Written by on Jun 26, 2013. Posted in On Location

Los Angeles promised City Hall film chief as TV pilot location filming falls

Los Angeles has been promised a film chief – or ‘czar’ – at City Hall to help tackle the city’s persistent runaway production problem. New figures from FilmLA have revealed a fall in the proportion of television pilots filmed on location in Los Angeles.

Incoming Mayor of Los Angeles Eric Garcetti has pledged to appoint a film czar in City Hall to help advocate the interests of the city’s production industry.

“There was a lot of disappointment that filming didn't appear to be a huge priority for [outgoing Mayor Antonio] Villaraigosa,” Location Manager Chris Baugh told the LA Times: “I feel pretty good about Garcetti. He seems to be working hard to understand the problem and bring filming back to LA.”

FilmLA found that Los Angeles made big gains in terms of overall production projects in the past year. Location filming on pilots and comedies increased by nearly 40% during the first quarter of 2013 but over the course of the last year the city hosted only about half of all US television pilots, which is the second-lowest figure on record.