LOS ANGELES—Is it a barrage of activity before the lull or the beginning of an upward trend for spot lensing in Los Angeles? That’s the open-ended question contained in the figures for TV commercial location shoot days in Greater Los Angeles last month, as compiled by the Entertainment Industry Development Corp. (EIDC), which oversees the joint Los Angeles City/ County Film Office.
Based on the number of filming permits issued, there were 706 spot location shoot days in March throughout Los Angeles. That’s a whopping 45 percent more than the total of exterior days for March 2002, and 20 percent ahead of the February ’03 tally.
While figures for both January ’03 (515 days) and February ’03 (587 days) were below their counterpart months in ’02, the major increase in March activity pushed this year’s first quarter total to 1,808 spot shoot location days, eight percent more than in January through March ’02.
Last month’s 706 days are also noteworthy in that no month in ’02 was able to crack the 700 mark-the highest total being 625 days in February ’02; the low that calendar year being November with 330 days.
The impressive March tally came as a surprise to some, with the war in Iraq generally thought to have slowed overall commercial production. This dynamic came into play even before the war actually started, as anticipation of a pending conflict caused many advertisers to pull back, uncertain as to what creative/ strategic approaches to take against the backdrop of tumultuous times and increased TV news coverage.
At the same time, with war being waged overseas and a heightened terrorism alert in the United States and for American interests abroad, foreign filming of U.S. commercials has subsided. And with curtailed runaway production, the work that is done figures to take place in the United States, with beneficiaries being filming centers like Los Angeles.
Filming permit figures for April could be a bit more telling.
Meanwhile, overall lensing activity for the first quarter of ’03 —spanning commercials, features, TV programs and music videos—amounts to 7,684 location days. That represents a 14 percent increase over the number of shoot days during the first quarter of ’02.
