Register

    Lensing Permits Decline For 2nd Straight Month In Greater L.A.

    By SHOOTUpdated:No Comments2082 Views
    Paul Audley, president of FilmLA

    COVID surge prompts pause in production on different fronts

    LOS ANGELES --

    FilmLA, partner film office for the City and County of Los Angeles and other local jurisdictions has issued an update regarding regional filming activity since the reopening of L.A. County to on-location filming last June.

    Over the last 29 weeks, FilmLA has processed approximately 4,213 film permit applications spanning 2,985 unique projects.

    Film permit applications declined steeply last month, dropping 24.9 percent from November levels to 613 permits in December. This is the second straight month that permit requests dropped. In November, monthly activity slipped 7.6 percent from October levels to 813 permits.

    The activity decline started early and deepened throughout December. The week before Christmas, FilmLA issued 143 permits, then 58 the week of the holiday (12/14-12/20), and 50 the week of New Year’s (12/28-1/3). With just 21 working days in December, FilmLA released an average of just 29 film permits per day–the lowest daily output since last August.

    Analysts tied the drop in production to voluntary industry efforts to stop the COVID-19 surge. In Los Angeles County, film production remains permissible, subject to extensive workplace health regulation through a combination of government mandates and union agreements. Current practice includes routine employee screening and COVID-19 testing, environmental sanitation, and zone-based set access control.

    On December 24, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health urged the film industry to consider pausing production for a few weeks during the COVID-19 surge.

    Highly invested in efforts to keep cast, crew and communities safe, and having already begun dialing activity back, an extended holiday hiatus began. CBS Studios, Warner Bros. TV, Universal Television, Disney Television Studios and Sony Pictures Television all indicated recently that they were pausing production until at least mid-January.

    Meanwhile, SAG-AFTRA and the Producers Guild further recommended that on-set commercial production be temporarily paused in Southern California.

    “The industry has been extraordinarily responsible throughout the time of the pandemic, as demonstrated by their recent actions during the rise in cases of COVID-19 and embrace of strict safety protocols,” reflected FilmLA president Paul Audley.

    Television production comprised 27 percent of permits released in December. Only a handful of TV series started shooting locally in December including Ghosts (CBS), Insecure (HBO), Tacoma FD (HBO Max), The L Word: Generation Q (Showtime), and The 3 of Us (CBS).

    Feature film production comprised 6 percent of permits released in December. A total of 26 feature films, largely independents, commenced shooting in December, including Monstrous, Slayers and This Land.

    Reality TV shows shooting around town included Dog Impossible (NatGeo), Jay Leno’s Garage (NBC), Teen Mom OG (CBS All Access), and Season 5 of People Magazine Investigates (Investigation Discovery).

    Commercial production comprised 28 percent of permits released in December. Projects that shot in Los Angeles County last month included spots for products like Haagen Dazs, Honda, Mountain Dew, and retailers/services such as Carl’s Jr., Lowe’s and Progressive.

    FilmLA’s COVID-19 Resource Center lists the areas served by FilmLA and their current filming availability. This page also includes links to resources from film industry organizations and the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, including mandatory Health Orders that apply to filming on location.

    Category:News
    Tags:FilmLApandemicPaul Audleyshooting days

    Craig Henighan Sounds Off On “Deadpool & Wolverine”

    Friday, November 15, 2024

    Hollywood lore has it that character actor Edmund Gwenn--while on his deathbed--quipped, “Dying is easy, comedy is hard.”

    The second part of that darkly witty utterance remains all too true today as Craig Henighan--a Best Achievement in Sound Mixing Oscar nominee in 2019 for Roma--can attest in that he had to grapple with the sonic of being comic for this year’s box office hit, Deadpool & Wolverine (20th Century Studios/Marvel Studios).

    The degree of inherent difficulty was ramped up even further because Deadpool & Wolverine had to seamlessly bring together high action-adventure exploits with moments and dialogue that tickled the funny bone. There’s a mesh of humorous banter--a staple of the franchise--along with major spectacle replete with explosions, fights, an impactful score and off-the-wall musical numbers.

    Henighan explained that among the prime challenges for him from a sound perspective was having to make sure every joke landed within the construct of a superhero film. The tendency for a tentpole movie of this variety, he noted, is to gravitate towards big, loud audio spanning music, dialogue and sound effects. But the unique comedic element of Deadpool & Wolverine necessitated that re-recording mixer and supervising sound editor Henighan strike a delicate balance. “You need to get out of the way for the comedy,” he related. The jokes in a superhero film become “a real dance” as Henighan had to establish a rhythm that did justice to both the comedy and the action as the narrative moves back and forth between them--and sometimes the funny and the high energy, high decibel superhero dynamic unfold simultaneously in a scene or sequence. The “sonic fabric” has to... Read More

    MySHOOT Profiles


    Add A Comment