When the going gets tough, raise your prices? Not a mantra we see often! However, this seems to be the approach that FilmLA is taking regarding new filming permits for the wider LA area. Brandon Blake, our entertainment attorney Los Angeles and expert source from Blake & Wang P.A. is here to unpack the news and look a little deeper into this controversial price hike and what it hopes to achieve in a lackluster location shooting climate.
New Price Hikes in Store
FilmLA is the non-profit organization responsible for all permits and filming permission throughout the city and wider county of Los Angeles. As of July 1st, 2024, it will now cost roughly 4% more across the board to obtain a permit for location shooting in LA.
Reasons cited for the hike include decreased revenue from the wider production slowdown currently being experienced in the greater LA area and increased administration and benefit costs for its staff. It supposedly builds on the downsizing and workforce right-sizing the organization has been undertaking over the last few years.
LA: No Longer the Only Choice
Of course, the argument that costs go up is always a valid one, especially in a high-inflation environment, and, understandably, any entertainment-related entity would be looking to boost revenue streams and keep costs tight in the current soft economic and struggling production environments. LA has seen increasing costs across the board for productions, and that has to be acknowledged.
However, it is more than understandable that the optics and even sense of this increase have been called into question within the wider entertainment landscape. After all, part of the reason for those escalating costs of LA-based productions is that LA is no longer one of only a few strong locations for on-location filming.
Over the years since the pandemic ended, we've seen several US states also revise their tax incentives and general offerings to attract productions to their metropolises. This can be added to many attractive locations in continental North America and South America, alongside many international destinations also offering tax incentives for locally filmed productions.
Some of LA's woes have been caused by the exodus of many studios and indie producers now filming elsewhere. In particular, Atlanta has risen as a massive production hub, now with its own homegrown industry offering artisans and crew alike. Toronto has also become increasingly prominent and is now home to North America's largest soundstage.
So, while it is simple to frame the move economically within a county that has seen reduced film and TV production and hasn't yet recovered from the slowdown caused by the 2023 dual strikes, the fiscal sense of this move can still be questioned. With many crew and craftspeople still out of work and struggling to get jobs, a permit price increase is unlikely to do much to foster further growth and interest in LA as a location-shooting destination when other states offer a lot of the same, cheaper.
Will the price increase work in their favor? It's hard to see how at this point, but the situation will be interesting to watch unfold.
