how to complain about filmLA

I realized after hitting "publish" on my last post that while many of you have been following the saga of downtown filming issues and know who Bert, Ben and Ginny are, you might not know Dennis. Dennis is the elected filming liaison for the Bartlett Building and he's a production supervisor at one of the major studios. So before you haters start commenting, realize that in no way is he anti-filming.

Dennis emailed me to let me know how the situation on Monday night fell apart even further. He said that not one promise made by Geoff Smith was honored. Tired of the back and forth undocumented phone conversations and broken promises, Dennis had a very productive conversation with Amy Yeager of Councilman Huizar's office. He also has ongoing discussion with his co-worker, the person representing their studio in the Special Conditions negotiations. Turns out, the studio itself is a big admirer of Bert Green and finds our Special Conditions to be reasonable - because their studio already does what the Special Conditions require. Then, Dennis wrote an email to FilmLA and copied Councilman Huizar's office. Since I'm in Jan Perry's district, I would copy her and then for good measure I'd copy the CAO's office, since they have oversight for FilmLA's contract with the City.

Here's Dennis' email to Donna Washington at FilmLA, my comments are in parentheses:

"Sorry for taking this long to get back to you, but I wanted to take a moment to pause and reflect - and to regain my composure as a professional and deal with the systematic problems facing us, as opposed to allowing my own frustrations get the better of me as they did Monday night.

After a long talk for the first time with Amy Yeager on Tuesday morning, we both concluded that in each of our respective work environments, the response of "I don't know why this happened" is ever acceptable to those we report to. Unfortunately, this was the main content of your voicemail Tuesday evening regarding why our building was not notified by email or hard copy of the music video filming within 300 feet of our building and your voicemail ended with "I don't know why your building was not notified." This is not acceptable to our Homeowners Association.

From now on, I would prefer communication in email so that we all can work together to keep track of these incidents and figure out how FilmLA can better fulfill their commitments to downtown residents as referenced in the Downtown Filming Rules posted to FilmLA's website on April 26, 2007. Please see the link below:

http://www.filmlainc.com/Production_Alert_Downtown_Rules_042607.pdf

Also on an ongoing basis, I will also be copying communication to my Homeowners Association Board of Directors to keep them current on issues such as why the communication that I provide from FilmLA's notifications to our 140 owners is repeatedly inaccurate due to the above types of instances - whereby FilmLA's notifications either don't happen, happen too late, or the description is materially different than what occurs in the neighborhood.

This last weekend from Friday to Monday was an excellent example of what we residents face, and I am glad to now communicate with Amy Yeager.

To recap:

1. After less than two days notice and an after-thought communication from the location manager revealing the placement of the condor crane and spotlight placed at the alley on 7th Street - 50 feet from the front door of my building , "Women's Murder Group" struck a last-minute deal with my Association which provided that our alley-side wall would not be lit - yet the opposite happened, lighting our wall. And this was while Todd, the FilmLA monitor stood and watched me have to negotiate a compromise for an hour and a half - and he said nothing. I still have not received a response from Geoff Smith or from the permit coordinator as to whether or not the placement of the condor and the spotlight were referenced in the permits that you issued.

2. "Journeymen" filmed Sunday afternoon under a FilmLA Notification that gave the address for the entrance to the alley at 6th street north of my building. The location manager said they would be only at that end of the alley. And yet they had extras walking back and forth in front of my building doorway at the 7th street entrance to the alley and production crew told our residents they could not park on the north side of 7th street in front of our building - although they did not have a legal lane closure. One of our owners was delayed until after 7:30PM to park her moving van, being told by production crew that the lane closure signs (still not taken down from "Women's Murder Group" from Friday - Saturday morning) were actually their notifications and should have included Sunday as well. This is false and deceptive, disrupting - yet again - our ability to quiet enjoyment of our property.

