Community Corner

More TV Drama Pilots Shot in New York than in Los Angeles

While more half-hour sit-coms are filmed here, executives lamented Los Angeles' declining market share.

Los Angeles lagged behind New York in the number of locally shot television drama pilots during the most recent season, according to a report released today.

New York was the backdrop for 24 one-hour drama pilots, compared with 19 drama pilots shot in Los Angeles during the same period, according to the report by FilmL.A., which issues and tracks film permits. Despite those figures, Los Angeles still has a large -- though shrinking -- share of total pilots produced, the report found.

Of the 203 pilots FilmL.A. tracked in the 2013-14 "development cycle," Los Angeles was the location for 90 pilot productions, including 71 half-hour comedy and the 19 one-hour drama pilots.

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New York was the site of a total of 35 total pilot productions, while Vancouver had 17. Atlanta saw 12 projects and Toronto had 8.

The pilots tallied by FilmL.A. were scheduled to air in 2014 or later.

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FilmL.A. executives lamented Los Angeles' declining market share, noting that Los Angeles commanded 82 percent of the pilot production market six years ago, but now has just 52 percent of the market.

"Losing television pilots -- and then series -- to other North American competitors leads to the destruction of steady, well-paying California jobs," said Paul Audley, president of FilmL.A., a nonprofit that was created when the county and city decided to privatize their film permit offices.

The report "makes plain why an expanded film incentive is needed to bring this part of the industry back," Audley said.

The film office released the report as state lawmakers are considering legislation that would make California's film tax incentives more competitive with other states. AB 1839, also known as the California Film and Television Job Retention and Promotion Act, won unanimous approval in the Assembly in May and is awaiting consideration by the state Senate.

The bill would expand the pool of film-incentive money beyond the current $100 million and allow more types of film productions to apply for the tax breaks.

--City News Service


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