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On-Location Filming In L.A. Sees Dismal Second Quarter
Show cancellations and fewer feature films and TV pilots shot on the streets of Los Angeles have put a major dent in on-location film production in the city, according to the latest report from FilmLA, the city’s film permit office.
On-location feature film production fell 18.5% between April and June of 2017 compared to the second quarter of 2016, and on-location TV pilot production plummeted a whopping 60.4%. The number of on-location shooting days on TV dramas plunged 24.3%; digital Web-based TV production dropped 21.8%; TV comedies fell 9%, and TV reality production slipped 1% (see chart below).
Overall, on-location shooting in Greater Los Angeles was down just 4.7% for the quarter, however, thanks to a 12.5% increase in shooting days for commercials – which though not eligible for the state’s film tax incentives still account for the most shooting days in the city – and a 7% increase in “other” production such as student film, public service announcements, industrial videos, still photography and adult films – also not eligible to cash in on the incentives.
Even so, FilmLA president Paul Audley managed to put a positive spin on the otherwise dreary data. “Declines in any category need to be put in context,” he said. “The year-to-date comparison for the last seven years shows 2017 is second only to 2016 for total shoot days.”
FilmLA said that the precipitous drop in TV pilot production mirror the findings in its upcoming 2017 Pilot Study, which shows fewer pilots were ordered by networks over the last year. “As a result,” the permit office said, “production centers from L.A. to New York saw declines in the category.”

The 789 days of shooting TV dramas on location this quarter were driven down because several shows from 2017 are no longer in production including Gilmore Girls, Good Girls Revolt, Hand Of God, Mistresses, Roadies, Sweet/Vicious and The Catch. Even so, the TV drama category is having its third best year of the last seven, trailing 2016 and 2015 year-to-date.
Projects that received state subsidies continued to bolster the numbers, although the number of jobs-rich shooting days they brought to the city is surprisingly low. Incentivized features produced only 232 shooting days in the quarter, or 22% of all films shooting here on location. TV dramas saw 291 incentivized days, or 37% of the category, and TV pilots yielded just 57 shooting days – or 52% of the category.
By contrast, commercials accounted for 1,398 shooting days – more than double the number of incentivized film and TV shoot days combined.
Even so, without the incentives, film and TV production in Los Angeles would have been in the tank for the quarter, and for the year to date.
(Data provided by FilmLA does not include productions shot on certified soundstages or on-location in jurisdictions not served by FilmLA.)

Two Of Hollywood’s Biggest Credit Unions Merge

Two of Hollywood’s biggest and oldest credit unions have merged, the latest in a series of mergers that have consolidated many of the industry’s member-owned, nonprofit financial cooperatives.
The merger of the $235 million SAG-AFTRA Federal Credit Union with the $73 million Musicians’ Interguild Credit Union previously had received approval from state and federal regulators, and now it has been ratified by their members. The merged credit union will keep the name SAG-AFTRA Federal Credit Union, and SAFCU chief executive Roger Runyon will be its CEO.
The new merged credit union will not only serve the needs of actors and musicians, but numerous other industry professionals as well. Unions and organizations that offer membership include:
SAG-AFTRA
SAG Foundation
SAG Pension Plan
SAG-AFTRA Health Plan
AFTRA Retirement Fund
Actors Fund, Western Region
American Guild of Variety Artists,
Casting Society of America
Hollander Talent Group
Set Decorators Society of America
Talent Managers Association
The Directors Guild of America
The WGA West
The Producers Guild of America
American Federation of Musicians Local 7
American Federation of Musicians Local 47
American Federation of Musicians Local 308
American Federation of Musicians Local 325
American Federation of Musicians Local 353
American Federation of Musicians Local 655
Musicians’ Assistance Program
Musicians’ Club of Los Angeles
Musicians Institute
Orange County Musicians’ Club
IATSE Prop Local 44
IATSE Grips Local 80
IATSE Cinematographers Guild Local 600
IATSE Costumers Local 705
IATSE Studio Electrical Lighting Technicians Local 728
IATSE Set Painters and Sign Writers Local 729
IATSE Art Directors Guild Local 800
IATSE Animation Guild Local 839
IATSE Treasurers & Ticket Sellers Local 857
IATSE Script Supervisors Local 871
IATSE Costume Designers Guild Local 892
Employees of the IATSE’s West Coast office
Employees of Technique System Solutions
Employees of Western Costume Co.
