California Post-Production Workers Say Job Losses Are the Worst Yet, Push New Tax Credit

Alyson Dee Moore spent 45 years as a foley artist, building sound effects by hand for films like “Frozen,” “Interstellar” and “The Dark Knight.” At 65, she recently retired from Warner Bros. after 27 years there — not because she wanted to, but because she could no longer find enough hours to qualify for union healthcare.

Moore's story sits at the center of a mounting push for California Assembly Bill 2319, a proposed state tax credit aimed squarely at post-production work — the editing, sound mixing, scoring and visual-effects labor that increasingly happens outside California even when a project is shot there. As reported by the Los Angeles Times, Moore said her retirement was driven by need rather than desire, and that Warner Bros. no longer completes feature-film foley work on its lot, instead outsourcing its foley television work. She told the paper she expects post-production work to eventually return to California, and that the last big film whose foley work she did at Warner Bros. was “Sinners.”

A Bill Aimed at a Narrow but Painful Gap

AB 2319 was written by Assemblymember Nick Schultz and would create a standalone California tax credit for post-production spending, something the state currently lacks. According to the Los Angeles Times, the bill seeks $100 million in annual funding and is sponsored by the California Post Alliance and the Motion Picture Editors Guild, IATSE Local 700. It would provide a 35% to 50% credit on qualified California post-production expenses, according to the same report — figures that align with details reported separately by Mixonline, which described stackable uplifts including 5% for out-of-zone work, 10% for out-of-zone resident labor and 15% for music scoring, capped at $6 million per project starting in 2027.

Crucially, Schultz argues AB 2319 would not require projects to shoot in California at all — the credit targets only where the editing, sound work, scoring and visual effects get done. He has said California could attract that work even when filming occurs elsewhere, according to the Los Angeles Times. That distinction matters because California's existing Film and Television Tax Credit Program, which the state expanded last year and which runs through June 30, 2030, requires 75% of filming or the overall budget to be spent in California. That program's annual cap grew from $330 million to $750 million, per the Los Angeles Times, but it does nothing for productions that film in California and then send their post-production work elsewhere — or that film out of state entirely.

Editors and Artists Describe Steep Income Drops

Austin Scott, who moved to Los Angeles from Florida in 2004, has edited reality television shows including “Master Chef,” “Dancing With the Stars” and “The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City.” At his career peak, the 41-year-old earned between $160,000 and $250,000 annually; the Los Angeles Times reports he has been unable to find steady post-production work for the last three years and now earns less than $50,000 annually. Scott has taken up work as a muralist to make ends meet, according to the paper.

Their experiences track with a broader trend cited in the bill's own backing: California's share of total U.S. post-production payroll employment fell from 53% to 42% over 13 years, according to figures the Los Angeles Times attributes to California post-production workers, and separately, Assemblymember Nick Schultz has cited state labor statistics showing an 11.2% decline in California's share of that national payroll between 2010 and 2024. Post-production work has moved to New York, Canada and the U.K., and Schultz has pointed to Industrial Light & Magic — headquartered in the Bay Area for 50 years — as a case study, noting the company has steadily reduced its California workforce while expanding visual-effects hubs in Canada, the U.K. and Australia, according to TheWrap. Adam Fowler has said global policy changes have displaced California workers, per the Los Angeles Times. The state's post-production industry still generated about 12,000 jobs last year, the paper reports, but advocates say that number is shrinking.

Skeptics Question Whether the Credit Would Actually Create New Work

Not everyone is convinced the credit will do what its backers hope. Patrick Button has questioned whether the credit would create new jobs or simply subsidize work that would have landed in California anyway, according to the Los Angeles Times, and he separately said many projects would have undergone post-production in California regardless of the incentive. That tension — whether a new carve-out induces genuinely new activity or just pays for business already bound for the state — has also surfaced in fiscal review, since a state legislative analysis found that administering the credit would require an estimated $665,000 in ongoing annual General Fund expenditures for the California Film Commission to add staff and technical support, according to the California Assembly Revenue and Taxation Committee.

To qualify, a production would need to spend at least 75% of its total post-production budget within California, according to California Post Alliance leadership cited by Stagerunner — a threshold intended to stop studios from splitting minor post work across multiple states just to claim a partial credit. The bill is explicitly modeled after New York's post-production program, which offers a 30% fully refundable base credit funded at $45 million annually through 2036 for projects that shoot elsewhere but finish editing or visual effects in New York, according to Empire State Development. The Los Angeles Times also notes that the United States competes at a disadvantage internationally because it has no federal film and television incentives at all, leaving individual states like California and New York to compete with entire foreign tax regimes.

Where the Bill Stands Now

AB 2319 has moved steadily through Sacramento. It cleared the Assembly Appropriations Committee unanimously on May 14, passed the full State Assembly on May 26, and advanced through the Senate Appropriations Committee suspense file on August 13, according to CineMontage. It now heads to a full California Senate vote. Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass endorsed the bill when it was introduced and praised its Assembly passage in May, arguing the city must aggressively protect middle-class post-production union jobs from out-of-state competition, according to the Office of Mayor Karen Bass. Bass previously rallied support for a related state film tax credit expansion, as Hoodline reported in a story detailing that Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass Rallies Support for Expanded California Film Tax Credit with State and Labor Leaders in Los Angeles.

International IATSE leadership joined co-sponsors the Motion Picture Editors Guild and the California Post Alliance this month to mobilize union members and lobby state legislators ahead of the Senate vote, per CineMontage's earlier reporting picked up by Mixonline. For workers like Moore and Scott, the outcome of that vote could determine whether the industry that built their careers still has room for them in it.