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Cinematic nightmares
By Jacob Adelman |
January 15, 2009, Thursday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
MOVIES can be great. Film sets not so much, especially if you live in downtown Los Angeles, where an average of 23 productions are being shot per day and some include massive explosions. Jacob Adelman reports.
Ginny-Marie Case cannot forget the night she was jarred from her sleep by massive explosions set off by crews filming the blockbuster movie "Transformers."
It was one of the incidents that led Case and other Los Angeles 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, film makers have depended on downtown's 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 Maltese past a set for "CSI: NY," where Gary Sinise stood before whirring cameras in a bulletproof vest.
The conflict pits the downtown resurgence against the push to stop the "runaway production" that occurs when film makers leave Los Angeles to take advantage of hefty tax breaks and other advantages offered by cities from New Orleans to Vancouver, Canada.
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 that makes everybody happy, but that could be very difficult," Kyser said. "We really run a risk."
City Councilwoman Jan Perry, whose district includes most of downtown, is watching closely as neighborhood activists and studio representatives work to draft the 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.
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 played itself on the Fox action series "24" and stood in for New York and Las Vegas in two of the three hit "CSI" shows on CBS.
It is also a hot spot for car commercials featuring the glass-and-steel office towers of Figueroa Boulevard.
In all, there is an average of 23 downtown location shoots each day, according to FilmLA Inc, a nonprofit 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 been increasing drastically, growing from about 18,700 before 1999 to more than 34,000 today, according to the Central City Association.
Shopkeepers and residents tolerated the street closures, floodlights and other inconveniences until late 2006, when a cluster of disturbances ?? including the "Transformers" explosions ?? pushed many over the edge.
Some limits exist already, but residents complain they are routinely ignored because they are not formal city ordinances.
One proposal under consideration by residents and studios would bar filming near homes from 11pm to 6am without written permission from residents. It also cuts the amount of curb space crews can occupy and put limits on their use of lights, among other regulations.
For the past holiday season, Los Angeles has implemented citywide filming restrictions to minimize the impact of on-location production to businesses and merchants that rely on holiday sales.
According to FilmLA's announcement, from November 17 through January 2, filming activity including lane closures, street closures and street parking were limited in all commercial/retail areas of the city.
Individual filming requests would be evaluated on a case-by-case basis and must meet a standard of minimal impact that satisfies the Los Angeles Board of Public Works, the Department of Transportation, the local City Council office, and the Los Angeles Police Department.
"CSI: NY" location manager Timothy Hillman said he hits the street long before the cameras arrive to warn residents about the coming commotion and to reimburse shopkeepers who lose business.
"The locations are like my field," Hillman said. "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."
Ginny-Marie Case cannot forget the night she was jarred from her sleep by massive explosions set off by crews filming the blockbuster movie "Transformers."
It was one of the incidents that led Case and other Los Angeles 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, film makers have depended on downtown's 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 Maltese past a set for "CSI: NY," where Gary Sinise stood before whirring cameras in a bulletproof vest.
The conflict pits the downtown resurgence against the push to stop the "runaway production" that occurs when film makers leave Los Angeles to take advantage of hefty tax breaks and other advantages offered by cities from New Orleans to Vancouver, Canada.
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 that makes everybody happy, but that could be very difficult," Kyser said. "We really run a risk."
City Councilwoman Jan Perry, whose district includes most of downtown, is watching closely as neighborhood activists and studio representatives work to draft the 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.
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 played itself on the Fox action series "24" and stood in for New York and Las Vegas in two of the three hit "CSI" shows on CBS.
It is also a hot spot for car commercials featuring the glass-and-steel office towers of Figueroa Boulevard.
In all, there is an average of 23 downtown location shoots each day, according to FilmLA Inc, a nonprofit 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 been increasing drastically, growing from about 18,700 before 1999 to more than 34,000 today, according to the Central City Association.
Shopkeepers and residents tolerated the street closures, floodlights and other inconveniences until late 2006, when a cluster of disturbances ?? including the "Transformers" explosions ?? pushed many over the edge.
Some limits exist already, but residents complain they are routinely ignored because they are not formal city ordinances.
One proposal under consideration by residents and studios would bar filming near homes from 11pm to 6am without written permission from residents. It also cuts the amount of curb space crews can occupy and put limits on their use of lights, among other regulations.
For the past holiday season, Los Angeles has implemented citywide filming restrictions to minimize the impact of on-location production to businesses and merchants that rely on holiday sales.
According to FilmLA's announcement, from November 17 through January 2, filming activity including lane closures, street closures and street parking were limited in all commercial/retail areas of the city.
Individual filming requests would be evaluated on a case-by-case basis and must meet a standard of minimal impact that satisfies the Los Angeles Board of Public Works, the Department of Transportation, the local City Council office, and the Los Angeles Police Department.
"CSI: NY" location manager Timothy Hillman said he hits the street long before the cameras arrive to warn residents about the coming commotion and to reimburse shopkeepers who lose business.
"The locations are like my field," Hillman said. "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."
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