After the fires, will behind-the-scenes film and TV workers also leave LA?

Even if you haven’t visited Los Angeles, you probably know Randy’s Donuts.

Just a few small traffic jams away from Los Angeles International Airport in the heart of Inglewood, the walk-up doughnut shop’s premium menu offers some higher-end selections like a red velvet with ganache, or a matcha tea raised.

Although you’re likely more familiar with their regular old plain doughnut.

The 30-foot-tall one. On the roof.

“I think it might have been the sequel, ‘Iron Man 2,’ where Tony Stark, Robert Downey Jr., is sitting in his Iron Man suit in the middle of that donut up there,” said Danny Finn, an LA location scout and manager for movies and television shows.

Standing a few feet from the growing line at Randy’s, Finn said if a script calls for an authentic LA landmark that’s a little less on the nose than the Hollywood sign, the giant doughnut is a popular go-to.

It did make that cameo in “Iron Man 2,” the Ice Cube comedy “Friday After Next” and a bunch of other movies and shows.

Which is why Finn was taken aback when he saw this scene from the 2018 cult classic “Den of Thieves.”

“In the opening of ‘Den of Thieves’ there is a ‘Heat‘-style armored car robbery that I believe is supposed to be right there,” said Finn, gesturing toward the corner of La Cienega Boulevard and Manchester Avenue in front of Randy’s. “Because it’s in front of a walk-up style doughnut shop. And there is a little doughnut on the roof that looks like it’s the size of a Direct TV satellite dish.”

All of “Den of Thieves” is set in greater LA. And most of it was shot in Atlanta.

It didn’t work for Finn.

“I felt validated,” said Finn. “As a Los Angeles location manager, I felt like, yeah, you can’t do it. Like, you really can’t replicate LA.”

While the irony of a movie impersonating the film and television capital of the world may be jarring, shooting away from Los Angeles has become increasingly economical for major film and television studios over the last decade.

“Den of Thieves,” “The Walking Dead” and the “Avengers” movies were filmed in Atlanta because it’s cheaper, mostly thanks to a very generous 20% state tax credit.

Also cheaper in Georgia? A house.

“We did see some migration over the past 10 years of folks from here moving to other production centers,” said Paul Audley, head of the nonprofit group FilmLA. 

He fears the roughly 13,000 homes lost in January’s wildfires will only make Los Angeles even less affordable for below-the-line workers, an industry term for the people behind the scenes.

“While most below-the-line workers are well paid, middle class, that still isn’t enough in many cases here,” said Audley.

Lighting technician Todd Brown moved to Atlanta from Los Angeles in the summer of 2022. He recently wrapped work on the last season of “Stranger Things,” which is set in Indiana but filmed in Jackson, Georgia.

Brown and his wife were able to buy a 2,400-square-foot house for less than $1 million in an upscale Atlanta neighborhood, something that’s basically impossible in LA now.

He said Atlanta has other professional perks.

“Quite frankly, there’s just a little less competition,” said Brown. “And so if you come with skills, it will be seen.”

Brown said the workforce he encounters on Atlanta sets is younger. It’s the next generation of behind-the-scenes talent, from all over the country, trying to break in where it’s a bit easier.

“Like in Los Angeles, you’d have guys that are gaffers,” said Brown. “And that’s because their father was in it, they’re mother was in it, you know what I mean? There’s a trade and there’s legacy to that.”

The temptation to leave Los Angeles is a bit stronger now after the January fires. Jeremy Whalen gave it a passing thought.

Whalen and his partner lost the home they owned in Altadena in the Eaton fire.

They’re both drivers for film crews, ferrying studio equipment to and from sets and studios. In a good year with steady work, he’ll make $150,000. Although after the pandemic, and then the writer and actor strikes, it’s been less lately.

They’re living in a converted garage in Pasadena, paying $2,500 a month, which insurance is helping with. All the furniture he has right now and the vast majority of his clothing has been donated from Hollywood drapery and prop and wardrobe departments.

“That’s not something you’ve seen in other industries,” said Whalen. “There’s some really good people. So the thought of leaving that, I think, is pretty tough.”

That very brief flirtation with leaving LA? It didn’t go very far.