MOVIE PRODUCTION SOARS IN L.A.

Location feature-film production in and around Los Angeles County shot up 24 percent in the first quarter, the semi-official FilmL.A., which coordinates location film permits, said on Tuesday. It was hard to tell what was responsible for the jump, which came amid increased expressions of concern by industry and local officials over “runaway production.” It may have been the severe weather conditions affecting other parts of the country that made location shooting there intolerable; or ramped up movie production activity in general; or more scripts that required location shooting; or — as Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti argued on Tuesday — the support of the state’s tax credit program. Whatever it was, FilmL.A. said that the increase in feature-film production days beat the five-year quarterly average by nearly 40 percent. It further noted that most of the increase came from relatively low-budget productions (under $75 million); big-budget films are still being shot elsewhere. Oddly, television dramas and sitcoms, which also have relatively low budgets compared with motion-picture features, saw a 9.2 percent drop in production days. They still represent the largest contributor to production activity in Southern California, however — 4,624 production days versus 1,588 for movies.