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This topic comprises 2 pages: 1 2
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Topic: Universal Studios Pissing Off Phoenix, AZ Commuters!!!
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Martin Brooks
Jedi Master Film Handler
Posts: 900
From: Forest Hills, NY, USA
Registered: May 2002
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posted 07-29-2006 05:17 PM
I'm surprised that people in Film-Tech, who presumably make their living projecting the product of film studios, would object to location shooting because it brings some inconvenience to the locals.
While local officials should do everything possible to limit hassles to the local population, film shoots generally bring in lots of dollars. For many years, between NIMBY, government permit ridiculousness and the film unions, almost nothing was shot in NYC. Then the unions and the city wised up...the unions changed their rules, the city moved to a single-permit system and new film studios were given tax abatements and the city now thrives with film shoots and work at film production studios everywhere.
While locals sometimes get pissed if access to their block is limited, most of the time, film shoots are taken in stride.
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Wayne Keyser
Master Film Handler
Posts: 272
From: Arlington, Virginia, USA
Registered: May 2004
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posted 07-29-2006 05:37 PM
Part of the problem may be that this is being coordinated by inexperienced locals - New York, Washington (my town) and numerous other cities ALREADY used to hosting film crews have fulltime offices to coordinate these things - to balance the need to attract this kind of money while not ticking off the wrong people. (Okay, acknowledged, they can upset as many people as they want - just not the WRONG people).
Hollywood crews at home in LA have a lot of economic pull, but they also have to obey some very strict rules as to how badly they can disrupt a neighborhood. "Street closures, activities that will prevent merchants from opening their shops, and exceptional production activities such as gunfire, explosions and aerial work may also generate a survey [of local businesses and residents] to identify issues and concerns about the proposed activity and related impacts. Typically, the company will have its staff go door-to-door in the affected area and collect the surrounding neighbors' specific concerns (for instance, "Disabled, need to park in front of my home" or "Having a wedding party on Thursday night"). FilmL.A., Inc. will then work with the production company and concerned neighbors to address relevant issues."
You may find their site informative - FilmLA.com ("the new face of your old friend, the Entertainment Industry Development Corporation of Southern California") - especially the form that has to be filed for street closures:
http://www.filmla.com/html/parking___surveys.html
My own hometown has its film production liaison site at
http://www.film.dc.gov/film/site/default.asp
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Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."
Posts: 10973
From: Lawton, OK, USA
Registered: Apr 2001
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posted 07-29-2006 05:45 PM
Jen, I lived in Yuma, AZ for a few years when I was a kid. One of my cousins lives in the Phoenix area and another friend of mine taught at a school in Globe right after she got her teaching degree (it was some student loan payback kind of thing). Anyway, I have a little more than a passing fascination with Arizona.
To get back on topic, it can be a huge pain when movie productions disrupt transportation in a big city. I remember back in the fall of 1990 when the production of Hudson Hawk (one of the biggest flops in film history) had the Brooklyn Bridge shut. Thankfully, they did their big chase scene on the bridge during the late night hours. But it still caused traffic problems. Huge Musco portable stadium style lights on 18-wheel trucks were parked at the edge of the East River. You could see all sorts of busy work happening from the Williamsburg Bridge.
quote: Wayne Keyser
Part of the problem may be that this is being coordinated by inexperienced locals - New York, Washington (my town) and numerous other cities ALREADY used to hosting film crews have fulltime offices to coordinate these things - to balance the need to attract this kind of money while not ticking off the wrong people.
I would like to see anyone in Los Angeles shut down one of the primary freeways there, such as I-5, I-10 or I-15, for a film shoot. In many cases the L.A. area has had the luxury of using unopened freeways with parts still under construction for movie shoots. Big portions of Speed and major action sequences in movies like Lethal Weapon 3 and Patriot Games were filmed on the I-105 expressway when it was not open to traffic. I'd like to see such kinds of movies try to do the same thing on that now completed freeway today. It won't matter how experienced to experts are in L.A., they'll still wind up with a logistical nightmare.
