Negotiations with film and television writers may be behind a 21 percent increase in on-location production for the second quarter. The surge in production is consistent with activity tracked during other periods of contract negotiations, said FilmLA, the agency that permits on-location production. The Writers Guild of America is currently in negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, the industry’s bargaining organization. The WGA contract expires Oct. 31. “We may be seeing a repeat of what happened in 2001, when production rose prior to labor negotiations, and then dropped again significantly after negotiations concluded,” said Steve McDonald, president of FilmLA. Total on-location production for the period ending June 30 was 9,534 permit days for feature films, television and commercials. That is 1,600 more than the 7,853 permit days for the second quarter in 2006. Those figures do not include production taking place on studio sets. Feature film production increased 29 percent for the second quarter but overall was not doing any better than in 2006. Over the long term, feature film production has been down eight of the last 10 years, McDonald said.