FilmLA reports a 24% decline in Los Angeles location shoots due to strike concerns
There is a possibility that a writers’ strike in Hollywood The new month is causing production to suffer in Los Angeles. quarterly report from FilmLA The number of days spent on location shooting in the county has dropped by 24%.
FilmLA’s Q1 2022 report shows that 9,832 shooting days were recorded as Hollywood worked to make up the time lost due to the COVID-19 closure. But with the possibility that the Writers Guild of America could order a strike if a new contract with studios isn’t agreed upon by the May 1 deadline, studios are significantly drawing down the number of new productions while hastily completing ones that began early this year.
In the first quarter of 2023, there were 7,476 shooting days, a decrease of 24% from the previous year and 16.8% lower than the average over the last five years. TV in particular was hit hard with 2,862 shooting days, down by 35.8% compared to the last quarter and by 24.2% compared to the quarterly average.
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“Over three consecutive quarters, we’ve seen a significant slowdown across all of the most economically important categories of on-location production,” noted FilmLA President Paul Audley. “Particularly in the television world, decisions about future content direction are on hold, pending the outcome of corporate restructuring actions and industry labor negotiations.”
The dramatic drop in reality and drama shoots was also seen when the decline is broken down further. Drama shoots dropped 40%, from 1,279 days in Q1 2020 to 762 days in Q1 2030. This is 37.3% lower than the five-year median. Reality shoots are still 17% above the five-year average at 1,617 shoot days, but down 37.8% from last year’s 2,600 shoot days.
In a vote held earlier this week, over 9,000 members of Writers Guild of America authorized its leadres order a walkout if an agreement tentative with studios wasn’t met. The WGA has been pushing for higher pay and minimum residuals for writers working on streaming films and TV shows, and for minimum staffing levels in writers’ rooms.
The attention will now turn to the Directors Guild of America, SAG-AFTRA and their upcoming contracts negotiations. Studio insiders told TheWrap there was hope that a deal reached by a guild without causing a strike would increase the chances of achieving the same agreement with the two other guilds. However, DGA and SAG-AFTRA insiders said they were also seeking significant changes in how their members are paid on streaming projects.
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