As uncertainty over potential writers, directors, and actors strikes (the writers and actors would go on to strike) loomed large last spring, indie filmmakers could not get their movies off the ground . After all, why start what you might not be able to finish? Planned production days were lost, and workers were, well, not working. This spring it was déjà vu all over again, according to FilmLA’s new quarterly report.
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Facing potential strikes from IATSE and/or the Teamsters, on-location shoot days in Los Angeles from April through June dropped 12.4 percent from the same period in 2023. That may be a surprising statistic considering the WGA was actually on strike for May and June of last year. Overall shoot days declined 15.7 percent from the start of the year, January-March 2024.
And if you are a worker on an unscripted TV show, well, you probably had a lot of (unwanted) time off over the past three months. Shoot days for unscripted television fell 56.9 percent in Q2 2024 (again from Q2 2023), tallying just 868 shooting days total between April and June. Unscripted TV programming shot for 34 percent fewer days in Q2 2024 than Q1.
The genre tanked the overall Television category as well, with TV filming in general dropping in LA by 27.7 percent. Some of the shows filmed in Los Angeles this quarter included “American Idol” (ABC), “John Mulaney Presents: Everybody’s in LA” (Netflix), “90 Day Fiance” (TLC), “The Golden Bachelorette” (ABC), “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” (Bravo), and “Selling Sunset” (Netflix).
This doesn’t mean reality TV is dead — production is down, yes, but some of it may have just been moved up in the workflow. Last fall when the strikes were in full swing, Los Angeles produced virtually nothing but reality shows and unscripted series.
Other factors impacting overall production days include a cut in content spend ( goodbye Peak TV !), and corporate consolidation ( hello Paramount-Skydance !), which results in fewer buyers of said content.
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Scripted television is generally doing fine in terms of shoot days — they were pretty stable with the prior quarter, and each up roughly 100 percent compared to the prior year when the writers strike was underway.
“Streaming content spend is down, and Los Angeles and its many global competitors are still reeling from post-strike paralysis,” FilmLA’s communications chief Philip Sokoloski said in a statement. “Workers in this industry, wherever they are based, are seeing fewer opportunities amid ongoing labor negotiations in an era of content contraction.”
At the very end of the quarter, IATSE had some good news for all of us. The group reached a tentative deal with the studios and will reveal the ratification results on Thursday. The Teamsters, meanwhile, are still far apart on an agreement. They are also running short on time — that deadline for a deal is July 31.
“Given that there was a double strike in effect in late 2023, it’s likely the rest of this year will look better — on paper,” Sokoloski said. “An authentic production lift is also possible, pending successful contract negotiations. If we see new content investment, it will be cautious and measured, and the gains will be globally distributed.”
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