When Matthew Taghaboni planned his film project this semester, he assumed USC would cover off-campus shooting permits. It didn’t. So he kept the shoot on campus instead.
Taghaboni, a first-semester graduate student in film production at the USC School of Cinematic Arts, said: “I had no access to pretty much any work or films.”
On Tuesday, the Los Angeles City Council passed an ordinance aimed at students like him, offering free permits for “micro-shoots” with crews of 10 or fewer under measure 25-1498. But USC film students say permits are just one of many costs, and many student shoots work around them anyway.
“I’m not super sure how much these efforts will actually impact us,” said Gabrielle Grimm, a student at the School of Cinematic Arts student. “We definitely view the permitting process as a formality.”
The council also capped parking for film crews at city-owned lots at $1 a day under motion 25-2508. The city currently charges $450 a day for base camp parking at city parks, according to FilmLA, the nonprofit that issues the region’s permits.
The measures come as production continues to leave Los Angeles. Crews logged 4,171 days of on-location filming in the L.A. region from July through September, according to FilmLA. That’s nearly 5% fewer than the same months last year, and almost 29% below the five-year average.
“The stark reality is that California is on the brink of losing its position as the nation’s premier destination for production spending,” said City Council Member Adrin Nazarian in a council meeting on Oct. 16. “While we retain the Hollywood name, the data makes it urgently clear, crisis-level clear, that Los Angeles is fast losing its footing as the center of film and television production.”
Students already pay much less than other filmmakers. FilmLA charges $52 for a simple student permit, compared with $931 for a standard permit covering up to five locations over seven consecutive days.
The purpose of city permits is “just about communication and making sure everyone’s safe, and if they can do that and make it a lot cheaper, I think that would be the happy medium,” said Grimm.
Grimm and Taghaboni both want the city to offer more student grants. Taghaboni said he hopes the city finds ways to keep productions in California. He said the decline is disheartening for students trying to break into the industry.
“Even when you go online and check job boards, there’s very few things that we can sign up for to shoot,” he said.
He called Tuesday’s vote “a step, and hopefully one in the right direction.”
Edited by Lindsay Augustine