Chapter 10 Economics Blog

http://news.sympatico.msn.cbc.ca/Local/BC/ContentPosting?newsitemid=vancouver-bc-film&feedname=CBC_LOCALNEWS&show=False&number=0&showbyline=True&subtitle=&detect=&abc=abc&date=True

Summary
BC’s film industry continues to thrive through the challenging economic times as in April, there were four feature films, one miniseries, four TV pilots, four reality shows, a documentary, and three TV series shooting in the province. The majority of BC’s film industry comes from foreign production from the U.S. Although the Vancouver-based filming company, Insight Film Studios, has laid off over a quarter of its employees due to a reduction in production, there seems to be a constant flow of U.S. filming companies flying to BC to film. Even during the current economic downturn, BC’s film industry was worth $1.2 billion last year, up nearly 25% from the previous year in 2007. The outlook of this still remains optimistic as the Canadian dollar, which is lower this year compared to last year, will help attract filming companies to this province, which already has many sound stages, post-production facilities, and infrastructure in place.

Industrial Organization in Canada
Chapter 10 discusses the decision-making process of business firms and individuals also known as microeconomics. According to the article, BC’s film industry is almost all made up of foreign investment and ownership, which is a topic covered in the chapter. There are many benefits for the BC economy from the foreign investments made by the U.S. to our filming industry such as having access to capital where foreign firms bring investment dollars to Canada, improving research and development to enhance the quality of movie or filming production, and increasing the employment in BC so the citizens have jobs. The foreign investments also help to keep some of the skilled workers in the filming and media industry to stay in this province. With increased employment due to the American investments, our economy benefits as more employment means more production, increasing our GDP. The U.S. filming companies that invest in BC like Warner Bros., 20th Century Fox, and Summit Entertainment, are categorized to be in the competitive group called many differentiated sellers. They are categorize in this type of competition because there are many companies selling or promoting the same product, movies in this case, however the products from the companies are different from each from each other; no movies are alike. Through non-price competition like advertising, companies hope to grab more of the market share that way and separate from their competitors.

Personal Reflection
I believe the BC’s filming industry will continue to do well and remain prosperous in the near future and is an industry worth investing in for the BC government. A reason why the filming industry will do well in BC is because BC has the human and infrastructure resources to attract the U.S. filming companies to shoot their films in this province. BC has various movie studios located throughout the province, most notably The Bridge Studios, located in Burnaby. BC also has the skilled workers in this industry and with the growing number of students taking interactive arts and graphic designs there should be no shortage of workers in this field. The global demand of movie entertainment also seems to be relatively stable as consumers are demanding this entertainment despite the economic downturn. Therefore, the filming industry in BC should expect to continue to bring in foreign investments creating jobs in the near future.