3. The music video Monday night that was not given consent from my building because there was no FilmLA Notification by email or hardcopy. Amy on your FilmLA hotline told me that you were working to get them out of the parking lot by 10PM because they had not received our sign-off. Later that evening, Geoff Smith while at the location, said they would be leaving at midnight after I told him I understood that they were to leave at 10PM because they did not have our consent. The production was still working at 12:15AM when I went to bed (my bedroom has a direct view of that parking lot) with no activity that remotely resembled packing up, while your FilmLA Monitor was out on the sidewalk. Neighbors were woken up at approximately 1AM to poles clanging, grips yelling, and production vehicle noise such as engines and beeping. I understand from Amy Yeager that four complaints from residents in the neighborhood were called in to LAPD.

So as you can see, I am very concerned that we have an understanding that the repeated response of "I don't know why" is not acceptable. Therefore, I would like to request the following:

1. A systematic breakdown of what at FilmLA is failing to do so that our building entrance continues to be overlooked,

2. A description of the job duties of FilmLA Monitors required to be at the location.

Thanks for your assistance."

Dennis Hunter
Bartlett Building Filming Liaison

If anybody else downtown has similar experiences, responding the way Dennis has is a really good way to voice your objections and concerns. Feel free to use this as a blueprint on how to complain effectively on filming abuses.

catching up

This screenplay rewrite is taking forever. The second screenplay I've been working on is taking shape, but so far I hate it. It's just not very funny yet. For ScriptFrenzy, I wanted to work on something contemporary and completely different from the other project, so I'm writing a broad, raucous comedy, set in the present day at a fictional southern California university, based on my college and sorority experiences. The other one? A period drama, set along the Underground Railroad in the six years since the end of the Civil War. Yeah, that one's a real party.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, my June calendar is pretty full. There's been a lot going on, not just career-wise and not just downtown. We actually went west of La Brea - to the Fox lot for a reception and screening of Al Pacino's documentary, Babbleonia at the Little Theater. There was a Q&A afterwards with Mr. Pacino, and he answered damn near every awkward, eye-roll-inducing, gushing, brown-nosing, suck-up question thrown out that night. We were told that the attendees were a combination of press and student filmmakers, but it seemed like the majority of questions were lobbed by aspiring actors. He does tell a good yarn, though. He told the story of how "Attica!" wound up in that famous scene from DOG DAY AFTERNOON (the AD suggested he yell it), what it was like to work with Francis Ford Coppola and Sidney Lumet, and how he came up with "Whoo-ah!" for SCENT OF A WOMAN, and how to stay relevant (he came straight from the OCEAN'S THIRTEEN premiere, which we saw last night). We rounded out that evening by going to this wonderful Indian restaurant behind the Writer's Guild Theater on Doheny - Chakra. I ate there once before with my Development Exec, but it was the first time for Jim. I had the lamb vindaloo and he had chicken tikka masala. The food was even better than I remembered. Every time we venture out to the westside, I plan to eat there. It's that yummy. I wish we had an Indian restaurant downtown that's open late and beautiful, serving yummy food like Chakra.

I missed a lot of events last week. We went to Disneyland last Wednesday to preview the new Finding Nemo submarine ride, but it broke down. They tried to fix it and we waited, hoping they'd get it together in time, but no such luck. They invited us to come back the next day and preview it, but they had no guarantees it would be up and running, or that it wouldn't break down again. Oh well. The ride opened yesterday, but I think we'll wait out the crowds before going back.

Instead of going to the Hope for Firefighters thing last week, Jim and I picked up a brand-new, shiny, red Prius. Driving it is a little odd for me, being so used to my old Jeep (my third one!), but I like it a lot. I especially like that we used one gallon to drive to Pechanga on Saturday. One gallon! Woo hoo! What I didn't like was no notification about Sixth Street being closed due to a Neutrogena commercial. That made it difficult to exit our parking garage, but nothing was stopping me from attending the Lemon Butter Club meeting. Thankfully, they were gone by the time we came home several hours later and we didn't have any problems entering our parking garage. There were other FilmLA developments - their contract was up for renewal June 30, 2007 and the City didn't have an RFP handy, so FilmLA asked for a one-year extension of their contract, but Jan Perry countered with six months, which doesn't matter because City Council can cancel the extension with a 30-day notice - oh just read about it here.

