This year Los Angeles’ movie industry celebrates a centennial. One hundred years ago in 1909 the first motion picture filmed entirely within Los Angeles was shot downtown at 8th and Olive. Film production became a signature industry for our region and state, as its products were exported throughout the world. Unfortunately, movie industry jobs have been exported as well. The phenomenon … Read More
A Landmark Sign of Cooperation
Filming on-location requires the involvement and approvals of numerous government departments, agencies and private entities. Our job at FilmL.A. is to streamline the permitting process by ensuring good communication between these parties and clear protocols for filming where jurisdictions overlap. A great example of overlapping jurisdictions is the area around the Hollywood Sign in Griffith Park. The famous landmark sign … Read More
Japanese Garden Re-opens to Filming
FilmL.A. is pleased to announce the re-opening of the Japanese Garden at the Donald C. Tillman Reclamation Plant to filming following a hiatus of more than one year. The popular Van Nuys filming destination has been closed to filmmakers since mid-2007, while the site underwent a multi-faceted $480,000 renovation. FilmL.A. has been instrumental in helping filmmakers obtain access to the … Read More
Seasons Change, Cloudy Outlook Remains
New FilmL.A. production data reveals that local on-location feature film production dropped 38 percent between July and September, as compared to the same period last year. The year-over-year decline from 1,897 to 1,181 permitted production days (PPD) is due to a string of unusually early project wraps; many producers chose to start their projects ahead of mid-year contract deadlines. … Read More
New Website Helps Demystify Permitting Process
FilmL.A. launched a new website September 29, and with it, we introduced a host of new information sections for our government, industry and community partners. In addition to our new Online Permit System (OPS), an important new web feature is our Getting Started section for filmmakers. This section houses easy-to-follow, step-by-step guides to the film permitting process, as streamlined and simplified by … Read More