Written by on Jul 4, 2012. Posted in On Location

Los Angeles sees location film and ad production rise as drama TV falls

A report from FilmLA shows that commercial and film production increased in Los Angeles in the last quarter, offsetting a double-digit TV decline. Feature location production rose by nearly 10% on the same period in 2011, while the figure for commercials was nearly 30% higher.

The impressive rise in commercial production is thought to be because of the upcoming Olympics in London. But television production fell by 15% overall, prompting FilmLA to criticise what it sees as Sacramento’s failure to support the TV industry.

Television has been our bread and butter, but with Sacramento’s inaction to stem our losses, other states and countries are eating off our plate.

Paul Audley, FilmLA

Paul Audley is President of FilmLA: “For many years, we’ve relied on television to backfill the hole left by the flight of feature film production from the LA region. Television has been our bread and butter, but with Sacramento’s inaction to stem our losses, other states and countries are eating off our plate.”

Sacramento faces political pressure to direct funds away from California’s filming tax credit programme. The state’s major issue has been its lack of long-term TV filming incentives. A compromise was reached recently with a two-year extension rather than the five that the industry was lobbying for.