Pickup in L.A. location shooting

Third-quarter filming rose 15.4 percent from a year earlier, with feature production jumping nearly 50 percent (helped somewhat by the state's tax incentive program). TV was up almost 6 percent, and commercials 16.5 percent. Only TV dramas were down for the quarter, the result of L.A. losing several series to other areas. As usual, these location numbers offer only an approximate glimpse into the overall production scene, since they don't include soundstage activity. But they do affirm what we've seen in other economic data: That Hollywood is one of the few industries that has been holding up.