LA's Sole Film Liaison Asks City Council for More Staffing — SkimNews
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- Steve Kang, appointed by Mayor Karen Bass in August 2025 as LA's chief film liaison, presented to the newly formed Ad Hoc Committee on Film, Entertainment and Creative Industry, chaired by Adrin Nazarian with vice chair Traci Park and member Imelda Padilla.
- Kang is currently the only local official coordinating between FilmLA, the city, and dozens of other regional jurisdictions, and asked lawmakers for additional resources to staff up his "concierge service" for productions navigating the permitting maze.
- Kang cited the Fox Baywatch reboot as proof his approach works, describing how he organized weekly meetings with Fremantle that brought together the city, county, state coastal commission, lifeguards, beaches, harbor, and film commission to clear Venice filming hurdles.
- Park pressed Kang on whether that Baywatch playbook could be replicated for independent productions with fewer resources, noting Baywatch is returning for Season 2.
- Kang told the council that a newly approved position within the Board of Public Works was frozen until January due to budgetary forecasts, limiting his ability to scale operations.
- Nazarian called the city's pace of implementing council-passed production initiatives "unacceptable" and demanded a timeline for a free micro-shoot permit and other measures approved in March.
- Kang recommended doubling California's $750 million film tax credit to $1.5 billion or removing the cap entirely, calling the current program "oversubscribed" with more applicants than available funds.
Why it matters: With Kang as LA's only film liaison coordinating across dozens of agencies, every production wanting to film in the city currently routes through one person's bandwidth — and a newly approved second position sat frozen until January due to budget forecasts. Independent productions without Fox-sized leverage face the longest path through LA's permitting system precisely as the city tries to reverse production losses to other jurisdictions.
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