Entertainment Publicists Professional Society
So Cal IBEW-NECA Trust Fund
The Valley Master Chorale
Welsh Choir of Southern California
Association of Theatrical Press Agents & Managers
Spouses of deceased members, providing they have not remarried
Arl
The Ol’ SAG Watchdog
*Headline photo featured in Deadline story
SAG-AFTRA Election: Challenger Patricia Richardson Calls For Sweeping Changes.
EXCLUSIVE: SAG-AFTRA presidential candidate Patricia Richardson is calling for sweeping changes in the way the union does its business and deals with its diverse membership, vowing to heal the infighting and to take the fight to the producers for better wages and working conditions. Perhaps just as important, she’s calling for greater transparency inside a union that some wags have come to call the Secret Actors Guild.
Running atop her Membership First slate of candidates against incumbent Ken Howard, Richardson said it’s time to put the bickering of the past where it belongs – in the past – and to unite the members around a common goal: to “rebuild a union that better reflects the needs of its members.”
“We need strong leadership that isn’t afraid to speak truth to power and be tenacious in negotiations,” the former Home Improvement star said in an email going out to the entire union membership that lays out her agenda for change. “We want to derive our strength from the support of every member of our now-merged union every time we go to the bargaining table. Please allow us to represent all of you collectively and heal the divisions of the past.”
Vowing to unite the guild’s many factions, Richardson said: “I really respect the work and passion I see in all the political parties, and it grieves me to observe tension and conflict in our organization. There is a lot of history that I am relieved to have missed – so much anger and fear, and people holding on to that history.
She also said, “We hope to avoid repeating the mistakes of the past.” To do that, Richardson laid out six “concrete and achievable” goals she vowed to tackle if elected president:
* Stronger contracts, not just for performers in the SAG legacy contingent of our Union, but, also, for dissatisfied broadcasters and other legacy AFTRA performers.
* Fair residuals that reflect your hard work and right to a living wage.
* A fiscally responsible merger of the Pension and Health plans.
* Enforcement of contracts and a dedicated leadership to hold those who violate them accountable.
* More equality in representation for background actors.
* More regard and support for the local offices.
She noted, for example, that background players do not have a guaranteed seat in the boardroom and that they “actually lost ground in more than one contract in the last negotiations. Naturally, they are angry and don’t want to be ignored.” Richardson said that principal and supporting actors who work under many of the union’s different contracts “feel outnumbered and worry that their voices will be drowned out by the bigger numbers of lesser earning groups.” And broadcasters, she said, “are understandably upset when their crews have better deals than they do.” And “everyone is upset about the non-union work going on and the people in our union who work off card (non-union).”
Merging the union’s pension and health plans is also high on her agenda. “Your health plans and pensions are part and parcel of belonging to a union in the first place,” she wrote. “Although there’s the possibility of a merged health plan, there is no plan in the foreseeable future to merge the pension plans. This means that your earnings and years of work are still being split between SAG and AFTRA. That leaves many of our members falling between the cracks, with insufficient years of work in either plan to be vested.”
In these and other areas — including financial reports, budget decisions and spending on “frivolous things” — she said, “We need more transparency.”
———
That’s certainly clear!
Arl
The Ol’ SAG Watchdog
*Photo selected by Watchdog
Whistleblower Forces Changes To ‘Allegiant’ Battle Scene That Put Child Actors At Risk!
