Bill to Help Hollywood Called Bad for Parks

The ancient world had its Seven Wonders, but to Ranger Ron Jones, those pale beside the strange sights he has witnessed during 7 1/2 years in Malibu Creek State Park.

There was the zippered cliff, where a 23-foot latex fastener was embedded in a steep, craggy hillside. And the cave that appeared on the face of a rock that was smooth just the day before. And, many times, a field of springtime-green grass that should have been midwinter brown.

These apparitions are on Jones’ list of what he calls “the seven wonders of Malibu Creek.” But when he finds candidates for the list, his reaction is more often anger than awe.

For they are not miracles, but the creations of film crews that decided to transform part of the park in pursuit of the perfect shot.

Those changes often mean damage to the sensitive natural setting. The destruction happens despite the efforts of rangers to keep a close watch on production companies.

Harm to Parks Feared

And so Jones--along with other rangers, parks officials and environmentalists--is worried that an Assembly bill designed to keep the film industry in California may end up harming the parks even more.

The measure, introduced by Assemblyman Stan Statham (R-Redding), would remove a requirement that movie and television companies reimburse the state for the use of its employees, including California Highway Patrol officers and rangers who monitor their operations.

Companies now pay about $30 an hour for each state employee on the set. Film monitoring is overtime work.

To Statham, the bill is simply “one more small thing that we can do” to keep the film industry “here in California where it belongs.” With more than 40 other states offering inducements to lure film makers, an estimated $1 billion worth of productions are shot outside of California each year. In recent years, the state has been trying to woo back “runaway production.”

Support for Bill

Trade associations and several entertainment-industry unions support Statham’s bill, arguing that any help for film companies will result in more jobs in the trade for Californians. “We’re very encouraged by legislation of that type,” said Carol Akiyama, senior vice president of the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers.

But critics said the understaffed state agencies should not have to use their on-duty ranks to watch film crews. The bill, they say, would lead either to reduced monitoring of the sets or to cutbacks in service to the public.

The bill’s opponents have focused on the parks, particularly the seven in the Santa Monica Mountains, where nearly half of the filming in state parks takes place. State parks account for half of the filming on state property.

Last year, film crews spent 201 days in the Santa Monica Mountains District of the state parks department. They worked most often at Malibu Creek, but also at Leo Carrillo State Beach, Will Rogers State Park and Malibu Lagoon.

The sites are popular because there isn’t much other open space within the so-called “Studio Zone.” If production companies stray outside the zone, which covers a 30-mile radius from the intersection of Beverly and La Cienega boulevards, they must pay extra travel and meal expenses to their union workers.

Right Camera Angles

On location, directors are concentrating on the right setting and the right camera angles.

There are times when those are achieved at the park’s expense.

The zipper, for example, was installed by a crew that stripped sage, snow berry, ceanothus and other native plants off the cliff, Jones said. The fake cave on the rock was fashioned with a plastic glue that required sandblasting for removal, he said. The blasting was in one of half a dozen areas in the world where a rare plant, a fingernail-sized cactus, can grow.

And the chemicals that turn brown grasses green do not always wear off, Jones said.

‘Damage Is Done’

Often, the incidents stem from accidents or ignorance, Jones said. “But even when it’s a misunderstanding, the damage is done,” he added.

The monitors try to prevent damage by advising location managers and directors before they start filming on the set each time new shots are improvised.

Cannon Films spent two months recently at Malibu Creek on a remake of “Invaders From Mars.”

“The ranger wouldn’t let us drive over meadowland with the camera,” said Allen Alsobrook, “Invaders” location manager. “If he hadn’t been there to tell us, we would have done it. It would have made a better shot. And we didn’t know what kind of damage that would cause.”

‘Out on a Limb’

Two weeks ago, Malibu Creek rangers told an ABC Circle Films crew shooting “Out on a Limb” to remove five vehicles from the production’s base camp in the park.

“That was surprising to us,” said Yudi Bennett, the film’s first assistant director. “We didn’t see why five vehicles more or less made much of a difference. We needed them all.”

Said Jones: “We set a limit of 20 because that’s all the parking space we have. We didn’t want them parking off the road.”

The “Out on a Limb” set south of Agoura Hills is a typical park production, Jones said.

About 100 people were there to film actress Shirley MacLaine starring in the movie version of her best-selling memoir.

In the dirt parking lot last week, the directors conferred in a converted school bus, painted maroon and equipped with a television and tables. Half a dozen cars were nearby. Three 40-foot trailers, filled with electrical equipment and cameras, were arranged around a dusty courtyard area.

Dressing Rooms

Motor homes served as the stars’ dressing rooms. Another trailer, the “honey wagon,” held more dressing rooms and restrooms.

Near a five-ton truck, the catering wagon dished out Swiss steak and pork. The crew ate at long tables set up in rows.

“When you bring in that many people, they have to be watched,” said Maurice (Bud) Getty, the state parks department’s district superintendent.

“No matter who you bring in, even if you had a convention of park rangers, we do need to work carefully with them.”

But if the Statham bill passes, Getty said, “It’s no secret that it would be difficult for us to manage.”

Three rangers are assigned to Malibu Creek State Park, Getty said. Usually only one is on duty, responsible for all 6,000 acres there.

Nature Walks

“It would be impossible” to help injured or lost hikers, lead nature walks, break up fights or watch for fires while supervising a film crew, Getty said.

And when the solution is rangers who work overtime, “somebody has to pay them,” Getty said. “We can’t. We don’t have enough money to pay them.”

A few states and cities already offer free use of public employees. Joe O’Kane, president of the 120-member Assn. of Film Commissions, said the practice “is not common.”

New York City is the best-known film location where monitors are provided without charge, O’Kane said. “New York turned a lot of heads around,” he said. “It definitely helped in New York.”

Not Like City Filming

But opponents of the Statham bill argue that filming in state parks is a different operation than in a city such as New York, or even on other state property in California.

“It’s different shooting on concrete than it is on oak woodland or in a ferny dell,” said David Dworski, a member of the Santa Monica Mountains State Parks Citizens Advisory Board. “People go to these state parks to connect with the natural world. These parks are all that we have.”

The National Park Service requires supervision of film crews on its Santa Monica Mountains property. A donation is always requested in exchange and “we’ve never been turned down,” said Alice Allen, film permit coordinator for the local federal parks agency. She suggests the size of the contribution.

Federal Officials Concerned

“We couldn’t (supervise) without the money coming in,” Allen said. When she heard about the Statham bill, she said, federal parks officials “were very interested and concerned. There is no way we’d do that.”

Such talk concerns Statham. “I’d vote against the measure myself if I thought it was going to hurt our environmentally sensitive state parks,” he said.

He said that he has amended the bill; the parks department would be required to request more rangers if it passes.

“They will never be able to present their budget without putting in sufficient money for those monitors,” Statham said.

Scant Comfort

To Michael Allan of the California State Park Rangers Assn., Statham’s answer gives scant comfort. Requests for money are not always granted, Allan said. “Unfortunately, with the budget the way it is, the chances that these funds are available are nil,” he said.

And David Brown, another member of the state parks advisory board, said that in 1984 California stopped charging permit fees that averaged $1,000 a day for using state land.

“Paying a ranger isn’t nearly that much,” Brown said. “If film making is going to leave the state because of that, it’s hopeless anyway.”