The number of filming days for commercials on location in Los Angeles during the first quarter of 2006 has decreased a little more than seven percent as compared to the same time period in ’05. Based on FilmL.A. lensing permits, the tally for spots in January-March ’06 is 1,896 production days, down from the 2,044 days in the first quarter of ’05.
Permit applications handled by FilmL.A. (formerly the Entertainment Industry Development Corp.)–which oversees the joint Los Angeles City/County Film Office–account for an estimated 80 percent-plus of location shooting in Los Angeles County.
While it’s difficult to pinpoint reasons for the decline, a prevalent school of thought is that more work is going elsewhere, either to other states or in some cases foreign countries. Indeed, many other states and municipalities are adopting or improving on financial incentives to attract filming business, a fact that was acknowledged by FilmL.A. president Steve MacDonald relative to overall production also spanning features and TV.
MacDonald noted that Los Angeles’ overall production days are up four-plus percent for the first quarter of ’06 when stacked up against ’05; however, that is due to a dramatic nearly 128 percent increase in reality TV production, which rose to 1,942 days, compared to 856 days during the first quarter of ’05. (TV dramas increased 6.8 percent, but sitcom location production dropped 65 percent. Feature films, though, were up nearly nine percent.)
“The big jump in the reality sector, which tends to have lower budgets and less of an economic impact helped to shore up our [production day] numbers,” said MacDonald. “While the figures might suggest that L.A. is holding its own, a look at other jurisdictions provides a different perspective. MacDonald cited record production-day increases reported by New York City, for example.
In New York, the Mayor’s Office of Film, Theatre and Broadcasting reported that on-location production days increased 35 percent in ’05 over the prior year, to a total of 31,570. That makes ’05 the busiest production year for that city in more than a decade.
FilmL.A. also referenced figures compiled by the California Film Commission regarding other states, such as Illinois seeing its production spending jump 198 percent from ’03 to ’04 and then 28 percent from ’04 to ’05, and New Mexico reporting a whopping 348 percent rise in production spending between ’04 and ’05.
“The production landscape is expanding both in the U.S. and internationally, and these dramatic growth figures prompt important questions, such as how many jobs and how much revenue is Los Angeles losing to other regions? asked MacDonald. “When you take into account that other regions are just beginning to develop a talent pool and long-term infrastructure, L.A.’s modest growth is not encouraging.”
The FilmL.A. figures for Greater Los Angeles represent the number of film-permitted, on-location production days in the City of Los Angeles, Diamond Bar, Southgate and West Hollywood, unincorporated areas of Los Angeles County, the Angeles National Forest, and in more than 800 facilities operated by the Los Angeles Unified School District. The tally of filming days does not include production that occurs only on soundstages or in surrounding cities.
SUPERLATIVE Signs Director Claudia Abend For Spots and Branded Content
Latin American director/editor and documentary filmmaker Claudia Abend has joined SUPERLATIVE for her first U.S. representation spanning commercials and branded content.
Abend's empathetic docu-style POV has garnered several international awards for the documentary films Hit (2008) and The Flower of Life (2018). Her spotmaking credits include such brands as Procter & Gamble, Nestle and Blue Cross/Blue Shield. SUPERLATIVE has already worked with Abend, together producing a new ad campaign for digital agency Tinuiti and The Honest Company, a consumer goods corporation featuring eco-minded products.
“We found Claudia through her poignant documentaries on the festival circuit,” said SUPERLATIVE creative manager Stefan Dezil. “We are excited about her textured narratives, emotional storytelling, and her powerhouse long-form storytelling abilities, currently on her third feature film. As SUPERLATIVE continues to build our brand after premiering our latest films at Sundance and SXSW, Claudia is the kind of multidimensional artist we are excited to partner with on branded content and beyond. Fluent in English and Spanish, her reel shows real prowess with infants, food and skin products, families both young and old. Great visual storytelling and inspirational doc work.”
Abend began her career in her native Uruguay, studying film and editing in college. “My dad would show me films like Citizen Kane,” she said. “I love cinema and became an editor. It was here that I learned all about communicating human emotion.”
From the get-go, Abend hit it big as a documentary director, teaming with Adrianna Loeff on Hit, a movie chronicling pop artists of Uruguayan music. Abend took home a Best Editing... Read More