Location Filming Drops in Q2

On-location film, television and commercial production fell by 4.7 percent in the second quarter compared to a year ago, according to figures released Wednesday by FilmL.A. The Hollywood nonprofit that coordinates location filming permits in Los Angeles, unincorporated county and other jurisdictions reported that feature film production slipped the most with an 18.5 percent drop. During the period from April through June, film crews worked on location for 9,466 shoot days, as compared to 9,937 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. FilmL.A. President Paul Audley said that 2016 was the best year on record for on-location filming, and even with the declines in the second quarter, 2017 is still proving to be a good one. “Declines in any category need to be put in context: the year-to-date comparison for the last seven years shows 2017 is second only to 2016 for total shoot days,” Audley said in a prepared statement. Feature films accounted for 1,067 shoot days in the second quarter. Projects receiving incentives from the state’s Film & Television Tax Credit Program made up 232 shoot days, or about 22 percent of the features total. Television had a 15 percent drop in shoot days in the second quarter, falling to 3,477 from the 4,091 in the same period a year earlier. On-location filming for television comedies fell by 9 percent while dramas fell by 24.3 percent in the second quarter, attributed to seven programs that had done on-location filming in 2016 that were not in production this year. Filming for commercials jumped 12.5 percent in the quarter to 1,398 shoot days compared to 1,243 shoot days in the first quarter 2016.