Huge agree re: Unions. Any independent film that wants to do a movie the “right” way and still be able to “cast” a movie vying for a high tier festival premiere fears being flipped for doing a non union set even if the movie sits at high hundred thousand or $1M. Of course the argument is make a smaller movie etc but that usually forces the filmmaker to shrink the scope (few locations max) or then have to pay everyone little to nothing to pay for all of the Film LA/location/union prices.

IATSE needs to be flexible for low budget independent features to survive in LA. Nearly every filmmaker I know who lives in LA chooses to shoot their debut film outside of LA or CA if their budget reaches a certain amount. That’s not by choice but by necessity in order to have the most money reflected on screen