First-quarter filming in Los Angeles set a new record to start the year despite an escalating slide in feature film production.
Local film office FilmLA attributed the drop-off to productions being lured by more attractive tax incentives in other jurisdictions and a shortage of soundstage space in the area. According to a new report issued on Tuesday, feature film shoots saw a 25 percent dip below the five year average in the first quarter of 2022.
“It’s doing really well worldwide, but we’ve lost our share of it for years now,” FilmLA president Paul Audley tells The Hollywood Reporter.
Although the pace of production has slowed compared to the end of last year, output is much higher so far than it was in the same period in 2021 when the spread of the Delta variant led to a voluntary filming hiatus that slowed production to just 7,011 shoot days. FilmLA reported that the first quarter of 2022 was the busiest first quarter ever, with 9,832 shoot days. The last time there was such high filming levels from January through March was in 2016.
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TV filming, especially drama and reality shows, drove the surge, the film office said. TV production is up 18.7 percent over the same period last year.
But shooting for feature films continued on a steady downward trajectory, according to the report. Despite a slight uptick in production compared to last year, the category remains 25.2 percent below its five year average (FilmLA’s five year averages exclude 2020 when production was suspended in Los Angeles from March to June because of COVID-19).
Productions have turned to shooting outside of California to take advantage of more generous tax incentives. Georgia, for example, offers a 30 percent tax credit with no annual cap on its program. The credit is also transferable, meaning projects can sell it to companies that owe taxes. California remains one of just two states whose credits are largely nontransferable and nonrefundable.
The perception that California’s tax credits are less competitive than other states combined with a shortage of soundstage space in Los Angeles has led to the decline in feature film production, Audley observed. He said, “If you need to shoot a feature that needs six, seven, eight stages, it’s impossible to do that now.”
In July, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill (SB144) meant to tackle the soundstage shortfall. It includes a new $150 million credit to incentivize the construction of sets.
Locally filmed projects include Netflix’s Me Time, Home Delivery, Love Me to Death and Rooming with Danger.
Television has become a mainstay of production in Los Angeles, filling the gap that the flight of feature film shoots have left. Audley said the first quarter filming record is at least partially a result of a backlog of productions that pivoted to shooting locally after realizing that going elsewhere would be more costly and troublesome because of COVID-19 restrictions.
“As the COVID era continued, a lot of productions couldn’t leave their base,” Audley said. “They’d have to quarantine for two weeks if they went to other parts of the country. Those productions ended up staying here in LA.”
Production for HBO’s The Flight Attendant moved from New York to Los Angeles in 2021.
FilmLA reported that filming for episodic dramas saw a 8.6 percent increase over the five-year average, owing to a significant demand for content on streaming platforms. TV dramas that filmed locally include FX’s American Horror Stories, Apple TV+’s Little America, HBO’s Perry Mason, ABC’s Promised Land and CBS’ S.W.A.T.
Tax incentives are a significant driver of local TV dramas choosing to shoot in Los Angeles. Shows receiving tax credits generated 499 shoot days for the quarter, representing 39 percent of all activity in the category.
California bolstered in July the Film & Television Tax Credit program with an additional $180 million in incentives on top of the $330 million already earmarked for the industry. Part of the program is geared specifically toward incentivizing TV productions to relocate to California.
As in recent quarters, TV reality production continued to significantly escalate. Filming for the category increased 71.7 percent, with 2,600 shoot days to start the year. Projects that filmed locally include Basketball Wives, Celebrity IOU, Family or Fiancé and People Magazine Investigates.
“Seeing cycles in production for all of these [categories] is not unusual,” Audley said. “The explosion of reality tv has to do with covid era where they could do those productions with not a lot of cast and crew and not have a lot of issues.”
