LOCATION SHOOTING SOARS POSSIBLE LABOR STRIFE IS LOOMING IN THE WINGS.Byline: Greg Hernandez Staff Writer In what could be the first sign that Hollywood is protecting itself against possible labor strikes, off-studio lot production of feature films jumped nearly 21 percent in January compared with the same month a year ago. According to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. figures released Wednesday by the Entertainment Industry Development Corp., location shooting in Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. was up 8.9 percent overall during the month due to the influx of feature film activity as well as television projects. The EIDC reported 701 days of feature film location shooting, which included the Tom Cruise action picture ``Collateral''; the drama ``Crash,'' featuring Sandra Bullock; and the Bruce Willis Walter Bruce Willis (born March 19, 1955) is an American actor and singer. He came to fame in the late 1980s and has since retained a career as both a Hollywood leading man and a supporting actor, in particular for his role as John McClane in the Die Hard series. drama ``Hostage.'' Historically, when labor contracts are due to be negotiated, feature film production has more of a tendency to remain local and to begin earlier in the year in case there is a work stoppage, industry sources said. Hollywood's actors unions, the Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists The American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA) is a performers' union that represents a wide variety of talent, including actors in radio and television, as well as radio and television announcers and newspersons, singers and recording artists (both royalty , launched contract talks this week with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. Their current three-year contract is due to expire June 30. The contract for the Writers Guild of America The Writers Guild of America is a term often referring to the joint efforts of the Writers Guild of America, East and the Writers Guild of America, west. Jointly, the two guilds act as the collective bargaining representative, or labor union, for writers in the motion picture and expires in April but that group's negotiations with the AMPTP AMPTP Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers AMPTP Association of Motion Picture and Television Producers have not yet begun. ``The industry has been keeping its eye carefully on the (labor) situation,'' said Jack Kyser, chief economist The Chief Economist is a single position job class having primary responsibility for the development, coordination, and production of economic and financial analysis. It is distinguished from the other economist positions by the broader scope of responsibility encompassing the for the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp. ``But you get the sense that the guilds don't want to see what happened in 2001.'' Although a work stoppage was averted at the last minute three years ago, studios stockpiled so much product during the first half of 2001 that the industry took the rest of the year to rebound from the ensuing slowdown. Industry sources said filming will really ramp up Ramp Up To increase a company's operations in anticipation of increased demand. Notes: A company might 'ramp up' operations if they just signed a contract creating substantially more demand for their product. See also: Demand, Economies of Scale in April if contract talks have not been completed. But already February is looking to be quite busy with several films beginning production this week, including the comedy ``In Her Shoes,'' starring Cameron Diaz and Shirley MacLaine, and the comedy ``Be Cool,'' a sequel to 1995's ``Get Shorty'' starring John Travolta, Uma Thurman, Danny DeVito and Dwayne ``The Rock'' Johnson. Despite the recent bumps in local filming, Kyser reminds that runaway production to Canada and countries overseas is still casting a pall over the industry in the United States as productions continue to film elsewhere to save costs. Much of the Civil War epic ``Cold Mountain,'' for example, was filmed in Romania rather than the United States in order to meet its budget. Citing figures compiled by the industry trade paper The Hollywood Reporter, Kyser said that in the last week of January, 14 major films were being shot in the Los Angeles area compared with 18 elsewhere in the United States and 21 in Canada and overseas. Meanwhile, television production remained strong in January with a total of 998 production days reported, a 12 percent increase from January 2002. The numbers have been boosted in recent months by such one-hour dramas as ``Navy NCIS NCIS Naval Criminal Investigative Service NCIS National Coroners Information System (Australia) NCIS Nebraska Career Information System NCIS National Crime Intelligence Service NCIS National Coalition of Independent Scholars ,'' ``The District'' and ``24'' - all heavy in location shooting. Also fueling the increase is ``On Air With Ryan Seacrest On Air with Ryan Seacrest is a short lived American syndicated television talk show, which ran from January 12, 2004, through September 17, 2004. The show was broadcast live from a studio in the Hollywood and Highland complex in Hollywood and featured a background view of ,'' which bowed last month and is filmed at the Hollywood & Highland complex in Hollywood. ``The real test of whether television is going to hold is after May and after the new season is announced for the broadcast networks,'' said Lisa Rawlins, chairwoman of the EIDC's board of directors. ``It's been a good, strong showing for one-hour dramas in Los Angeles this season and, hopefully, we will continue to see that a lot next year.'' Greg Hernandez, (818) 713-3758 greg.hernandez(at)dailynews.com |
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