, Conn., a suburban town known for its nuclear power plant, large state park and assortment of shops and family-owned restaurants. The chief draw: Connecticut’s 30 percent production-tax credit.
“It’s a huge blow to us,” said James Cella, president of Culver Studios.
Hundreds of small blue-collar businesses like these sustain Southern California’s entertainment industry. Many are struggling amid a sharp drop in local film and TV production triggered by the recession and the outflow of production to other areas.
According to the state Employment Development Department, jobs in movie and television production were down 13,800 in May compared with a year earlier.
