Iconic film locations in Los Angeles are being made easier to film on-location and lower costs for productions are bringing back more projects to the entertainment industry, officials announced Thursday.
Mayor Karen Bass touted Thursday that her executive directive “Reel Change: Supporting Local Film and Television Production” is making it easier for studios and independent producers to shoot movies, television and commercials in the city.
“Los Angeles is the creative capital of the world, and city leaders know that City Hall needs to be a champion for keeping entertainment production jobs right here at home,” Bass said in a statement.
In her statement, Bass recognized Councilman Adrin Nazarian, who introduced a series of legislative motions, called the “Keep Hollywood Home” initiative, which aims to streamline permits for the filmmakers, lower costs and reduce other requirements.
“The motions I’ve already introduced are just the beginning,” Nazarian said in a statement. “We developed these proposals through a year of meeting with everyone from studio executives and producers to hundreds of rank-and-file-production workers.”
Nazarian noted these changes are intended to help entertainment workers and produce jobs. These initiatives are leading to recent developments such as the following:
— The Central Library will reopen filming for major productions this year;
— The Port of Los Angeles has cut the time it takes to review filming applications;
— City staff are working on lowering fees for filming at Griffith Observatory;
— Department of Transportation has extended staff hours to ensure timely on-street signage posting request and changes for local productions;
— DOT pre-approved certain closures in downtown, allowing FilmLA — the city’s film permitting partner — to curb lane and local street closures in accordance with established manual guidelines;
— Film LA is developing a tiered permitting fee structure for low-impact productions; and
— Los Angeles Police Department officials identified activity and locations where they can decrease or waive assigned personnel for an on-site film location.
Local government should stay out of Film Production. Film Production is a business and is up to them to run it properly. It was run improperly and wasted money in many different areas. Now they are wondering why they are not prospering. Many others are going to other states where costs are better. If Hollywood cannot stay competitive, then they will suffer from being too nearsighted. Stop throwing money at a failing local industry.