Los Angeles Drone Filming & FilmLA Permit Guide (2026)

Two separate approvals, and you need both

The most expensive misunderstanding in Los Angeles aerial work is thinking one approval covers the job. It never does.

The FAA governs the airspace. That is federal, nationwide, and it is about whether an aircraft may legally be in the sky above your location.

FilmLA — or a city film office — governs the ground. That is local, and it is about whether you may film on that street, in that park, on that property.

They are decided by different bodies, on different timelines, with different paperwork. A production can hold a perfect FAA authorization and still be shut down for lacking a film permit, and vice versa. Every item below sits on one side of that line or the other, and we have said which.

This guide reflects the rules as published in August 2026. Regulations change. Treat it as a briefing for planning conversations, not as legal or regulatory advice, and confirm current requirements with the FAA, FilmLA and your insurer before you shoot.

The nine questions to settle before you book an aerial unit

Is the aircraft covered by an FAA-accepted Category 2 or 3 declaration, or does flying over any non-participating person need a §107.39 waiver?
What does the UAS Facility Map show at your exact location — a workable altitude, or a 0 ft grid?
Does FilmLA cover the city you are filming in, or does that city run its own office?
Do you need an FAA waiver, and have you allowed months rather than weeks?
Is the pilot’s certification dated on or after 21 April 2021 for night work?
Does your insurance carry a real aviation/UAS endorsement, naming the aircraft and the jurisdiction?
Is there an active or scheduled TFR — stadium, wildfire, VIP movement?
Is any part of the location NPS, military or critical infrastructure land?
Has FilmLA’s drone paperwork been filed by its earlier noon deadline?

What FilmLA actually requires for drone work

FilmLA is the official film office of greater Los Angeles, created by the City and County in 1995. Its published drone requirements page lists what a production must supply for aerial activity:

A completed Drone Questionnaire
The pilot’s Part 107 certificate and knowledge test record
FAA aircraft registration for the drone
A written Plan of Activity (POA) with maps
Applicable airspace authorizations where the flight needs them
For night work, certification dated on or after 21 April 2021 and anti-collision lighting visible for at least three statute miles

Two details catch productions out.

The drone deadline is earlier than the permit deadline. Drone paperwork must reach FilmLA by noon on the date the permit application is due for that jurisdiction. Miss it and the drone activity is struck from the permit — the rest of the shoot proceeds, the aerial does not.

There is a per-location drone fee. County of Los Angeles listed $78 per drone location as of its April 2026 requirements page, on top of the base application fee ($931 for up to five locations across seven consecutive days, in the County’s published schedule).

Standard FilmLA processing runs roughly three to seven business days depending on complexity, with high-impact activity wanting four to seven days’ notice.

FilmLA does not cover every city you will want to shoot in

This is the single most useful thing on this page.

FilmLA’s own Areas Served list covers the City of Los Angeles, County of Los Angeles, Culver City, Glendale, Manhattan Beach (added in 2026), Vernon, San Fernando, South Gate, Monterey Park, Lancaster, Palmdale, City of Industry, Diamond Bar, Gardena, Fullerton, Newport Beach, La Habra Heights, and several school districts including LAUSD.

Not on that list: Beverly Hills, Santa Monica, the City of Burbank, West Hollywood, Pasadena, Long Beach.

Those cities run their own permitting. If your location is in one of them, contact that city’s film office directly — do not assume FilmLA covers you. And note that the list moves: Manhattan Beach only joined in 2026. Check it for the specific address, every time.

The FAA side

Part 107 and the pilot

Commercial drone work requires a Remote Pilot Certificate under Part 107 — a knowledge exam, a TSA background check, and recurrent training every 24 calendar months. The certificate must be accessible on location. The aircraft itself must be registered with the FAA separately from the pilot’s certificate.

Flying over people — the part that matters on a set

Part 107.39 says you may not fly over a person unless they are directly participating in the operation, are under a covered structure or in a stationary vehicle, or the operation qualifies under one of the Subpart D categories. Those categories attach to the aircraft’s design, not to a waiver:

Category 1 — under 0.55 lb, no lacerating parts.
Category 2 — impact energy at or below 11 ft-lbs, under an FAA-accepted means-of-compliance declaration from the manufacturer.
Category 3 — up to 25 ft-lbs, more restricted: closed or restricted-access sites with notice, or brief non-sustained transit. Cannot fly over open-air assemblies at all.
Category 4 — requires a Part 21 airworthiness certificate. Effectively unused in film work today.

The practical question for a producer is narrow and specific: has the manufacturer of this exact aircraft filed an FAA-accepted declaration? If not, overflight of any non-participating person is not permitted under Category 2 or 3, and the operation needs a §107.39 waiver instead. Ask it by aircraft model. Do not accept a general assurance.

Night work

Night flying has needed no waiver since April 2021. It needs a pilot certificated or retrained on or after 6 April 2021, and anti-collision lighting visible for three statute miles that may be dimmed for safety but never switched off. Older individual night waivers issued before 16 March 2021 are no longer valid — if someone offers you one, it means nothing.

