Location Filming Rises in Q2

On-location filming in the second quarter increased by 5 percent compared to a year ago, according to a report released Tuesday by FilmL.A. The Hollywood nonprofit group that coordinates film permits in the city and unincorporated county attributed the growth to the enhanced California Film & Television Tax Credit program. During the quarter film crews worked on location for 9,937 shoot days, as compared to 9,396 shoot days in the same period a year earlier. A shoot day is one crew’s permission to film at one or more locations during a 24‐hour period. The statistics track on-location filming of television series, feature films, commercials, web videos, music videos and student projects – but not work on studio lots or soundstages. The state’s incentive program was most helpful to feature film production. Between April and June, feature film shoot days numbered 1,309, a nearly 10 percent increase from the second quarter of last year. Films receiving tax credits in production during the quarter included “Battle of the Sexes,” “Latin Lover,” “Please Stand By” and “Why Him.” The four films combined for 108 shoot days, according to FilmL.A. “We’re delighted to report a second straight quarter of feature growth for Los Angeles, as we’d hoped for and predicted,” FilmL.A. President Paul Audley said in a prepared statement. “We expect these production increases to continue until the state’s incentive reaches full utilization.” On-location television production had a 1.4 percent increase in shoot days for the quarter, to 4,091. Commercial filming was down less than 1 percent to 1,243 shoot days. Incentivized shoot days for one-hour television dramas numbered 395 for the quarter, while television pilots had 42 shoot days, reflecting the importance of the tax credit program to television filming. The California Film and Television Tax Credit program was expanded last year from $100 million to $330 million annually. There were also changes to the types of projects eligible for the credits.