On-location activity: Good for movies, bad for TV

Overall production days in the second quarter were essentially flat compared with a year ago and down 1.3 percent from the previous three months, according to Film L.A. But the movie and television numbers varied significantly, with location days for features up 9.1 percent from a year earlier and television down 15.4 percent. Commercials were up 28.1 percent. TV dramas fell sharply while TV sitcoms were up sharply (dramas involve higher production dollars). From press release:

"For many years, we've relied on Television to backfill the hole left by the flight of feature film production from the L.A. region. Television has been our bread and butter, but with Sacramento's inaction to stem our losses, other states and countries are eating off our plate," said FilmL.A. President Paul Audley. The California Film & Television Tax Credit Program, which brought five state-qualified television projects to Los Angeles last quarter, did little to prop up the ailing category. State-qualified projects, including Major Crimes, Pretty Little Liars, Rizzoli and Isles and Switched at Birth, contributed 61 PPD across various television subcategories, representing 1.8 percent of total TV days logged during the quarter.

Keep in mind that these numbers do not include activity at sound stages, which make up a large part of Hollywood production.

Q2 ON-LOCATION ACTIVITY (compared with Q2 2011)
Features 1,750 +9.1%
Television 3,405 -15.4%
Commercials 1,901 +28.1%
Total 11,209 -0.4%