President Obama speaking at DreamWorks Animation. (Max Schwartz/Neon Tommy)

DreamWorks Production Supervisor and audience member Luis Villanueva has been the victim of work moving abroad. He expected the president “to talk about…how [the entertainment industry] stays possible in this…new economy.”

Anson Chu, a DreamWorks software engineer, who was also in the audience to hear the president’s remarks, was not sure what Obama would discuss. Chu believes “more visas [should be] available for smart people internationally.” He also thinks there should be more emphasis on STEM - science, technology, engineering and math - in the U.S. education system.

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Chu has not seen a loss of work from films being shot in other countries, but he doesn’t think the movement of productions is “President Obama’s fault or the economy. It’s how the industry is run.”

Before the speech, USC Associate Professor Mark Weinstein said in an email that he did not expect much, in terms of Hollywood and the economy, to come out of Obama’s speech. San Diego State University Professor Emeritus Dr. Louis Terrell, however, said he thought Obama would say something like, “We are moving forward: Less unemployment, stock market up to new peaks. Republicans have only been a negative force.”

Dr. Terrell said Obama is speaking about the economy in a state with and 8.3 percent unemployment rate, Dr. Terrell said, “Biggest State in the Union—California unemployment rate not an outlier. Very appropriate to use California as a launching pad for discussing the state of our country’s economy.”

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During the speech, however, Obama did not mention California’s unemployment rate. He instead talked about the positives, such as how Hollywood makes California and the United States special.

“The thing we do better than anyone is creativity,” Obama said. “Entertainment is one of the bright spots of our economy." The president also said that our films are important for foreign relations with other countries, pointing to the soft power role of Hollywood for American public diplomacy.

Villanueva said, “[Obama] appeals to people in the industry...a hell of a lot more appealing than Bush was.”

The president also bragged about California in other ways by citing what Covered California has done for the state's residents. He also noted his successes as president, including reducing the deficit.

“We have more work to do…we’d be a lot further along…if we could just get some folks to act with some sense,” said Obama.

Despite Obama's positive tone, there was a negative. During the speech some visual effects workers wore green “in order to draw attention to foreign and state film tax incentives that are luring work out of Hollywood and to far-flung outposts in New Zealand, the United Kingdom and elsewhere,” according to The Wrap. 

Reach Senior Reporter Max Schwartz here. Follow him on Twitter here.