The agency that handles film permits in Los Angeles won a five-year contract renewal on Friday, over objections from industry workers who hold it partly responsible for the dramatic slowdown in production.
The Los Angeles Board of Public Works voted 4-0 to extend the city’s contract with FilmLA. The term was set to expire on June 30.
Several speakers faulted the agency for a lack of transparency, and argued that it could do a better job of working with filmmakers to lower costs and streamline the permitting process.
“We believe the system overall is broken,” said Wes Bailey, co-founder of CA United, an advocacy group focused on reviving production, in an interview. “We haven’t felt like they’ve been side-by-side partners in this.”
Paul Audley, the president of FilmLA, drew boos from the audience on Friday when he said that much of the anger is based on “misinformation.”
FilmLA is an industry-run non-profit. Its board includes representatives from Disney, Warner Bros., Netflix, and other studios, as well as Hollywood unions, including IATSE and SAG-AFTRA. The agency processes permits and collects location fees on behalf of 22 government bodies around L.A. Its $12 million annual budget is paid from a portion of those fees.
The agency also issues quarterly reports about the volume of production, and has been sounding the alarm about the sharp decline in work since 2022. Last fall, the agency called for a “vast expansion” of the California film and TV tax credit to compete with other jurisdictions.
“Our whole mission is focused on the economy of the film industry in L.A.,” Audley said. “We are active participants in getting this tax credit approved.”
Some of the speakers offered support for FilmLA, and said that blaming the agency for runaway production is misguided.
“There is a fight to be had, but this is not the fight,” said Robert Paulsen, a longtime location manager. “I understand your frustrations with the lack of work and the slowdown in filming, and I too am unemployed. But $900 permits are not what is causing productions to flee L.A. That is just a drop in the bucket.”
Paulsen argued the city is responsible for onerous regulations and fees, including requirements for productions to hire park monitors and police officers. Mayor Karen Bass issued an executive order last month aiming to limit the city staffing requirements to a single employee, though the effort remains a work in progress.
Councilman Adrin Nazarian, who has also been working on the issue, said that FilmLA had submitted numerous recommendations to streamline the process. At the hearing on Friday, he said that rejecting the contract extension would leave the city unable to process film permits. He said that it was important to keep working with the agency on potential modifications to the contract in the coming year.
Several opponents of the extension said they are not against FilmLA per se, but that the contract should be amended to address workers’ concerns. Some called for a “tiered” fee schedule, whereby lower-budget productions would be charged reduced fees compared to major studio projects.
“I understand they’re not the sole problem,” said Bailey, who is the CEO of SirReel Studio Services in Sun Valley. “I don’t think it makes sense to double down on five more years of the same.”
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