The number of feature shoot days in the Greater Los Angeles area dropped nearly 65% year-on-year in the third quarter due to the pandemic but is expected to pick up in the coming weeks, according to the latest report by FilmLA.
The non-profit permits body said on Wednesday (October 14) that shoot days from July through September fell 64% to 352, compared to 980 this year.
That represents a considerable improvement on the 99.7% drop in the second quarter, the April through June period that represented the height of the lockdown and produced three shoot days compared to 986.
The FilmLA report noted feature production was expected to pick up on larger scale projects “in the coming weeks if they haven’t already” after the conclusion of industry labour agreements last month.
“The stage is set for a return – not to business-as-usual but to the ‘best-progress possible’ for film production in area communities,” said FilmLA president Paul Audley.
“LA loves film, and there is a real enthusiasm to see this work come back, plus real effort on the part of the industry and local public health authorities to see that it does so with care for public health.”
Filming overall in the third quarter fell 54.5% year-on-year, with 4,199 shoot days compared to 9,226 in the same period of 2019.
Television shoot days in the third quarter reached 1,799 for a 51.3% year-on-year drop compared to 3,691. Commercials fell 41.2% from 1,330 shoot days in the period in 2019 against 782 this year.
Reality TV was the only success story, gaining 10.3% year-on-year with 1,159 shoot days compared to 1,051 in 2019.
In September, FilmLA said it saw “multiple weeks of business activity increases”, and received on average around 34 film permit applications per day.
FilmLA defines on-location production figures based on permitted production within areas served by FilmLA.
A shoot day is defined as one crew’s permission to film at one or more defined locations during all or part of any given 24-hour period. Data does not include production on certified sound stages or on-location in jurisdictions not served by FilmLA.
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