By Millie Takaki
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.
Alec Baldwin Urges Judge To Stand By Dismissal Of Involuntary Manslaughter Case In “Rust” Shooting
Alec Baldwin urged a New Mexico judge on Friday to stand by her decision to skuttle his trial and dismiss an involuntary manslaughter charge against the actor in the fatal shooting of a cinematographer on the set of a Western movie.
State District Court Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer dismissed the case against Baldwin halfway through a trial in July based on the withholding of evidence by police and prosecutors from the defense in the 2021 shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the set of the film "Rust."
The charge against Baldwin was dismissed with prejudice, meaning it can't be revived once any appeals of the decision are exhausted.
Special prosecutor Kari Morrissey recently asked the judge to reconsider, arguing that there were insufficient facts and that Baldwin's due process rights had not been violated.
Baldwin, the lead actor and co-producer on "Rust," was pointing a gun at cinematographer Halyna Hutchins during a rehearsal when it went off, killing her and wounding director Joel Souza. Baldwin has said he pulled back the hammer — but not the trigger — and the revolver fired.
The case-ending evidence was ammunition that was brought into the sheriff's office in March by a man who said it could be related to Hutchins' killing. Prosecutors said they deemed the ammunition unrelated and unimportant, while Baldwin's lawyers alleged that they "buried" it and filed a successful motion to dismiss the case.
In her decision to dismiss the Baldwin case, Marlowe Sommer described "egregious discovery violations constituting misconduct" by law enforcement and prosecutors, as well as false testimony about physical evidence by a witness during the trial.
Defense counsel says that prosecutors tried to establish a link... Read More