{"id":916565,"date":"2026-07-06T15:16:19","date_gmt":"2026-07-06T15:16:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/916565\/"},"modified":"2026-07-06T15:16:19","modified_gmt":"2026-07-06T15:16:19","slug":"noah-wyle-the-pitt-model-could-bring-production-back-to-la-guest-column","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/916565\/","title":{"rendered":"Noah Wyle: ‘The Pitt’ Model Could Bring Production Back To LA\u00a0– Guest Column"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tEditor\u2019s Note<\/strong>:The harsh decline of film and TV production in Los Angeles the past few years has become a central issue in both the city\u2019s mayoral race and California\u2019s gubernatorial campaign. Even with the Golden State\u2019s tax-incentive program now at $750 million annually, jobs are still scant, soundstages sit empty and vendors are shuttering nationwide. There have even been bipartisan rumblings about the need for a significant federal incentive to keep the home of Hollywood competitive with the likes of the UK, Canada and several former Soviet countries. The Pitt<\/a>\u2018s Noah Wyle<\/a> is big supporter of the programs that are already in place, the incentives that could come down the line, and Hollywood itself. To that, the Emmy winner and ER vet has a unique point of view on filming in L.A. and what can truly flip the script.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tI have an irrational nostalgic sentimentality for Hollywood and its history that borders on obsession; a passion I share with millions of people all over the world.<\/p>\n

\n\tAs an Angelino, my biased advocacy for Los Angeles-based film and tv production is rooted equally in prayer for its ongoing legacy and concern for the livelihood of the creative community that built it.\u00a0 The Pitt\u2019s phenomenal success has marked it both an artistic achievement and potentially viable production model and I\u2019ve been asked to explain how we do it.<\/p>\n

\n\tI\u2019ll preface by saying I have more theories than answers, as this is literally a work in progress. (And you should have probably asked John Wells, he knows more than I ever will about all of this.) But this was our thinking\u2026<\/p>\n

\n\tMuch has been written and stated about the obvious advantages to shooting in L.A.<\/p>\n

\n\tYes, there\u2019s the 35% tax incentive, <\/a>the crew and talent depth, unrivaled infrastructure, access to specialized vendors, ridiculously hospitable climate, dedicated permitting office, local access to major financing \u2014 to name but six.<\/p>\n

\n\tYet, we\u2019ve seen 42,000 jobs disappear from this city in the last few years.<\/p>\n

\n\tYes, it\u2019s true that each of the four major unions (SAG\/AFTRA, WGA, DGA, and IATSE) offer contracts<\/a> at tiered rates that scale with production budgets as low as $20,000.<\/p>\n

\n\tYet, it\u2019s estimated location film and tv production has plummeted<\/a> between 30% and 50% in the last five years. Soundstage occupancy has dropped from 90% in 2022 to 62% last year. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tYes, the multiplier effect, measuring the economic impact (direct, indirect and induced) of every dollar spent by production, typically yields a multiplier of between 1.5 and 2.5 in supply chain spending and worker wages. Yet, last year saw 80 family-owned production businesses, including prop houses and equipment rental companies, close their doors.<\/p>\n

\n\tEven after doubling the funding cap in the incentive program from $330 million to $750 million, hundreds of articles appeared last year on the \u201cHollywood Exodus\u201d and the \u201cDeath of our Industry\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tIt would all seem pretty dire indeed\u2026.<\/p>\n

\n\tIf \u2026 I weren\u2019t surrounded by hundreds of brilliant, creative, and grateful, artists and artisans starting back to work last week on Season 3 of The Pitt.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Noah<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tNoah Wyle and Isa Briones in The Pitt Season 2 finale<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tWarrick Page\/HBO Max<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Pitt is an HBO Max<\/a> drama, set in an emergency department in Pittsburgh, PA \u2014 filmed almost entirely in soundstages on the Warner Bros<\/a>. Studio lot in Burbank, CA.<\/p>\n

\n\tIt\u2019s 15 episodes a season and, with a nearly 8-month production schedule, that makes it a veritable production Unicorn in this town. That\u2019s a stark contrast to just a few years ago when the 22-episode network drama was both the industry standard and backbone of Los Angeles production.<\/p>\n

\n\tWe wanted to shoot in L.A.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe obvious next question was, \u201cHow can we afford it?\u201d It started there. I think that\u2019s worthy of mentioning because so many projects try to fit the mold of a budget. We backed into a budget from a different intention.<\/p>\n

\n\tShooting in L.A. necessitates keeping costs low, but certain price tags are worth it.<\/p>\n

\n\tOur set for example, designed by Nina Ruscio, cost $4 million to construct. But given that our narrative never leaves that environment, that cost is amortized over the life of the show.<\/p>\n

\n\tSimilarly, by designing our entire lighting package to be embedded within the practical fixtures in our set\u2019s ceiling, The Pitt\u2019s DP, Joanna Cohelo, saves hours of production time, maximizing our shooting day.<\/p>\n

\n\tAdditionally, by limiting the storytelling to the parameters of our set we reduce transportation costs, location fees, security expenses, catering, parking permitting and a host of other expenditures associated with location filming.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Hollywood\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGetty<\/p>\n

\n\tWe take full advantage of the CA tax incentive. Our show received just under $25 million in incentives<\/a> for Seasons 1&2, reducing our gross pattern per episode budget of $6.6 million by $760,000. Over each 15-episode season we saved a little over $11 million, the cost of two full episodes. In turn, The Pitt had a direct economic impact of $125 million on the CA GDP, employed over 1000 people, and supported 200 local businesses.<\/p>\n

\n\tIt should be stated that it isn\u2019t easy to pull this show off.<\/p>\n

\n\tDoing this show in L.A. requires the discipline to continually face production obstacles and make them features instead of bugs; to turn the limitation into a frame.\u00a0Basically, let necessity be the Mother of invention. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tIs The Pitt a replicable model?\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tIt\u2019s hard not to have faith when you\u2019ve seen proof of concept made manifest. The reported recent uptick in L.A. production is also encouraging.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe point being The Pitt enjoys advantages available to everyone to film in L.A.<\/p>\n

\n\t There\u2019s tax incentives, top of the line infrastructure, local access to specialized vendors from SPX make-up prosthetics to digital graphics, the deepest cast and crew talent pool available in the world\u2026 and you just can\u2019t beat the weather.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Editor\u2019s Note:The harsh decline of film and TV production in Los Angeles the past few years has become…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":916566,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[33],"tags":[18910,307953,185,171,123691,487,78551,40960,370285,25900,67,132,68,1021],"class_list":["post-916565","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-tax-credit","tag-california-film-television-tax-credit-program","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-guest-column","tag-hbo-max","tag-l-a-local","tag-noah-wyle","tag-production-tax-credit","tag-the-pitt","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us","tag-warner-bros"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116873699410640171","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/916565","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=916565"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/916565\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/916566"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=916565"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=916565"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=916565"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}