When demand goes down, you slash prices, right? Not if you’re FilmLA, the non-profit organization that serves as the official film office for the city and county of Los Angeles.
Effective July 1, FilmLA is raising its prices to obtain a permit to shoot on location in L.A. The roughly 4% across-the-board hike is due to decreased revenue from the ongoing production slowdown throughout the greater L.A. area, the organization said in a statement on its website. FilmLA also cited increased costs in maintaining the salaries and benefits of its staff.
“We recognize that news of a fee increase is never welcome, and we appreciate our customers’ understanding,” said FilmLA President Paul Audley. “We would not increase fees without first finding ways to significantly reduce our operating costs, including down-sizing our office space and right-sizing our workforce, as we have already done. Ultimately, these adjustments are necessary to sustain the people and programs that keep Los Angeles accessible to filmmakers, including rapid-turnaround permit processing, free production planning assistance, and comprehensive community relations including Neighborhood Notification and On-Location Monitoring.”
The move came in consultation with FilmLA’s board of directors, made up of industry executives, and labor and community representatives. The organization serves as a one-stop-shopping resource to cut through the red tape of city and county permitting, and offers the ability to apply and pay for permits online.
The fee raise is part-and-parcel with increasing costs across Los Angeles for film and TV productions in general. Many studios and independent producers have turned to cities and states with tax incentives and other benefits to keep costs low as an alternative to L.A.-based production during the course of this century to date. Atlanta has become a massive production hub, with an entire homegrown industry of local artisans and crew, as has Toronto (which currently boasts the largest soundstage in North America, for its production of the “Star Trek” series).
Since the strikes resolved in fall 2023, film and TV production has not returned to anything like their previous levels in Los Angeles, with many craftspeople and crew remaining out of work and not knowing where their next job will come from. It’s a slowdown that shows no sign of picking up anytime soon.
