Filming During a Stay at Home Order: Recommendations from FilmLA

FilmLAFor Filmmakers, Production Alerts

Since June, when on-location film production resumed in Los Angeles under modified public health orders, the State of California has viewed workers supporting the film, television and commercial production industry—who number in the hundreds of thousands here in Greater LA— as essential for the state’s critical infrastructure.

FilmLA is unaware of any plans to revisit or modify the state’s essential worker definitions, but new Stay at Home orders this week remind us that the COVID-19 pandemic’s progress is unpredictable, and new business regulation can affect any industry at the state, county or city level, at any time. 

With Coronavirus case counts surging and many sectors of the economy reeling, FilmLA asks all industry customers to be vigilant to help protect jobs and public health:    

  • First and foremost, we urge strict observance of the LA County Public Health Order, Appendix J, written to help protect your cast, crew and vendors from COVID-19.  Inattention to these protocols—even in just a handful of situations—could jeopardize community confidence in our ability to operate safely.
  • In addition, now and through the end of the year, we urge filmmakers to voluntarily limit and/or avoid activities likely to invite a negative community response. Examples of high-impact activities include, but are not limited to: any activity requiring Community Filming Surveys, activity that affects customer access to retail businesses, significant prep, strike or filming on secular and religious holidays, and requests that involve extended street parking, overnight filming, street closures, or aircraft use.

We realize that bringing filming to our communities always involves balancing a variety of stakeholder needs. As of today, applications for complex shoots will continue to be processed by FilmLA and reviewed by permit authorities on a case-by-case basis.

But we also urge customers to keep community concerns in mind. The decisions we make today could determine the welcome we’ll receive tomorrow.

Thank you for supporting filming in Los Angeles.