Los Angeles calls
LOS ANGELES–Ginny-Marie Case can’t forget the night she was jarred from her sleep by massive explosions set off by crews filming last summer’s blockbuster movie Transformers.
It was the latest cinematic nightmare that led Case and other residents streaming downtown as part of a population boom to push for tougher limits on filming in the nation’s most popular location for movies, TV shows and car commercials.
"It was the loudest explosion I ever heard," Case said. "We had no clue: Was this part of filming? Was this some terrorist thing?"
For decades, filmmakers have depended on downtown rail yards, brownstones and beaux arts facades to depict urban anywhere. In the process, they have grown used to operating with few restrictions in the long-neglected urban core.
"I do love movies, but sometimes it gets annoying. This is not a Hollywood lot," Oscar Linares, 32, said as he walked his dog past a CSI: NY set where Gary Sinise stood before cameras in a bulletproof vest.
The conflict pits the downtown resurgence against the push to stop the "runaway production" that occurs when filmmakers leave L.A. to take advantage of hefty tax breaks and other advantages offered by cities from Toronto to New Orleans.
Jack Kyser, chief economist at the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp., said tighter downtown restrictions could send production companies packing.
"Hopefully they can come up with something the makes everybody happy, but that could be very difficult," he said. "We really run a risk."
The entertainment industry generates $58 billion (U.S.) a year for the Los Angeles-area economy – a figure that’s steadily increased in recent years as losses from runaway production levelled off and cable TV production increased.
Hollywood, however, is currently reeling from the estimated $2.5 billion toll taken by the recent writers’ strike.
City councillor Jan Perry, whose district includes most of downtown, is watching closely as neighbourhood activists and studio representatives work to draft guidelines limiting overnight filming and curtailing street closures.
"People live here now, so at some point you’ve got to shut off the lights and let people go to sleep," Perry said. The City Council will have the final say on the rules.
Downtown has seen a lot of action over the years.
In Transformers, giant robots wrestle on the streets, leaving a path of destruction created with a mix of actual footage and computer effects.
Action flicks such as Die Hard 2 used City Hall as a backdrop, while the Art Deco Union Station was featured in the classic science fiction thriller Blade Runner.
These days, downtown plays itself on the Fox series 24 and stands in for New York and Las Vegas in two of the three hit CSI shows on CBS.
It’s also a hot spot for car commercials featuring the glass-and-steel towers of Figueroa Boulevard.
In all, there are an average of 23 downtown location shoots each day, according to FilmL.A freecreditscore. Inc., the non-profit agency that handles filming permits for the city.
"We couldn’t do our show without downtown Los Angeles," said Peter Lenkov, executive producer of CSI: NY. "There’s a grittiness to downtown you can’t find anywhere else in Los Angeles. … Nowhere else do you get the feeling of 47th Street or Times Square."
Until the late 1990s, film crews could operate with nearly complete freedom downtown, which became a virtual ghost town overnight after government and office workers fled for the suburbs.
But the number of residents in the area has grown from about 18,700 before 1999 to more than 34,000 today, according to the Central City Association.
Shopkeepers and residents tolerated street closures, floodlights and other inconveniences until 2006, when a cluster of disturbances – including the Transformers explosions – pushed many over the edge.
Bert Green decided he’d had enough when film crews monopolized parking spots for months near the galleries where he organizes a downtown art walk.
After his complaints were ignored by city officials and FilmL.A. staff, he met with other fed-up merchants and residents.
"Crews were coming into the neighbourhood and shutting streets down, or taking over whole blocks," he said. "There has to be some accountability."
Some limits exist already, but residents complain they are routinely ignored because they are not formal city ordinances.
One proposal would bar filming near homes from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. without written permission from residents. It also cuts curb space crews can occupy and puts limits on the use of lights.
Meanwhile, to ease conflicts, FilmL.A. has hired a community liaison to field complaints.
"The locations are like my field," said CSI: NY location manager Timothy Hillman. "If I burn out a location – if a location says, ‘I don’t want you back’ – it’s like I’m a farmer throwing salt on his fields.”