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Dave Williams
Wet nipple scene
Posts: 1836
From: Salt Lake City, UT, USA
Registered: Jan 2000
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posted 07-30-2006 05:24 AM
I am going to take a little devil's advocate here on this issue, so nothing personal...
quote: Will Kutler
...there is no reason why Hollywood should not compensate thousands of inconvienced taxpaying commuters for their trouble via fees for the use of such privledges.
A couple of problems with this argument...
1. It is more than just the inconvenienced taxpaying commuters who paid for this road system. Larger metropolitan areas who have fewer sqaure feet of road per capita than states with smaller populations pay for billions upon billions of federal tax money for the roads.
Utah is one example that reaped more than 2 billion dollars for 17 miles of road in just one appropriations bill. I am sure Arizona gets a decent share of federal road money as well.
2. This argument that people with money should pony up just because they have it is an age old argument that just doesn't wash in a capitalistic society. It shouldn't matter if the production is a 100 million dollar one or a 10 million dollar one. If it brings economy, it makes sense to make concessions to bring that economy.
Theaters do it all the time with matinee pricing and combo packages in order to get more business. Stores do it with coupons. States do it with incentive packages and yes, even inconveniences to the locals from time to time, if it means a greater prosperity down the road.
Utah invested hundreds of millions of dollars to infrastructure over 20 years in order to win the olympics before they ever were awarded the winter games. It has paid off with federal moneys and the olymipcs, tourism, conventions, business, film production, and so on. Don't bother bringing up the so called olympic bribery scandal, it was proven to be unfounded because no governement officials were ever bribed.
So I must disagree on principle that because they are a huge studio with money that they should be paying lots of fees because of the road shutdown. Imagine if there was never any allowances by anyone or any place for luring business. No coupons, no incentives, price fixing, governmental control of business, loss of freedom, and so on.
Remember we live in a republic of 50 democracies. We get to vote with our feet.
Ciao
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Greg Anderson
Jedi Master Film Handler
Posts: 766
From: Ogden Valley, Utah
Registered: Nov 1999
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posted 07-30-2006 09:37 AM
Salt Lake City is a great place to make a movie or a TV show. The industry brings in some outside directors, producers and actors, but almost everyone else is local. The last thing the local film crew folks want is to hurt their own chances of maintaining the workflow locally. When it's a long-term TV series, the Locations department works very closely with the state Film Commission to make sure everything goes smoothly for a long, long time. Occasionally, you'll see a less-experienced group or an out-of-town production that blows through town, not caring about the local industry and those guys can get reckless, leaving behind a lot of bad feelings that other people have to clean up before they can make another movie.
The Avenues area of Salt Lake City got burned a few times (like when The Stand filmed a scene of a house blowing up in the middle of the night). For a while, it looked like no one would be allowed to film there anymore. But I've seen a lot of cooperation between production companies and local organizations to make sure that filming hours are limited, that noise is controlled, that traffic disruptions have specific time limits, etc. And it helps, of course, when the Locations department has a lot of local experience.
If someone slapped a notice on your door and told you that you'd be trapped in your house while they make their little movie and that's the way you interpreted the message, then their locations department needs a tune-up.
Granted, the people of Salt Lake City can be a bit jaded because there's been a lot of production here in recent years. But when I was on location in Natchez, Mississippi a few years ago, it seemed that everyone in town was excited to have a film crew working in the area for 5 weeks. We still behaved ourselves very well, but it seemed like the people would have allowed us to get away with anything. They were very gracious. And a lot of them were happy to get hired as extras, just to make it that much more fun. If the people of a certain area don't welcome filming, there are plenty of other places to go.
It is ironic, of course, that (according to what I've heard) it's pretty-much impossible to get permission to film in Malibu.
If people in Arizona are so upset about this production and if this production marks an attempt by local politicians to lure more productions to the area, then I suggest you get involved. Write letters to the local Film Commission. Arrange to talk to people. Set up the rules now before they lure another big studio into town and you get burned again. The local Film Commission has a lot at stake, and their concern should be towards the long-term health of the local industry.
[ 07-30-2006, 06:02 PM: Message edited by: Greg Anderson ]
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