Production ahead of halt

Offlot shooting soars as studios stockpile

By DAVE MCNARY

With production expected largely to cease this week, Hollywood's offlot shooting has soared over the past month as studios seek to stockpile as much product as possible, according to permitting coordinator FilmL.A.

"We do not dispute that some crews, shows or projects may have been impacted as a result of the ongoing impasse between actors and studios," said FilmL.A. rep Todd Lindgren. "However, our findings show significant gains in most major categories for on-location permits coordinated by FilmL.A. over the past five weeks."

Despite the approach of the expiration of SAG's contract at 12:01 a.m. Tuesday, offlot production of features is up 12% for the past five weeks to 105 permits -- mostly because of heightened activity over the past two weeks. And TV activity has soared due partly to the lingering impact of the WGA strike.

"TV dramas are up 222%," Lindgren told Daily Variety. "The increase for the period is likely a product of the writers strike, which altered the typical production and hiatus schedules. This year we're finding we're coordinating far more permits during this typically slower quarter."

Permits for TV dramas jumped from 37 to 119 for the period, while pilots more than doubled from six to 15.

"With the bonds of the traditional pilot season broken by the writers' strike, pilots are being shot beyond May, showing a 150% increase over the last five weeks compared to last year," Lindgren added.

The expiration of the SAG contract doesn't mean that all work will stop since its terms and conditions mostly still apply -- except for the grievance-arbitration process and the no-strike no-lockout provisions. SAG's insisted that it doesn't want to strike, and it has yet to set a strike authorization vote, which would take about three weeks to conduct; it's also granted waivers to over 355 indie features.

Because of the uncertainty over the SAG contract, the major studios have pulled the plug on filming this week, while TV production is expected to ratchet down.

During June, features in production in Los Angeles included Fox Searchlight's "500 Days of Summer," DreamWorks' "A Thousand Words" and "I Love You, Man," Columbia's "The Ugly Truth" and "Maxim's Fired Up," Lionsgate's "Crank 2: High Voltage," Starz's "Table for Three," Millennium's "Labor Pains" and Warner's "The Informant: A True Story."

"Labor Pains," starring Lindsay Lohan, has a SAG waiver.