The origins of filmmaking in Southern California in part began in Long Beach at the Balboa Studios. While Hollywood is now perceived as the heart of the film industry; its economic footprint spans across the region. This has occurred in part because of available real estate, evolving technology and government incentives in other communities. Because of its film-friendly scenery and proximity to Hollywood, Long Beach continues to attract on-location filming. But the city can serve more than stunt doubles for Florida in CSI Miami and Shanghai in Transformers 2. Long Beach’s centrality to the Los Angeles and Orange County region provides something unique. Taking advantage of a diverse landscape, affordable real estate, unused infrastructure and shifting industries, Long Beach could become the center of the film industry.
Recently, entrepreneurs proposed converting a dormant Boeing manufacturing facility into Long Beach Studios; the largest independent film production facility in the world. The over twenty acres of existing hangar would provide more soundstages than Sony Studios in Culver City, while providing additional property to at least double in size. While the uncertain state of financing has cooled this proposal, the facility and the Boeing C-17 plant can seed a huge shift in film production in Los Angeles. Like Downey Studios (another former Boeing facility) just seven miles away, the expansive hangars can be repurposed for large production facilities with convenient access to regional and international transportation.
Through the years major film studios have studied potentially relocating their facilities out of Hollywood in order to develop their large, premium properties. Dreamworks SKG was up until recently negotiating to develop the first new major film studio in Los Angeles, reusing the former Howard Hughes airplane plant as part of the Playa Vista development. They eventually pulled out due in large part to delays from environmental concerns of the community. The potential of multiple major studios relocating into the former Boeing facilities would anchor an expansion of the entertainment industry in Long Beach.
Just below the city’s surface is much of the infrastructure necessary for the film industry. Before becoming the Carnival Cruise Terminal, the Spruce Goose Dome had a short stint as a soundstage, filming the movies Batman Forever and Jack Frost. The dozens of empty oil tanks littering the city can similarly be converted to additional production facilities. These new soundstages can provide uniquely controlled environments, from tropical jungles to alpine mountains, providing diverse settings unavailable in Southern California. The Boeing complex, Douglas Park and Kilroy Office Park provides millions of square feet of commercial office and light industrial space, while the emerging creative community in the Magnolia industrial Area and Coronado yards along Anaheim Street can be the right environment for new post-production facilities.
While city streets continue to provide backdrops for all scenes rural to urban, Long Beach can develop infrastructure to better accommodate on-location filming throughout the city. As part of improvements to First Street in the East Village, new street lights were fitted with power outlets for farm and art vendors to operate independent of adjacent properties and generators. Long Beach can develop similar infrastructure for popular film locations, eliminating the necessity of costly power generators. Citywide wireless internet connection could allow direct digital film uploads from film sites to post-production facilities anywhere in the world. The two investments can be funded through film permits while providing assets for the larger public.
The return of the film industry to Long Beach would provide quality jobs for a variety of professional backgrounds and skill sets while building upon an emerging creative class. Long Beach’s diverse housing stock could serve the needs of everyone in this burgeoning local film industry from the key grip to the lead actor and director. Expanding the local economy from that of trade and tourism to include entertainment and their contributing industries could help Long Beach better weather down economies. From the Great Depression to when the Dot.com Bubble burst, movie ticket sales have been greatest during times of recession. The rebirth of Long Beach’s film industry would benefit the local economy while profiling the best that the city has to offer.