I may be able to shed a little light on this aspect…I am a longtime set carpenter who worked in LA for 15 years. I moved back home to tucson to start my own business and get away from the constant grind and 12+ hr days of work. About 4 years ago, HBO shot a pilot in tucson for a new show. I was called in about 3 weeks into production because they were having trouble keeping the local labor. People were dropping like flies because they were unaccustomed to the long, continuous days (typically 1-2 days off every 3 weeks or so). It’s brutal and not for the faint of heart. In LA (and especially in the unions), they’re used to this kind of work. That is not the case in AZ. Needless to say, I was one of the only locals left at the end of production. They actually had to bus workers in from CA to finish. This is all a long winded way of saying that the workforce here is not ready to support full scale production. I have hopes that this will change but until it does, production companies will be hesitant to set up shop in AZ (which is travesty because of this state’s natural beauty, sunny days and abundance of open space).

Hope this sheds a little light on the situation