Film Agency Handling of Simi Bid Criticized

A fledgling state agency, rebuffed in its bid to turn the Simi Freeway into a Sylvester Stallone movie set, botched a chance to convince cities that inconvenience is worth the price of keeping Hollywood at home, local officials and some film industry sources contend.

A month after the Moorpark and Simi Valley city councils unanimously rejected a plan by the California Film Office, the agency’s representatives hint that their approach to local officials was insensitive. Sounding a conciliatory line, they say there will be no push to close the commuter artery if public opposition cannot be eased.

The film office had billed closing the freeway as a test of community willingness to make sacrifices to curb “runaway” filming, the loss of productions to other states that actively solicit filming.

Officials at the film office say the recent controversy comes at a “critical juncture” in efforts to accommodate films shot on California roads. They also say it points up the struggle to reverse public apathy to filming in the Los Angeles area.

‘Losing Something Valuable’

“We’re in a difficult position trying to convince the people of Southern California that they are losing something valuable,” said Lisa Rawlins, the film office director. “On the local level, sometimes it’s difficult to see. We’re losing jobs but you don’t see dormant smokestacks or bread lines.”

The office, which has a staff of four and an annual budget of $349,000, was created by the Legislature in 1984 as part of Gov. George Deukmejian’s campaign to court the film industry and retain its billions of dollars in spending.

Until the Simi Valley-San Fernando Valley Freeway clash, it had attracted little public notice while generally earning high marks from an industry that complained of bureaucratic tangles that made filming difficult in the state that spawned the movies.

The freeway episode, however, has raised issues such as whether the office adequately consults with local governments, whether there is any difference between promoting the industry for jobs and taxes and serving individual companies, and whether the film office or the Dept. of Transportation should carry the authority to close state roads.

Appeared Callous

Some industry observers also believe the dispute provoked the public’s ire by seeming callous to the community.

“It gives the impression the industry is a bully that doesn’t care about people driving the freeways,” said Dan Slusser, vice president and general manager of Universal Studios. “Their heart is in the right place but their execution leaves a little to be desired.

“The film industry is in a very delicate situation in Southern California. We’re very concerned about our relationships with the community,” Slusser said. He added that the film office “must portray concern for the community, but they have shown a lack of sophistication.”

The stage was unwittingly set for controversy when location scouts at Cannon Films of Los Angeles came across a nondescript stretch of freeway between Moorpark and Simi Valley ideal for high-precision trucking stunts.

The roadway slices through dry hills, free of palm trees or shiny office parks that might give away a Southern California locale for “Over The Top.” The action film stars Stallone as a truck driver who competes in arm-wrestling contests.

Also, because the site is situated at the outer edge of Hollywood’s “studio zone,” a circle radiating 30 miles from the corner of Beverly and La Cienega boulevards, union cast and crew could be expected to get to work on their own.

Cannon asked the film office to shut down a three-mile stretch from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. for four weekdays. State officials quickly posted closure signs along the freeway, an apparently unprecedented plan to close a Southland freeway during rush hours to make a movie.

The reaction to severing the commuter lifeline to Los Angeles was predictably swift.

Moorpark and Simi Valley city council members angrily charged the film office with failing to notify them before announcing the closure and with strong-armed suggestions that filming would go forward, like it or not.

2nd Plan Rejected June 16

So, the film office returned with a plan to close the freeway for five days between 8:30 a.m. and 9 p.m. and asked the councils for non-binding endorsements.

It received unequivocal rejections on June 16.

“They need to go back to school and study some public relations,” Simi Valley Councilman Glen McAdoo said recently. “They don’t benefit the film industry one iota by doing this. In fact, they stir up more antagonism to filming.”

The rebuff forced the office to try developing yet another freeway plan--one still in the works, according to film office officials. They say they will try to find other California highways for Cannon if a compromise can’t be worked out.

Cannon spokespersons have avoided comment since the council votes, and film office officials declined to discuss current talks.

