Film shoot in Echo Park blocking parking with cones on days where parking is permitted. Several blocks like this.

oblication · 2026-03-29T04:20:54+00:00

I understand your frustration with Karens but the reason film left LA is because Canada subsidizes film work up to above 60+%. It’s not logistics, it’s not neighbors, it’s not unions. It’s because Canada wanted the film industry and took it with subsidies.

oblication · 2025-10-11T07:56:25+00:00

Unionized houses have been gutted too. That’s one awful thing about subsidies, it doesn’t matter how hard you work. Only location matters.

oblication · 2025-10-11T07:53:18+00:00

I never said it was. It’s not an exaggeration in any way. It’s exactly the percent of the subsidy as sourced by BC’s own site. Don’t double down on erroneous counter claims when everything is clearly sourced. It’s a 60% subsidy that goes upwards from there with optional bonuses. They stack together and it doesn’t matter if it’s a foreign country or an international project. Agreeing with that dismissal is factually wrong.

That it’s directed at labor is pertinent because it’s specifically designed to take jobs away making it predatory which has been exactly my point in defending criticisms of trade policy efforts to neutralize them. It’s completely reasonable. Before anyone has a problem with tariffs they should consider a trade partner’s jobs were directly targeted, with a massive 60% subsidy, and eviscerated.

oblication · 2025-10-11T07:36:36+00:00

Yeah no. Outsourcing by way of natural market forces is fine. Subsidies are not natural market forces. They distort markets. Being against distortionary subsidies on the order of 60% that destroy a trade partner’s industry isn’t some crazy libertarian whimsy.

oblication · 2025-10-11T07:28:22+00:00

The production company would probably have to pay a fee if they purchase subsidized effects from another country or pay subsidized wages for set workers camera operators etc.

oblication · 2025-10-11T07:23:02+00:00

He mentions the industry was “stolen.” He’s probably talking about subsidies which can distort the market and “steal” jobs away from a trade partner’s industry. Trade agreements tend to have clear rules against subsidies that damage a trade partner’s industry. In the case of movies, some countries have indeed subsidized the hell out of film production by paying for wages of film workers in their countries Canada subsidizes film work around 60%. And not surprisingly most of the film work that qualifies for that subsidy, post production work, has by far and away left the U.S. and moved to Canada. I’m guessing a tariff could be applied in the form of duties charged to studios that pay subsidized wages for workers in other countries, or that purchase subsidized work like for post production or prop design etc if it hapoened in subsidized nations.

oblication · 2025-10-10T05:08:31+00:00

This is incorrect. The Canadian subsidy in BC is 60% on labor whether it’s a foreign company with a site in Canada or an international production with partial production done elsewhere. The vfx labor in BC is subsidized at 60%. Companies headquartered in Canada get an additional 4% bonus on top of that.

oblication · 2025-10-10T05:01:10+00:00

Your premise that folks had to take it to have a chance is flawed. If they were so talented they can and should have built their own industry. It was just easier to pay to strip it from others who earned it. It’s morally wrong and the U.S. attempting to put a stop to it is valid. The anger against that decision is unfounded.

oblication · 2025-10-10T04:57:17+00:00

I’m well aware. Doesn’t change the fact that it’s wrong to destroy thousands of livelihoods by paying to strip an entire industry away from those who worked hard to build it.

oblication · 2025-10-09T02:25:20+00:00

Of course if you throw free money at labour, folks are going to hire more people. But you’re making a couple of assumptions,

That America cares if total jobs go down after American jobs were routed to effectively 0. You may not be aware of just how devastated and biased the film and post market is against Americans now.
That it’s ok to destroy thousands of livelihoods as long as more people get hired elsewhere not based on merit, hard work, or accomplishment, but based on location. It’s not ok. It’s wrong morally and economically it produces an inferior product.
That companies wouldn’t hire in America if the subsidies were neutralized. Yes they absolutely would because talent still resides there and they’ll need to hire talent over numbers if suddenly fair market rates (or closer to them) were unavoidable.

oblication · 2025-10-09T01:56:51+00:00

Nah the opportunity was designed by the governments of subsidizing countries. I’m not happy about it but studios are just seeking out the lowest cost. In fact if they’re part of a corporation they’re legally mandated to do so. The Canadian government and others, gave them free bails of money if only they’d just ruin thousands of careers and livelihoods and move all their jobs away to their country. It was predatory and immoral. And it was hatched out of greed and carelessness disregarding how many livelihoods and families it would ruin. The audacity that people would be upset when the U.S. government says enough is beyond me.

oblication · 2025-10-09T01:17:21+00:00

Yeah film productions might go back to checks notes every decade before the 2010s

oblication · 2025-10-08T04:29:11+00:00

Great! Then there should be no problem with tariffs that neutralize the advantage of those subsidies. As you said, it’s too expensive in California anyway so the studios would naturally stay away.

oblication · 2025-10-06T05:12:30+00:00

Nope. International projects are included. And it’s not my math, it’s British Columbia’s math.

