Production is slowly beginning to restart in and around Los Angeles and now that some time has passed since productions began to get back to work, we’re getting a clearer picture of exactly how many productions are gearing up to take place in Los Angeles.
FilmLA, a partner film office for the city and county of Los Angeles and other local jurisdictions is offering up some filming stats, beginning when production got underway in the region on June 19, just days after the office got the green light to begin processing film permits on June 15 after the state of California and Los Angeles County got the go-ahead to resume productions as long as safety protocols were in place. FilmLA has received approximately 577 film permit applications from 422 different projects. Their daily application intake has increased marginally over time, growing from approximately 14 applications per day in late June to 18 per day in late July.
This is roughly 34 percent of the application count FilmLA would expect under normal conditions and is largely commercial projects (i.e. still photography and commercials) and not film and television productions. Recently, however, TV Reality production has started to resume more prominently in the area. FilmLA president Paul Audley had this to say about the current state of productions in Los Angeles:
“It is not an exaggeration to say that there are few other industries seeking to reopen as responsibly as the film business. Hundreds of smaller projects have successfully applied safe set practices as outlined in state and local public health orders. Meanwhile, continuing dialogue between studio and labor representatives is driving focused attention to cast, crew and vendor safety and compliance.”
It should be noted that the first productions to get going in Los Angeles once shooting was allowed to resume were soap operas. The Bold and The Beautiful on CBS was the first to get back to work in mid-July and they’re already airing new episodes while ABC’s General Hospital got back to work about a week after that soap and has begun airing new episodes as of this week. Both soaps were shuttered in mid-March and ran out of new episodes between April and May. One could argue that the production value on a soap might make it easier for work to resume but both productions have a large crew and an even larger cast to deal with. The fact they have successfully resumed production under these circumstances should be commended. CBS’ The Young & The Restless began shooting soon after General Hospital and will begin airing new episodes sometime this month. On the primetime front, CBS’ S.W.A.T., which also films in Los Angeles, got back to work this week under new safety protocols.
FilmLA expects overall filming activity to remain low until scripted television and feature production begins to pick up in the Los Angeles area and that isn’t expected until early September.
