Location Filming Sluggish For First Half of 2011

On location filming for the first half of 2011 increased by almost 3 percent when compared to the same period a year ago, new statistics from FilmL.A. show. Out of the three main categories tracked by FilmL.A, only feature films showed an increase – 0.5 percent – in the first six months of the year over the same period in 2010. Television and commercial on-location filming both dropped. The biggest gain was the 12.7 percent increase in the “Other” category, which includes still photography, music videos, student projects, and documentaries. FilmL.A. is the not-for-profit agency coordinating on-location filming in the city and county of Los Angeles and other jurisdictions. The agency does not track filming on studio back lots or certified soundstages. The small gain in feature films was due to less state money available for approved projects to receive tax breaks. Only five film projects received state assistance in the second quarter of 2011, as compared to the 16 incentivized projects in the second quarter of 2010. In television, dramas, sitcoms and pilots showed positive numbers in the first six months while reality programming – a bright spot just a couple of years back – had fewer permitted production days when compared to January through June 2010. The agency, however, forecasts a lackluster picture for all television filming in the second half of the year, said President Paul Audley. “Unfortunately, the momentum we carried in television may be gone,” Audley said. “A lot of the new shows you’ll see this fall won’t be filming in California.”