L.A. FILMING: UP (ONE REPORT); DOWN (ANOTHER REPORT)

There was good news and bad news coming out of FilmL.A., the group that coordinates the issuance of film permits to shoot outdoors in the Los Angeles area. The Hollywood Reporter accentuated the negative, headlining, “Few Tax Credits Spur Decline in L.A. film Shoots.” The trade paper’s lede observed that feature film location shooting dropped 6.6 percent during the third quarter from the comparable period a year ago. It blamed the decline on the fact that fewer tax credits were available this year than last. On the other hand, the Los Angeles Times in its lede observed that on-location shooting in L.A. “was flat in the third quarter, remaining virtually unchanged from the same period a year ago.” Both reports were correct. While feature filming and TV production were down, it was offset by a surge of TV commercial production that rose 21.9 percent as advertisers began increasing spending after drastically retrenching in 2008 and 2009.