On-location filming in Greater Los Angeles rose 3 percent in the third quarter of 2018. In all, 9,734 Shoot Days (SD) were logged during the period, including all filming categories tracked by a report from the nonprofit FilmL.A. On-location Feature production is up for a third consecutive quarter.
“We are grateful for the continued positive impact of the California Film Tax Credit program as it continues to boost employment and production in Greater Los Angeles,” said FilmL.A. president Paul Audley. “Increases in feature film, commercials, TV pilot and TV drama production are very good news for the region’s economy.”
Incentivized projects brought to L.A. by the California Film & Television Tax Credit Program contributed 15.1 percent or 197 of the 1,301 SD in the Feature category. Incentivized features filming in Los Angeles in the third quarter included Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Against All Enemies and Birdbox.
The TV category overall saw an increase of 1.8 percent to 4,095 SD in the third quarter. Much of the jump in the TV category was attributed to the TV dramas category which leapt 21.6 percent for the quarter. Incentivized TV dramas accounted for 19 percent or 284 of the 1,497 SDs during the period. Qualifying TV dramas that filmed during the third quarter included American Princess and Netflix’s newly acquired Lucifer.
Increases were also seen in TV pilots (up 30 percent to 78 SD), TV reality (up 5.5 percent to 1,127 SD) and the “Other” category, that consists largely of still photo shoots, student projects and music videos (up 0.4 percent to 2,938 SD)
Decreases were seen in TV comedies (down 3 percent to 518 SD). Incentivized TV comedy projects accounted for 18.1 percent or 94 of the 518 SDs for the quarter. A qualifying TV comedy that filmed during the third quarter was Good Girls. A decline was also seen in web-based TV (down 32.1 percent to 379 SD), a category comprised primarily of short-form content.
On-location commercial production continued to rise in 2018, increasing 4.9 percent in the third quarter (to 1,400 SD), and finishing 9.2 percent above the category’s five-year average.
Roswell Starts Shooting In New Mexico
The new Warner Bros./NM Talent Inc. TV series Roswell has begun principal photography on its first season in the New Mexico communities of Las Vegas and Santa Fe. Production started in August and will run through January 2019.
“We welcome back Warner Bros., an extensive collaborator in the New Mexico film industry, with this creative story based on historic events in Roswell, NM,” said Nick Maniatis, director of the New Mexico Film Office. “Our state’s unique history, crew, support services, and a very successful tax credit have drawn the producers back to our thriving industry.”
The production will employ approximately 90 New Mexico crew members and 2,600 New Mexico background talent. Roswell is produced by My So-Called Company, Amblin Television and Bender Brown Productions in association with Warner Bros. Television. Carina Adly MacKenzie (The Originals) wrote the pilot script and serves as EP along with Julie Plec (The Vampire Diaries), Justin Falvey (The Americans), Darryl Frank (The Americans), Lawrence Bender (Pulp Fiction) and Kevin Kelly Brown (Roswell).
After returning to her hometown of Roswell, the daughter of undocumented immigrants discovers a shocking truth about her teenage crush who is now a policeman: he’s an alien who has kept his unearthly abilities hidden. She protects his secret as the two reconnect, but when a violent attack and long-standing government cover-up point to a greater alien presence on Earth, the politics of fear and hatred threaten to expose him and destroy their romance. The series stars Jeanine Mason.
Review: Writer-Director Aaron Schimberg’s “A Different Man”
Imagine you could wake up one morning, stand at the mirror, and literally peel off any part of your looks you don't like — with only movie-star beauty remaining.
How would it change your life? How SHOULD it change your life?
That's a question – well, a launching point, really — for Edward, protagonist of Aaron Schimberg's fascinating, genre-bending, undeniably provocative and occasionally frustrating "A Different Man," featuring a stellar trio of Sebastian Stan, Adam Pearson and Renate Reinsve.
The very title is open to multiple interpretations. Who (and what) is "different"? The original Edward, who has neurofibromatosis, a genetic disorder that causes bulging tumors on his face? Or the man he becomes when he's able to slip out of that skin? And is he "different" to others, or to himself?
When we meet Edward, a struggling actor in New York (Stan, in elaborate makeup), he's filming some sort of commercial. We soon learn it's an instructional video on how to behave around colleagues with deformities. But even there, the director stops him, offering changes. "Wouldn't want to scare anyone," he says.
On Edward's way home on the subway, people stare. Back at his small apartment building, he meets a young woman in the hallway, in the midst of moving to the flat next door. She winces visibly when she first sees him, as virtually everyone does.
But later, Ingrid (Reinsve) tries to make it up to him, coming over to chat. She is charming and forthright, and tells Edward she's a budding playwright.
Edward goes for a medical checkup and learns that one of his tumors is slowly progressing over the eye. But he's also told of an experimental trial he could join. With the possibility — maybe — of a cure.
So... Read More