Film Shoots Down 56%, TV up after Last Year's Strike

Compared to last year's first quarter, film production shoots are down 56.3%, but thanks to last year's writers strike, TV shoots was given a boost with a 76.4% increase. However, the Hollywood Reporter has sobering news about all of this: "after factoring in a 34.2% drop in recession-battered commercial shoots -- first-quarter location filming in L.A. was virtually stagnant, increasing by 0.7% year-over-year." Feature Film production in Los Angeles also drastically went down to its lowest levels since at least 1993 when film days were first tracked. Tomorrow, a City Council committee will look at the filming services contract. Of note, a new draft of the contract "removes most of the specific language regarding how far in advance surveying and notification requests must be done," reports blogdowntown.