EXCLUSIVE: Thirty child actors – some as young as 4 years old – were put at risk during the filming of a battle scene last month on the Georgia set of Lionsgate’s Allegiant. In the chaotic scene during production of the third film in the Divergent series, child actors scrambled through a gauntlet of more than 100 untrained adult extras swinging metal clubs, axes and machetes. No one was seriously injured during the first day’s shoot, but quick action by a witness – and the intervention of representatives from IATSE Local 479 in Atlanta – might have averted a disaster on the second day.
Since the death of Sarah Jones on the set of Midnight Rider last year, the industry’s catchphrase has become, “If you see something, say something.” The witness, who asked to remain anonymous, knew Jones and took that phrase to heart.
On the morning of June 17, more than 130 extras began arriving at an old abandoned mill in rural northwest Georgia to begin the day’s work. They weren’t there long before the prop masters began handing out the heavy metal weapons – including axes, machetes, scythes, maces, steel pipes, hammers, heavy farm tools and pieces of steel rebar – that most of them would be wielding in the scene. They’d be battling soldiers who’d come to their village of genetically damaged outcasts to take away their children.
As the fight scene unfolded, the children fled in all directions, chased by soldiers. “I had to do a double take when the prop master passed out the weapons to the extras,” the witness wrote in an email to the film’s safety consultant. “Concerned, I went around and handled the weapons for myself and saw that they were steel and aluminum, with bladed edges, and some were quite sharp.”
In the film, the settlement under siege is called The Fringe, and the villagers are fierce warriors who fight with whatever weapons they can muster. “Most of the Fringe adults were given prop weapons for action scenes in which they were running around panicked as their children were kidnapped, with soldiers chasing them,” the witness wrote. “The children were also running through the melee, and as the scene progressed they were breaking free and running in all directions on their own as the Fringe adults tried to stop the soldiers.”
Shocked by what he was seeing, the witness spoke discreetly with several members of the crew. “Everyone seemed to know it was wrong, but no one was willing to speak up,” he told Deadline. “To me, it seems that saving money – the expense of rubber props – took priority over safety. This particularly upset me because small children were involved. I personally saw four people trip and fall just because of the footing on the set, and several people were given medical care for heat exhaustion, which can cause fainting – and falling on these weapons is just as dangerous as swinging them into someone else during the chaotic scene.”
Filming wrapped for the day, but they’d be back the next day to do it all over again.
The next morning, after a sleepless night, the witness called the SAG-AFTRA safety hotline to report the dangerous environment for the child actors, but got only a recording. Then he called SAG-AFTRA’s stunt and safety office in Los Angeles, but it wasn’t open yet. He then reached out to a SAG-AFTRA rep in Georgia, again getting a recording, and the guild’s Southern regional office in Miami, but got nowhere. “Dissatisfied, I called IATSE Local 479, who blew up when they heard what was going on.”
Ten minutes after that call, as the extras and children were preparing to shoot another scene, the prop masters came onto the set and rounded up all the metal weapons and replaced them with a few rubber replicas. “I felt immense relief that I wouldn’t see some child lose an eye or some extra get cut wide open by a blade as they ran around,” the witness said. “Local 479 made that set safe immediately.”
“It was brought to our attention, and it was handled immediately,” said a Local 479 official. “Safety is of the utmost importance to us. Any calls regarding safety issues are handled expeditiously.”
The film’s safety consult declined to discuss the matter with Deadline, but in an email to the witness, he wrote: “Thank you for bringing this to my attention. I do not and will not take this lightly. As you are well aware of, these weapons are completely unsatisfactory for the type of action that you have described. I will bring this to the attention of all key personnel involved with this production as well as Lionsgate executive staff. Thank you for your willingness to express yourself and others and I will continue to do everything I can to make our industry safer, injury and fatality free.”
The film’s producers did not respond to requests for an interview, however, a Lionsgate spokesman told Deadline: “We take safety issues very seriously, and we are currently investigating this.”