Waivers and how long they really take

Commonly waived for film work: §107.39 (over people), §107.31 (beyond visual line of sight), §107.25 (from a moving vehicle), §107.51 (speed, altitude, cloud clearance), §107.145 (over moving vehicles).

The FAA states it will do its best to decide within 90 days of submission. That is a target, not a commitment, and an incomplete application restarts the clock — if the FAA asks for more information you have 30 days to reply or the application is cancelled.

Budget waiver lead time in months. A shot concept that needs a waiver and a shoot date six weeks out is a shot concept that needs rethinking.

LAANC, and what a 0 ft grid means

LAANC is the automated system that issues airspace authorizations in Class B, C, D and surface-area Class E, at or below 400 ft, at roughly 726 participating airports.

UAS Facility Maps show, grid square by grid square, the maximum altitude the FAA will pre-approve without individual review. Request at or below that altitude and approval typically comes back in seconds. The FAA is explicit that the maps themselves authorize nothing — they are informational.

Request above the mapped altitude and it becomes a further coordination request: reviewed by hand by the air traffic manager for that facility, submitted at least 72 hours ahead, and capable of being denied.

A 0 ft grid means no altitude at all is pre-approved there. Any flight in that square, at any height, is a further-coordination case rather than an instant approval. Much of core Los Angeles sits in exactly this position under the LAX Class B shelf and around Burbank, Van Nuys and Santa Monica.

We have not found an FAA statement guaranteeing that further coordination will be offered or granted over a 0 ft grid. Treat it as case by case, and sometimes no.

Where LA is hardest

The coastal and Valley corridor — Santa Monica, LAX, Hawthorne, Burbank, Van Nuys, Hollywood — is the most constrained airspace in the region. Overlapping Class B, C and D shelves, heavy helicopter traffic at 500 ft AGL through Van Nuys, and Santa Monica’s Special Flight Rules Area and frequent TFRs.

The Eastside and the South Bay away from LAX tend to offer more workable grid altitudes. But that is a tendency, not a rule. Check the map for the address, not the neighbourhood.

The exact Class B shelf floors and ceilings live on the Los Angeles sectional chart. They change. Anyone quoting you a fixed altitude for “LA” without checking the chart for your location is guessing.

Insurance: a general liability policy will not do it

Aerial units draw materially higher limits than ground filming, and the coverage has to be the right kind.

FilmLA, drone-specific: a $2,000,000 aviation certificate and endorsement page naming FilmLA, plus a separate $2,000,000 aviation certificate and endorsement naming the jurisdiction. City of Los Angeles work also requires a City of Los Angeles Hold Harmless for both the production company and the drone company.
County of Los Angeles general limits: $1M for still photography, $1M for filming, and $5M where aircraft are used, with the County and FilmLA named as additional insured.
California Film Commission (a separate body, permitting state-owned property): UAS operations require specific UAS coverage naming the specific aircraft, minimum $2,000,000.

The pattern across all of them is the same. A standard production general liability policy without an aviation or UAS endorsement will not satisfy any of these, and the aircraft usually has to be named or scheduled on the policy. Confirm limits with FilmLA and the specific jurisdiction before you buy — we could not find one FilmLA document setting a single figure across all its jurisdictions, because there isn’t one.

Places you cannot fly regardless of any permit

Stadiums. A standing restriction covers a 3 nautical mile radius of any stadium seating 30,000+ hosting MLB, NFL, NCAA Division I football or major NASCAR events, from one hour before to one hour after. In Los Angeles that reaches SoFi, Dodger Stadium and the Coliseum on event days.

National Park Service land. NPS prohibits launching, landing or operating a UAS from park lands. That includes Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area. No FAA authorization and no FilmLA permit overrides it.

Critical infrastructure and national security sites. Permanent 0–400 ft no-fly zones exist over designated sites. There is no public master map — check B4UFly. A rule announced in May 2026 created a petition process letting infrastructure operators request new restrictions over their own sites, so this picture is not static near utility, refinery or port locations.

TFRs. Wildfires, VIP movements and major events. Check tfr.faa.gov before every flight.

What is changing

Remote ID is fully enforced. Discretionary enforcement ended 16 March 2024. Any drone requiring registration must broadcast Remote ID, built in or via a module.

BVLOS is still waiver-only. The FAA published its proposed Part 108 rule in August 2025, reopened comments in January 2026, and denied a request for further extension in February 2026. As of August 2026 it is not final. If your concept needs beyond visual line of sight, it needs an individual §107.31 waiver and the lead time that implies.

What to have ready before you call an aerial department

Have these and the conversation takes ten minutes instead of three days:

Location — the address, not the neighbourhood
Dates, including whether any of it is night
Production type and what the shot needs to do
Camera package — this decides the aircraft, which decides the category question
Whether the location is closed set or open to the public, and whether anyone will be under the aircraft
Permit status — filed, in progress, or not started, and with which office
Insurance — carrier, limits, and whether there is an aviation endorsement

Sources

Everything above traces to a primary source. The ones that matter most:

Last reviewed 27 August 2026. If you spot something that has changed, tell us and we will correct it.

LA Drone Filming & FilmLA Permit Guide