Los Angeles decides to revive the filming crisis with municipal real estate offers at $1

Hollywood is suffering and Los Angeles is trying to make it cheaper to operate cameras.

The Los Angeles City Council on Tuesday approved two measures aimed at giving micro-budget filmmakers a break, allowing crews of 10 or fewer to shoot for free in the City of Angels and allowing productions to use parking lots, courtyards and other city-owned properties for as little as $1 a day.

Both measures were introduced by Councilman Adrin Nazarian as part of his “Keep Hollywood Home” campaign, an effort to make filming in Los Angeles less expensive and cut red tape as production continues to flee the entertainment capital.

“Today marks a major milestone for the Keep Hollywood Home campaign,” Nazarian said in a statement.

“With these latest actions, all Phase 1 motions have now been approved by the City. This progress demonstrates the impact of the ad hoc committee and our commitment to maintaining pressure for real reforms,” he concluded.

The motions come just days after a new report revealed that film and television productions are still in decline in Los Angeles.

Film LA’s latest report last week found that production days fell 5% between June 2026 and September 2026 compared to the same period in 2025.

Production also fell 11% from the previous quarter this year, and 36% below the five-year average.

All of this is happening despite the state of California increasing its film and television tax credit from $350 million to $750 million last year.

Nazarian’s Keep Hollywood Home campaign was launched on April 29, 2025, in which he called on “all relevant agencies to make recommendations to streamline the film permitting process and eliminate regulatory barriers to film and television production in Los Angeles.”

The motions are part of “Phase 1” of that plan, which also includes the creation of a “Made in LA” branding system, soundstage certification and a comprehensive audit of the city’s “film ecosystem.”

Phase 2 would include a pilot program to waive Recreation and Parks (RAP), Department of Transportation (DOT), and Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD) fees for productions with fewer than 50 crew members, not including actors.

Phase 2 would also include retention programs for post-production and visual effects companies, as well as a program that would impose daily fee caps for productions filmed on LA-certified soundstages.

There are also plans to offer incentives to local companies that “host crews and support productions, as well as a $2 million seed fund to help small and medium-sized productions offset entry fees.”

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