Once again, no scripted TV series are shooting on location in Los Angeles due to the ongoing Writers Guild strike, according to data compiled by FilmLA, the city and county film permit office.
“In a normal week at this time of year, there would be dozens of scripted television projects in production,” FilmLA said Wednesday of the week ending July 2. “By contrast, we have no scripted TV series with permits to film this week.”
In the previous week, FilmLA reported that three scripted TV series had pulled permits to film on location, and the week before that there were just two, while in the two preceding weeks there weren’t any.
For the most recent week, the permit count for feature films and television projects is down by 64% compared to the same week last year. “These are the categories into which all scripted projects fall, though not all production within these categories is affected by the labor action,” FilmLA noted. “Reality TV, as one example, still appears in these counts in addition to non-union independent films.”
The WGA launched its strike May 2 after negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers failed to reach a satisfactory agreement. The guild’s core issues include significant increases in compensation, minimum staffing, duration of employment, the establishment of viewer-based streaming residuals and curbs on the use of artificial intelligence to create scripts.