12:00 pm PST 1/12/2021
in
Bryn Sandberg
FilmLA says license applications dropped 25% last month.
Los Angeles production reached new lows from the pandemic era last month.
FilmLA released its latest report examining footage in the Los Angeles metropolitan area in December, revealing that film authorization applications have dropped 25% compared to the previous month. Filming activity had already dropped by almost 8% in November – but the organization says license applications dropped from 813 that month to 613 in December. As another comparison, there were 965 permits in December last year.
The drop in production started earlier in the month and deepened throughout it, according to the report. In the week before Christmas, FilmLA issued 143 permits, then 58 in the holiday week (December 14 to 20) and 50 in the New Year week (December 28 to January 3). With only 21 business days in December, the organization distributed an average of just 29 film permits per day – the lowest daily production recorded since last August.
Of course, analysts attribute the drop in production to efforts aimed at slowing the increase in COVID-19 in the city. While film production remains permitted in Los Angeles County, as long as the productions follow the industry’s COVID-19 protocols – current practices include routine employee testing, extensive PPEs and improved sanitation efforts – the Department of Public Health of the Los Angeles County encouraged the film industry on December 24 to consider pausing production for a few weeks.
FilmLA spokesperson Philip Sokoloski said that weeks before the recommendations, several productions planned to work during the holidays to make up for time lost earlier in the year due to the initial shutdown. “When production started in September, the intention at the time was: ‘We are going to move forward until the end of the year and recover the lost ground now that we can’,” observes Sokoloski. “But it was evident in early December that it really wasn’t going to happen . “
Major studios, including CBS Studios, Warner Bros. TV, Universal Television, Disney Television Studios and Sony Pictures Television, planned holiday breaks and later chose to extend these interruptions until mid-January, hoping the virus would be more in control until then. Although some studios planned to start production this week or next, Sokoloski says that most license applications received in the past few days were for still photography.
Of the film authorizations distributed in December, television production comprised 27% of them. Only a handful of TV series started shooting locally in December, including CBS ‘ Ghosts and The 3 of US, HBO’s Insecure, HBO Max’s Tacoma FD and Showtime’s The L Word: Generation Q.
The production of feature films comprised 6% of the December authorizations. A total of 26 feature films, largely independent, began shooting in December, including titles Monstrous, Slayers and This land. Meanwhile, reality TV shows included NatGeo’s Impossible Dog, NBC’s Jay Leno’s garage, CBS All Access’ OG teen mom and research discovery 5th season of People Magazine Investigates.
In turn, commercial production accounted for 28% of licenses. Projects shot in Los Angeles County last month included advertisements for products ranging from Haagen Dazs, Honda and Mountain Dew to Carl’s Jr., Lowe’s and Progressive.