e-Edition
Get the latest news delivered daily!
Get the latest news delivered daily!
e-Edition
Trending:
Southern California location filmmaking activity hit its lowest level in five years in 2019, according to a report released Friday by FilmLA.
The TV, movie and commercial production permit-processing office for the City and County of Los Angeles and other local jurisdictions recorded an overall total of 36,540 shoot days last year, 4.1% below the five-year average. The second-lowest number of annual shoot days in that time period was 2015’s 37,289, the highest 2016’s 39,627.
2019 also trailed 2018’s 38,795 SD figure, minus about 5.8%.
The good news, however, was that the Fourth Quarter of last year saw a surge in activity, 9,839 SDs over Quarter Three 2019’s 9,226. That still lagged 5% behind 2018’s autumn frame tally of 10,359, but it should be noted that Q4 ’18 was the most productive three-month period FilmLA has recorded in more than 25 years.
“Whenever we publish new permit data, it raises similar questions,” FilmLA president Paul Audley said in a summation of the report, after having faced such questions for every quarter of 2019, which all lagged behind the previous year’s. “ ‘Is the state incentive working?’ some ask, and ‘What’s happening with runaway production?’ It’s important to remember that California is locked in a permanent competition against global rivals for film and television projects and jobs.”
In individual categories, Q4 feature film production was almost on par with 2018’s 1,078, at 1,052 for the three months just past. For the year, though, 2019 was 15.1% under 2018 in the big-spending movie category, 3,715 SDs vs. 4,377, and 12.4% below the five-year average.
Overall television production was off 6.6% from the 12 months of 2018 but, as with features, the Q4 numbers were almost equivalent, 3,795 SDs in ’18, 3,761 in ’19. A FilmLA spokesman noted, however, that more than half of that overall annual decline was in the relatively low-spending reality TV subsector, reflective of the streaming boom-driven shift from reality shows to more expensively produced scripted series.
It was also speculated that those scripted television productions occupying so many of the fully booked soundstages around town could be a contributing factor to the dip in local feature film activity. FilmLA does not track production activity on studio lots and certified independent soundstages, although its figures for permitted location shoots remain the most useful metric for assessing regional production activity.
Broken down to its two most lucrative subsectors, TV drama saw a small 2.7% decline from the previous year (4,848 SD in ’18, 4,716 in ’19), while still humming along at 3.6% above the five-year average. For comedy shows, there was actually a 15.1% increase of SD over 2018, 2,083 vs. 1,810, even though the funny stuff was 3.5% behind the five-year mean.
As to the question of how effective those California tax credit incentives Audley mentioned are in light of the noticeable dip in activity last year, the FilmLA president had a few figures.
“The fact is, California’s film incentive reliably brings L.A. around 30% more TV Drama production, and around 13% more Feature Film production than we would have without the program,” he stated. “Entertainment unions are reporting ample work opportunities for local crews. Soundstage occupancy is high. These are all important considerations when evaluating the health of this business.”
Copyright © 2024 MediaNews Group