The Los Angeles Film Office on Tuesday unveiled a six-month pilot program aimed at removing cost barriers to small filming as anger over the decline of Hollywood productions escalates into a political campaign issue.
FilmLA’s new “Low Impact Permit Pilot Program” will reduce the city’s typical permit fees for small productions with fewer than 30 cast and crew members. The program will only apply to productions filmed for a maximum of three consecutive days and in a maximum of three locations.
For those who meet the qualifications, the application fee will decrease from $931 to $350, and the notification fee will decrease from $250 per site to $156 per site. The Los Angeles Fire Department spot inspection fee ($285) will also be waived for these shots. The initiative will be launched starting April 27.
This standard makes the program seem specifically designed for small dramas, small student films and various new media productions, but it will not apply to the majority of professional feature films, television series and commercials.
The initiative was announced during a press event at Echelon Studios, a sprawling production complex under construction in Hollywood, where Mayor Karen Bass also announced a Department of Transportation pilot program that will cut city parking expenses by 20 percent for all productions — the same benefit afforded to Baywatch Amidst filming problems on Venice Beach. Additionally, the city announced it is working with Echelon developers to expedite the permitting process.
The pilot program came about after a Board of Public Works hearing in June 2025 on renewing FilmLA’s contract with the city. In the wake of the Palisades and Eaton fires, FilmLA came under fire, critics said, for presenting additional barriers to filmmakers and production teams that made filming in the city too cumbersome and expensive.
The Board of Public Works renewed the organization’s contract for another five years, but submitted requests to the organization after hearing from angry production workers.
One of them was for a tiered permit system. “There was a lot of anger, at the time, about not having a tiered permit system in the FilmLA ecosystem,” Board of Public Works Commissioner Steve Kang said in an interview Tuesday. “There was a request from the board — and of course the mayor at the time, because she’s a big advocate for equality — that we should develop a tiered permit system. So that was the impetus behind this conversation and then the big announcement today from FilmLA and its board.”
FilmLA’s board of directors agreed to cover the costs of the new program for up to six months through the organization’s operating reserve. In a statement, FilmLA CEO Denise Gutches — who rose to the position after the previous FilmLA CEO retired in the fall of 2025 amid ongoing controversy over the organization’s role in the exodus of productions in Los Angeles — said the organization believes that “when community impact is small, regardless of project type or production budget, the City and FilmLA review process should be simple.”
Data will be collected over the course of the pilot to determine how to turn it into a long-term commitment. But the city has bigger goals than just creating a low-cost tier for small shoots, says Kang, who points out that Los Angeles Councilman Adrien Nazarian is pushing a proposal to remove barriers to shoots involving 50 cast and crew members or fewer.
“Today it’s all about 30 or less, but we are also working closely with Councilman Nazarian as the proposal goes through its normal legislative process to potentially increase the threshold in the future,” Kang said.
Asked whether the ultimate ambition was to create a more extensive tiered permit system that could be applied to larger productions, Kang said: “Right.”
