This title refers to everything in life, no matter where it takes us. As the media industry highlights this week let's take a look at it. Media production in the 20th century did not begin in a single year, as it evolved from existing 19th-century technologies, but the year 1900 marks the definitive transition into modern mass media production. After millennia of living in the dark ages - the human experiment was evolving and creating new way to tell stories. As we know, this would rapidly evolve to where we are today and what's next ...

It makes me happy to see that the glory days of Hollywood - the era of centralized studio power and monolithic control are going ... going ... evolving into things like independent films and decentralized productions, all of which reflect the rising cost of producing in Hollywood.

For decades, Southern California was the undisputed heart of entertainment. But over the years, I've watched friends and clients who lived in California and worked in the various legacy studios - slowly transition to other states and countries.

This mass migration isn't a coincidence - it is a response to structural shifts. It has everything to do with high taxes and overwhelming corporate expenses, alongside a growing cultural consensus that one single state should not control an entire global industry.

As major players like Paramount Global navigate massive restructurings and mergers, the exodus from California is entering its next, most disruptive chapter. When the cost of doing business in California became unsustainable, the industry adapted. Production followed two primary paths toward financial viability - The Global and Indie Shift Favorable currency exchanges, robust infrastructure, and aggressive tax credits turned places like Vancouver ("Hollywood North") and Toronto into global production hubs. Meanwhile, independent filmmaking proved that compelling stories didn't require massive Hollywood budgets or studio interference especially with artificial intelligence doing a lot of the work.

States like Georgia, New York, and New Mexico built thriving studio ecosystems by offering aggressive tax incentives. Content creators quickly realized they could stretch their budgets significantly further by taking their projects outside of California.

This geographical scattering is perfectly illustrated by the current state of Paramount Global. Faced with the necessity of cutting billions in overhead ahead of its transition to Skydance Media management, the legacy giant has had to rethink its footprint. While the historic Melrose Avenue lot remains a symbol of cinema history, the financial reality of modern media means that physical location is secondary to bottom-line efficiency. When legacy brands look to trim expenses, high California operational costs are inevitably targeted, accelerating the push toward a more geographically distributed workforce.

The decentralization of Hollywood isn't just happening across geographic borders - it's happening across digital ones. Now, with artificial intelligence helping with production, the traditional barriers to entry are crumbling entirely. AI tools are streamlined to assist in everything from pre-production script analysis and visual concept art to post-production editing, visual effects, and localization. This technology further reduces the reliance on concentrated, expensive physical hubs like Los Angeles. A production team can now be scattered across Canada, Georgia, and Europe, utilizing AI to collaborate, automate tedious tasks, and cut costs in ways that were unimaginable a decade ago.

Hollywood will always hold a legendary place in history, but the business of entertainment has officially outgrown state lines. Driven by high expenses, diversified by global tax incentives, and supercharged by artificial intelligence, the future of media belongs to an agile, borderless ecosystem.

Let's bring climate change and natural disasters into the picture, because the threat of major earthquakes was always there in California. The physical risk from climate change, severe drought, and catastrophic wildfires has fundamentally shifted the math for insurers, completion bonds, and safety managers. When massive blazes shut down historic studio lots, halt outdoor location shoots, and make projects altogether "unbondable," weather risk becomes as big a financial threat as tax policy

When technology rewrites the rules, tax codes shift, and the literal climate forces productions to halt, that decentralization accelerates into an undeniable exodus. I experienced this financial bottleneck firsthand when my own screenplay, "Sarah Alexander", reached the Hollywood studios and the feedback was positive and it got as far as Steven Spielberg's readers. The script was well-received, the story resonated, and the creative vision was discussed by important players in the industry.

Then came the classic Hollywood roadblock - the budget. Because of the scale, world-building, or visual demands required to bring the story to life traditionally, studio executives calculated that producing it would take well over $100 million - too expensive. But that was the old Hollywood. Today, the math has completely changed. The film could be produced with half that budget - although I stopped shopping it around years ago. Of course it all comes down to marketing, distribution, and social media, which can make or break any production. I'm no longer in the game.

Then there's something that people seem to not understand about how much money a movie makes. Today they take a blockbuster movie and say it's made more money than any other movie to date. But when you look at the cost of a ticket for a movie today versus years ago, it's doubled so that's why it's taking it so much more money in distribution.

I, for one, am glad 'old Hollywood' with his political quid pro quo and poor "actors" are at the end of ACT III. That was 20th century energies from silent films to IMAX. Evolving technologies continue to change production whether people like the input of artificial intelligence or not. Yes, we know people do not like change, but it's inevitable and you have to roll with it like an old fashion 16 mm film strip.

Today we have independent films, documentaries, YouTube, shorts, and diverse digital venues where creators can carve out a living on their own terms. The days of the untouchable A-list player drawing mega-millions from a centralized studio budget are numbered. The power is shifting from the physical studio lot to the borderless digital ecosystem, proving that a compelling script and an agile workflow matter far more than a Hollywood zip code.