The filming of movies and television series in Los Angeles doubled during 2021 to those of 2020, when the pandemic completely paralyzed the audiovisual industry, according to data from FilmLA, the office in charge of managing permits in the Californian city.
During the third and fourth quarter of 2021, the mecca of cinema not only recovered its usual work rate, but the return to work of the large number of productions that were suspended the previous year led to activity in the last weeks of 2021 being 4% higher than that of 2018, before the pandemic.
“It’s an encouraging report by most measures, but there is still uncertainty about what production will look like in 2022,” said FilmLA president Paul Audley.
The coronavirus caused a bloodletting in Hollywood, with more than 100,000 jobs lost in 2020, according to data from the main union of the entertainment union in the United States, IATSE, which represents production assistants, screenwriters, designers, makeup artists and other professionals linked to film activity.
However, the activity was resumed during 2021, since the city of Los Angeles approved more than 37,700 filming sessions, compared to 18,993 in 2020.
Despite the fact that some restrictions due to the coronavirus remained present during the past year, Hollywood activity also exceeded that of 2019, when 36,450 filming sessions were recorded without the unforeseen events of the pandemic.
And to this rebound in work should be added the filming that is being forged in states such as Georgia and New Mexico, new epicenters of the audiovisual world thanks to the tax incentives they offer and their relaxed policy of sanitary measures.
Even so, the omicron variant has again disrupted the plans of the entertainment industry and the Los Angeles agency indicates in its report that the pace has slowed down again during the beginning of 2022.
“As in 2021, this new year filmmakers are being cautious and many studios have postponed their return to filming. Our hope is that 2022 follows a similar trajectory to last year, with a slow and responsible start and a strong end to the year,” Audley added.
Movies shot in Los Angeles in 2021 include Netflix movies like “Me Time,” “Your Place or Mine” and “The Gray Man” and HBO series like “Euphoria” and “The Flight Attendant.”
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