The film industry in Oakland has suffered several setbacks in the past two decades. In 2008, the Wayans Brothers walked away from a deal to build a film studio and shopping center at the old Oakland Army base. In 2011, then-Oakland Mayor Jean Quan was looking for ways to erase a $58 million budget shortfall and eliminated the Oakland Film Office’s two full-time positions. The following year, the Oakland Film Center, which at the time was an incubator for an array of film-related businesses supplying lighting, props, and other production services that had been housed at the former Oakland Army Base since 2004, was shuttered to make way for a redevelopment of the regional shoreline.
But, thanks to a new ordinance in the works co-sponsored by councilmember Carroll Fife, the tide might finally turn to help Bay Area filmmakers produce their projects locally and attract large productions to film in the Town.
On Tuesday, the Special Community and Economic Development Committee that includes councilmembers Carroll Fife, Dan Kalb, Noel Gallo, and Kevin Jenkins, listened to a presentation from Greg Minor from the Economic and Workforce Development Department and Sam Bempong and Favianna Rodriguez from the East Bay Film Collective. Over 20 community members signed up to give public comment on the proposed $600,000 in film incentives. Filmmaker Cheryl Fabio, Emmy-winning producer and host W. Kamau Bell, Fremont High School Media Academy director Jasmene Miranda, actor and filmmaker Jamal Trulove, and members of the Teamsters Local 70 were among the speakers in support.
Also on Tuesday, Steph Curry’s multimedia company Unanimous Media and business collective Thirty Ink joined the East Bay Film Collective to help develop a thriving filmmaking scene in Oakland. Curry’s companies join a growing list as part of the collective that includes W. Kamau Bell, writer, director, and founder of Jingletown Films Cheryl Dunye, and filmmaker and co-founder of Proximity Media Peter Nicks. The Center for Cultural Power, led by Faviana Rodriguez, is an anchor organization of the East Bay Film Collective, which is a proponent of the economic plan to help turn Oakland into a filmmaking hub.
The proposed ordinance allocates $500,000 from the mayor’s proposed budget for tax rebates and $100,000 for Visit Oakland, the city’s tourism bureau, to fund the creation of a database of film locations in Oakland and a staff position to market Oakland to film production companies. Once the final budget is approved, the funds would be reallocated from the general fund. The ordinance would only go into effect if funds are available.
According to Bempong, Visit Oakland is matching the city’s $100,000 for $200,000 total. The ordinance would also allow donations and grants from foundations to contribute to the rebate budget.
Bempong said the database will cost around $25,000 to build. Once created, Visit Oakland and East Bay Film Collective will maintain it for $12,000 annually.
Actor and producer Rafael Casal, best known for the movie-turned-TV-show Blindspotting and most recently for his role as Hunter X-5/Brad Wolfe in the Disney+ TV show Loki, told the Oaklandside during a phone interview that the incentives have been in the making for a long time. Casal and his production partner, Daveed Diggs, had been in conversation with Fife long before she became a councilmember.
“What we discovered the first time we were working on the television show was just how much money goes into a season of television and how heavily you can pour into a local economy if you can incentivize the networks to allow you to shoot in locations that are less traditional for Hollywood,” Casal said. “We collectively began to understand that these significant financial barriers were preventing us from filming a show about Oakland in Oakland. It felt like a silly problem to have because other cities had tackled this and could hire local unions, and pour money into the local economy.”
In the previous two decades many states have enacted film incentives, and research on the economic benefits shows mixed results. In Louisiana, incentives were recently renewed through 2035, but some of the state’s lawmakers argue the credit does not generate enough tax revenue to compensate for the state’s losses. According to a 2023 report from the Louisiana Legislative Auditor’s office, the incentives have resulted in no statistically significant increase in employment. In Georgia, which has the largest production tax credit in the country, lawmakers are now proposing a limit on a production’s ability to monetize tax credits.
At Tuesday’s meeting, Bempong told the city council that the ordinance would launch as a pilot, allowing them to “review the initial program design and implementation and make adjustments as needed.”
For a production to qualify for the incentives in the proposed ordinance, the expenditures must be at least $250,000, and the production “must provide film skills and training to Oakland residents as determined by the City’s Film Office,” according to a report from Ashleigh Kanat, the city administrator director of the Economic and Workforce Development Department. There would be an additional 2.5% incentive rebate on wages to Oakland residents from zip codes 94601, 94603, 94605, 94607, and 94621, which have the highest levels of unemployment. There’s also an additional 2.5% rebate for expenses on vendors from those same zip codes.
In addition to the production crew, union, and nonunion actors for speaking and background roles, the incentives aim to create job opportunities in other sectors, such as catering, security, transportation, set carpenters, and painters.
According to the Film SF Impact Report Fiscal 2022-2023, “San Francisco found that for every dollar it rebated since 2006, productions have spent $13.66 locally, and that productions have hired more than 15,664 local crew and actors represented by unions and 204 first source hires.”
“We think about directors, producers, and actors, but that is 2% of the staffing. The building of sets requires so many carpenters, architects, and catering for months. We’re talking about renting locations and paying location fees, hiring 40 people out of this union, 70 people out of this union,” Casal said. “It’s a significant job creation program if there are multiple shows shooting at once.”
During public comment, Vanessa Whang, the chair of the Cultural Affairs Commission, addressed the equity disparity in the proposed $250,000, which would allow larger productions to come into town but would limit the number of Oakland and other Bay Area projects qualifying for the incentive. Whang suggested lowering the threshold to $150,000.
“This is a revenue-generating proposal,” Fife said at the meeting. “We are in need in the city to create new and creative ways for Oakland residents to bring in money to the city.”
The Oakland City Council will discuss the proposed budget this Wednesday, and Friday when councilmembers have to approve it before the fiscal year ends on June 30. The ordinance’s future hinges on the final budget and whether it includes money for it.
Like Fife, Casal believes the incentives will help revitalize the local economy.
“This is the art scene asking for more resources and permission to create local art in a way that generates significant revenue for hundreds and hundreds of people, and that just felt very exciting,” Casal said. “That’s what the Bay Area is all about, creating an art scene that is self-sufficient.”
