TV SHOOTING BOOSTS PRODUCTION STATS.

Byline: Greg Hernandez Staff Writer

A record number of television series and pilots being shot in locations around Los Angeles drove a 21.7 percent surge in location production during March, according to figures released Monday by the Entertainment Industry Development Corp.

Television projects, including the series ``CSI: Crime Scene Investigation,'' ``The District,'' ``Alias,'' ``24,'' ``Cold Case,'' ``The Shield'' and ``The Division,'' reached an all-time high of 2,466 days last month, a whopping 46.6 percent increase from the old record of 1,682 days in March last year.

``The television numbers are phenomenal,'' said Lisa Rawlins, chairwoman of the EIDC's board of directors. ``We are very, very pleased to see this record number of production days.''

The television industry is producing a high number of pilots, a development that could be attributed to the number of long-running shows that are ending their runs this season, including ``Friends'' and ``Frasier,'' as well as scores of shows that have been canceled.

``There have been a lot of failures out there, and you still have ABC and the WB trying to shore up weak spots in their lineups, so that speaks to a lot of the activity,'' said Jack Kyser, chief economist for the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp. ``And, of course, you also have the cable networks that are doing all kinds of interesting things.''

While television production soared, feature films were slightly down from the same month a year ago with 549 days but up by 62 days from the previous month this year.

Among the feature films shooting on location in the Los Angeles area last month were MGM's ``Be Cool,'' the sequel to ``Get Shorty,'' starring John Travolta; Paramount Pictures' ``Coach Carter,'' featuring Samuel L. Jackson in the title role; and New Line Cinema's Owen Wilson-Vince Vaughn comedy ``The Wedding Crashers.''

In addition, 20th Century Fox had two star vehicles in production: ``Mr. and Mrs. Smith,'' starring Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie; and Adam Sandler's ``Spanglish.''

``Things aren't so bad on the feature side, but the rest (commercials and music videos) was a wash,'' Kyser said.

Commercials were off by 8.8 percent during the month with 644 days compared with 706 days in March 2003. Music videos fell even further with just 102 days reported, a drop of 29 percent.

The EIDC statistics reflect location shooting within the city of Los Angeles, the unincorporated areas of Los Angeles County, and the cities of West Hollywood, Diamond Bar and South Gate.

Greg Hernandez, [phone]

greg.hernandez(at)dailynews.com