Conversations about a growing exodus are getting louder, as escalating housing costs and dwindling career opportunities push many to pursue their dreams elsewhere.
After nine years working in Hollywood as a cinematographer, editor and director, Robby Piantanida has moved with his family to Texas to save money. Los Angeles has long been a magnet for those chasing their big break in film and TV, drawn by the allure of creative fulfillment and fame.
When their landlord decided to sell their house, they knew something had to give. “We’ve been surviving for several years on one income,” Piantanida says. “We’ve drained a lot of savings just trying to keep this dream alive. … If we were able to find something for the same price, that would be great, but everything like this house would be close to four grand. Work is so slow right now that I couldn’t justify spending four grand a month that I don’t have on rent.
Piantanida has poured much of what he has made into equipment, at an annual cost of $20,000 to $50,000, which he is able to count as a business deduction on his taxes. “There’s so much expense in staying up with the latest stuff,” he says. “All this stuff would change if I went union. I would make as much money as I could, and I wouldn’t spend it on gear — I would spend it on savings.
Still, going from Southern California to East Texas is a major adjustment. “I love the climate in L.A. and the access to the mountains and the beach,” Piantanida says. “We’re going to miss it a whole lot. … I need to change my plates, too, because we’re in Trump country now, and if we drive around with a California tag, we’re going to get harassed.”
Looking back now, given all that’s happened to the industry since, she feels like she just about missed it. “I’m obsessed with Kathryn Bigelow, and when I first got to New Line, I was trying to put her on all of our director lists ,” Brody says. “I was essentially told that she was unhirable and that we weren’t even allowed to meet with her. I remember being like, why? Because I had just worked for Michael Bay — you want to talk about difficult?”
In late 2021, in search of cheaper housing, Brody moved to Dana Point, California, where she rented a one-bedroom apartment for $2,500 a month. A year later, when the landlord raised the rent to almost $3,000, she decided to move out to Joshua Tree, where she found a three-bedroom house for $1,900 a month in a welcoming creative community with stunning desert vistas.
But after six years in the industry, having worked her way up from student films to independent features, Brahms began to feel that the script of her own life needed a total rewrite. “I felt like I was doing a good job and I enjoyed the people that I worked with,” she says. “Each production was like a new family — I enjoyed that aspect of it. But I wanted to do something more with my life. Something was missing.”Brahms, who grew up in the Los Feliz neighborhood of L.A.
Eventually the grind started to take a toll. “It became soul-sucking, in a way,” she says. “I felt like everything for me was dedicated to the film industry. I opted out of going to family funerals because I had a film gig the next day in a different town. There was a whole mindset that me and all my friends in the industry had that you had to say yes to work at the drop of a hat. Because you never knew where the next gig would come from.
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