Holy #$&*! What wonderful news to wake up to! Thank you so much @thecdnacademy for the tremendous nomination and for temporarily making me a morning person! And gigantic CONGRATS and THANK YOU to every magical person who braved 20 different kinds of monster goo to work on this show! Love y’all! 👻🧟♀️❤️
After years of runaway production, and waiting for politicians to act, a group of Hollywood workers decided to take matters into their own hands. They became Stay in LA, a grassroots campaign that says when it comes to film and television production, “There’s no place like home.”
Original reporting KCRW’s @mbjamerson
Photos by KCRW’s @romalc.pcd
-reposted from @kcrw
***
Endless thanks to @mbjamerson and @kcrw for highlighting our efforts to get friends, families, neighbors, coworkers, small businesses, and communities back to work. 💙
TOMORROW at 12pm! Join Ashes to Films and @stayinla2025 as we take a look at Los Angeles one year after the wildfires and discuss ways to help sustain our creative industry and empower creatives to thrive.
Free tickets at the link in bio!
Attention.
We’re forming a task force to make sure the nine transformative motions submitted by City Councilmember Nazarian and his staff to fix how filming works in Los Angeles don’t stop at submission.
Passing these into real policy is the only outcome we’re accepting, but we need help to get there.
That’s why we’re launching the Keep Hollywood Home Task Force. A temporary, action-focused group built to show up, apply steady pressure, and make sure these motions don’t stall, get watered down, or quietly disappear.
And yes, to make sure more motions come to the table.
cough cough… low-impact tiered permitting… cough.
If you’ve got 1 to 2 hours a week, don’t mind showing up in person, and want to be part of the solution instead of watching from the sidelines, this is your moment.
Sign up is in our bio.
Early hands being raised we’d like to invite: @lance_drake and @josephanthonyscott .
Reporting from There’s No Place Like Home.
ARE YOU IN?
Huge news for students, indie filmmakers, docs, and small crews! 🎥 Explained by @stehmo
Motion #6 of 9 is a game-changer for emerging artists. Right now, even a 10-person crew with a handheld camera faces the same slow, expensive permit process as a blockbuster. It pushes people to film illegally or leave LA.
This motion fixes that.
Modeled after NYC’s system, it creates a FREE ‘Micro-Shoot Permit’ for low-impact filming.
Here’s what qualifies:
✅ Ten people or fewer
✅ Handheld cameras or small tripods
✅ No generators, big lights, or trucks
✅ No sidewalk blockages
✅ No traffic control or parking removal
Meet the rules? Get a no-fee permit via a simple one-page application, with approvals targeted in 24 hours. The city stays informed, safety is protected—creators aren’t buried in red tape.
Bottom line: It eliminates costs, supports new artists and documentaries, keeps filming legal, and keeps small productions in LA.
**Stay tuned for a separate Low Impact/Tiered Permit Motion for mid-budget projects in January.**
We’ll need you at City Hall in January/February to get these passed.
Follow @stayinla2025 for updates.
There’s no place like home. ✨
@deadline@variety@socalnewsgroup@LABusinessjournal@LATimes@LaOpinionLA@laist@kcrw@IATSElocal706@lacitydpw@mayorofla@crewstoriesig@cd5losangeles@cd4losangeles@adrin.nazarian@CD2losangeles@wsj
#StayInLA #IndieFilm #FilmPermits #LACityCouncil #MicroShoot
So we didn’t get recruited for MI6 (or did we? I’m not allowed to say), but a great time was had by all. Too many pictures to post, but here are some favorite moments and places. Special hat tip to Puglia and Alberobello, with their beautiful trullis and warm community that took care of us like locals in the rainstorms & enthusiastically helped me muddle through my rusty Italian. 🇮🇹🍷❤️
One shoot day saved Casa Vega from closing for good.
Film production keeps LA’s restaurants, crews & small businesses alive.
Now we need local leaders to act: reform permitting, streamline approvals, and protect jobs.
JOIN OUR TEXT ALERTS, DONATE, &/or VOLUNTEER (links in bio)
👏Thanks to the incredible crew who volunteered their time & talents to tell this story:
Written & Executive Produced by: Kate Holguin & Noelle Stehman
Directed by: Daniel Catton
Producer: Alana Ficalora
Producer/Post Production Supervisor: Maureen Hoban
DP: Max Zimmer
Cam Op & Tech Specialist: Andre Wright
1st AC: Matt Gibson
B Camera Operator: Joshua Smith
Editor: Derek Sajbel @dr_rek
Asst Editor: Taylor Stoaks
Post Coordinator: Bryce Caliwag
Post Production Finishing Services, Color Correction, and Sound Mixing provided by RAWR PRODUCTIONS @rawr_post_productions
Equipment provided by DIGITAL RETINAL CINEMA STUDIOS @digitalretinal_rentals & THE VILLAGE HOLLYWOOD @the_village_hollywood
Special Thanks: Delaney Ross, Genevieve Jones, Rob’s crew, & the Casa Vega staff
Boom! Thank you to every single person who wrote a testimonial, who sent an email, who spoke at city hall, who fought together nonstop to make this happen & to bring jobs back to our city and state 🙌❤️🔥
Now back to the permits :) #stayinla2025
During TheWrap’s exclusive roundtable on California’s film production crisis, writer-producer #NoelleStehman reads stories from the #StayinLA campaign, sharing production workers' struggles to make ends meet.
“Multiply these times the hundreds of testimonials we've gotten from people who are new to the business, who've been working in it for decades and now have been left behind, and all the small businesses. It’s a devastating picture.”
Presented By: @wrapbook
Moderated by: Jeremy Fuster
🔗 Full roundtable conversation at the link in bio.
“Several hundred artists and artisans, advocates and legislators, mentors and parents - from across the Hollywood landscape - descended on the Sir Reel Studios’ stage and warehouse complex in Sun Valley to protest the dramatic loss of a passionate creative livelihood, which for more than a hundred years, across multi-generations, has been the epicenter of the entertainment universe. The April 6th rally, coined “Stay In LA,” decried the economic downturn intertwined with production flight, while offering political and incentivized solutions to revitalize the heartbeat of the city. Here, in the following fifty images, is hope etched.”
Copyright 2025, Jack E. Herman