What else is new? Oh yeah, I went back to the gym and found a new trainer that I really like. This past week, I felt like I'd been hit by a truck, but in a good way. I just might hit the gym after posting this.

We did manage to hit Grand Performances' block party yesterday, and just in time to catch Ozomatli. I saw them the last time they played Grand Performances, which was incredible. I spent most of the weekend writing and rewriting, but neighbor Dave pinged us to head over with him. I had to finish writing, so we caught up with him later. I took some video of the event and I'll post that in a day or so. It was packed, so we didn't see any other downtown bloggers covering the event (other than Dave, that is), but of course they were there.

This week looks like it's going to be just as busy, if not more so. My brother-in-law James is coming home from NYC tonight, so we'll probably have dinner with him and Angel tonight. Tomorrow night is the Bloggers & Beer event at the Library Bar, anyone going to that? Thursday is Downtown Artwalk, but with the new, free Artwalk DASH buses running from 7-10pm, I'll probably do more riding than walking.

I know there's lots more going on that I haven't blogged about, but I have to get back to the screenplays.

fed up with filmLA

Last night Jim and I attended DLANC's filming issues ad-hoc meeting. It seems that after suffering through many abusive film crews, downtown residents have finally had enough. Many of the residents have been complaining via their blogs (here and here) and websites, within their email groups, and you can't swing a dead cat over your head at any of the downtown eateries and bars without hitting someone with a legitimate complaint or a filming horror story.

This wasn't the first meeting - last week's was attended by a community relations guy from FilmLA, the organization that's supposed to facilitate film permits and is responsible for notifications of filming in the City of Los Angeles. After hearing him drop lie after lie, I couldn't take it anymore. He said that FilmLA was acting on a "mandate from the City". I asked him (when I was finally allowed to speak) if FilmLA was under a contract rather than a mandate, which he verified it was, and then I asked him when FilmLA's contract with the City was up for renewal.

He turned about three different colors before he answered, "June."

I could detail every lie told at that meeting, but it's not really necessary to embarrass the guy. Not here and not now, there'll be plenty of time for that later. The point is, the residents of downtown are pissed and they're not going to take it anymore. For me, pissed off is my baseline. And I'm glad that everybody else seems to have had it as well. Don't get me wrong, I make my living in this industry and want filming to continue in downtown Los Angeles. But someone has to be accountable for lack of notifications, permit violations and non-compliance, lax permitting, rampant street closures, abusive behavior from film crews, explosions and simulated gunfire without warning, aircraft flying lower than permitted, and general disregard for the safety and comfort of the residents of the 90013 zip code (the most filmed location outside of studios).

If you live downtown, you have to know that you have every right to view a production's film permit. Ask anyone with a walkie - just identify yourself as a resident that is being impacted by their production. Ask for the location manager and a copy of their film permit. If you're not sure what they're doing that's wrong - check out the Filmmaker's Code of Conduct, which is on my sidebar to the right. Arm yourself with knowledge of your rights as a resident, educate yourself on what film crews can and cannot do, and don't let anyone intimidate you.

This August I will have lived in downtown Los Angeles for sixteen years, ten of them in the Historic Core, ground zero for downtown film locations. I've developed some strategies for dealing with film crews. If you have questions on filming and lessening its impact on you as a resident, worker, or patron of downtown please feel free to ask questions of me in the comments below or by emailing me (my email is on the sidebar). I will try to answer them in future posts titled, "Ask A Curmudgeon".

UPDATE: The Filmmaker's Code of Conduct is supposed to be distributed by FilmLA with every film permit that they issue. From their website:

"FilmL.A. encourages all production companies to abide by the terms of the Filmmakers’ Code of Professional Responsibility, which we distribute with every permit we release. The Code outlines generally accepted standards of courtesy for film crew members working out on-location.

If you are a resident or business owner in a neighborhood being used for filming, the Code describes the level of professionalism you should expect from the production company."

BTW, I have never worked on a production where the cast or crew has ever seen or even knows about the Code.