New efforts urged to attract more TV shoots to LA

More efforts are needed in order to help Los Angeles keep up with historical high level of television shoots in the city, a nonprofit industry group said in a report released Tuesday. "On-location feature production in L.A. is nowhere near as common as it was in the mid-90s, and despite a good run, we're still logging fewer days for TV dramas and TV reality series than we used to," said FilmL.A. President Paul Audley. On-location filming in the Los Angeles area enjoyed a 8.6-percent hike from same time last year during the second quarter of 2013, the latest study from the private, nonprofit organization showed. However, "the TV drama sub-category underperformed its 5-year average by 12 percent (in the second quarter), even after logging year over year gains of 19.3 percent," according to the study. The report showed that 22.7 percent of television drama production days were supported by the state's Film and Television Tax Credit Program, including shows such as "Franklin & Bash", "Lost Angels", "Major Crimes", "Pretty Little Liars" and "Switched at Birth". Reality TV also registered a 4.7 percent downturn from its 5-year average, according to the statistics. The number of feature-film production days increased just 0.5 percent during the second quarter, compared to the same period last year, according to the report entitled "Overall On-Location Production in Los Angeles Increases 8.6 Percent." Of the feature films, 6.3 percent of the total qualified for the tax credit, which include films such as "Insidious","Lowdown", "OT Beach" and "Ride". "The more we study these numbers, the more obvious is the need for historical context," Audley noted. "For production to increase twenty, forty or even sixty percent in a category during a single quarter is positive and significant, but it also demands we look at the record and see what' s been happening in those categories seasonally and over time." Overall, the television category grew 26.6 percent last quarter to 4,310 permitted production days (PPDs), outperforming its five-year average by 8.9 percent, the report said. Enditem