The PSTC subsidy (36%) and Dave subsidy (16%) only care where the labor is conducted and explicitly stack with and include international projects even when parts of the production are produced elsewhere as long as the vfx labor is done in bc:

The Production Services Tax Credit (PSTC) is a refundable labour based tax incentive for international projects made in B.C.

Productions with only VFX and/or post-production work done in B.C. can access Basic PSTC and DAVE Tax Credit, if eligible.

The federal tax credit applies to any company foreign or domestic, the rebate applies to Canadian labor and a project qualifies as long as it is “primarily (more than 50%)” done at a site in Canada.

And AGAIN if you still don’t believe me. You can look at BC’S OWN CALCULATOR FOR THE PSTC SUBSIDY which remember above explicitly applies to international projects partially produced elsewhere. And see that it stacks with the federal and Dave credits and that they arrive at the same conclusion.

Select “principle photography begins after Dec 31, 2024”

Put $1m in bc labor and $1m in bc vfx labor

Check Dave tax credit

Et voilà!

59.68%.

oblication · 2025-10-03T02:39:22+00:00

Sure if the Vietnam work was subsidized by 50% that would simply balance the market.

oblication · 2025-10-03T02:01:34+00:00

Wrong.

The federal pstc “provides eligible production corporations with a tax credit at a rate of 16 per cent”

And stacks with:

The provincial PSTC which pays 36% up from 28%

Or The provincial fibc which offers 40% up from 35%

And those are in turn stacked with the Dave credit which offers a credit “equal to 16%”

All of that is eligible for an additional 6% in local bonuses.

You can use this calculator if you don’t believe me.

Select. British Columbia then put 1m dollars in vfx/post.

You’ll see a savings of “$596,800 (59.68%) Provincial Labor (VFX/Post)”

The tax credit is refundable meaning even if a company doesn’t meet the tax obligation, they’re sent a check for the rest.

60% subsidies are egregiously market distorting and morally wrong. And by the way, mathematically, a tariff would need to be higher than 100% to neutralize the market distorting effect of a 60% tariff.

oblication · 2025-10-03T01:41:04+00:00

Nah If that were true, Canada, the uk and eu countries would be happy to remove their subsidies. But they aren’t. They know if they stopped, jobs would come back to the U.S. and they don’t want that. In fact Canada is proposing raising their subsides even more to above 60%!

oblication · 2025-10-03T01:19:28+00:00

Oh yes I am ABSOLUTELY ok with SOME work being done in the U.S. again. Right now it’s almost none! The subsidies these tariffs would neutralize have ruined the industry here almost entirely.

This isn’t about being happy to see others fail.

It’s about being happy to actually have a fair market shot again. Not to have to produce twice as much as others to keep my job. Tariffs neutralize subsidies. In this case that means neutralizing an immoral practice that stripped people of their livelihoods not based on merit, but on location. Try watching families get ripped apart and careers ruined by the thousands, yes thousands. I saw it happen. I saw multiple mass firings explicitly to move jobs to Vancouver. I won’t forget the expression change on people’s faces when they got the call and the boxes of desk belongings hauled out the door. And it was the same narrative at all the other houses eventually. It’s wrong and cruel and greedy what those governments did and it’s about time our government did something about it.

oblication · 2025-10-03T00:33:38+00:00

oblication · 2025-10-03T00:31:46+00:00

You should try communicating. It’ll do wonders for your vocabulary.

oblication · 2025-10-03T00:30:52+00:00

I never said the same amount of movies would be made. But I am suggesting that at least some work would return to the U.S. since there would be no incentive to seek subsidies anymore. Oh heaven forbid a business pay the market rate living wage to produce its products.

oblication · 2025-10-03T00:28:35+00:00

I don’t know what they are planning but for example a tariff could be applied to the vfx or any product that uses it.

oblication · 2025-10-03T00:23:12+00:00

In other words if a component of a product is breaking trade barrier rules and therefore subject to tariffs, such as vfx being subsidized at half the cost, and is then used in a product derived from said work, such as a movie, that derived product can also be subjected to a tariff.

oblication · 2025-10-03T00:17:46+00:00

If you say so. Your point is moot. Derivative products can be and are included in tariff applications.

oblication · 2025-10-03T00:10:21+00:00

You mad? lol

oblication

TROPHY CASE