Asked to Waive Overtime Pay

But representatives of film unions--such as the International Alliance of Theatrical and Stage Employees and the Screen Actors Guild--said the office has asked them to waive overtime pay for weekend filming. State officials have said that overtime pay stood in the way of weekend shooting.

Aside from the recent criticism, industry representatives are quick to say the office has started to rehabilitate the state’s previously blase attitude toward film.

The Hollywood Boulevard office has attempted to prod communities into streamlining their film permitting process. It acts as trouble shooters for film companies that run into location problems with local governments and state agencies, and maintains a library of 30,000 photographs for location scouts to peruse.

Its primary role, though, is to be a “one-stop” permit center for queries on using state property for filming.

One-Stop Concept

The one-stop concept gets its teeth through a law ordering state agencies such as Caltrans to comply with film office requests unless the movie company fails to provide full insurance or if the use would “unduly interfere with the conduct of state business.”

That effectively grants the film office power to close state roadways, film office and Caltrans officials agree.

The problem of runaway feature films and television productions--illustrated most graphically by Hollywood-area billboards and full-page ads in Variety touting other states as movie locations--cost California $100 million in sales taxes last year from the $1 billion in out-of-state filming, according to film office estimates.

In the first six months of 1986, 173 feature films started production in the United States, and 73 were shot at least partly in California, Rawlins said. In the same period last year, 121 films were started, 57 of them shot at least partly in the state.

Kept 3 Films in State

Last year, the Hollywood-based office took credit for retaining three feature films with location expenditures of about $10 million, said John H. Sullivan, undersecretary of the state Business, Transportation and Housing Agency, which oversees the film office.

Film office defenders emphasize those successes and insist the freeway episode marked an uncharacteristic departure from friendly relations with locals.

“The film climate has gotten better. The Stallone situation was unfortunate. Everyone used it for publicity,” said Patrick Walters, vice president of administration for Columbia Pictures Industries in Burbank and chairman of the California Motion Picture Council, an industry group that advises the state on film issues.

“As an office furthering the governor’s interest in film, they’re going to take the side of the film company. But it’s a delicate balance . . . between interests of the film company, local communities and the state.”

Too Close to Film Companies

But officials in Simi Valley and Moorpark argue that their experience indicates the office may be too close to the film makers it serves.

“It appeared to me they were working strictly as an advocate for Cannon,” Simi Valley Mayor Elton Gallegly said. “There was some confusion at first who the real actors in this were--Cannon or the film office. That may have been a little bit beyond the direction of the film office.”

Added Moorpark Councilman Danny Woolard: “They’re almost coming off as if they have a stake in the matter, as though they have stock in Cannon Films.”

Film office officials, however, argue that they seek compromise and that their role is to mediate rather than serve as a company spokesperson.

“We’re not here to aid the industry specifically. It’s jobs and taxes. It’s an issue of the state,” said Rawlins.

Conflicts Are Rare

Rawlins said conflicts are rare and that the Simi Freeway episode represented the first time the film office has spoken before a city council.

She said the office’s mandate does not include pushing for filming in areas where “the public doesn’t want it.”

Yet Simi and Moorpark are not the first cities left at odds with the film office.

On May 30, with state permits issued by the film office, Cannon Films blew up a 63-foot yacht in Newport Bay for a Charles Bronson movie, “The Assassins.”

The burning boat broke loose from a floating dock and slid into the sea wall of a $6.5 million home, prompting the emergency dispatch of Newport Beach fire boats and the ire of residents, said Glen Everroad, a licensing supervisor for Newport Beach.

The city twice denied Cannon permission to blow up the boat, but the film office lobbied aggressively to reverse the decision, Everroad said. Ultimately, the film office secured a permit for the explosion through the state Dept. of Fish and Game, he said.

“They’re a ramrod outfit that will not be held responsible for film production activities,” the Newport Beach official said.

‘Needs to Be Reined In’

Among those who have soured on the film office recently is Assemblyman Tom McClintock (R-Thousand Oaks), who called the operation a “bureaucratic rogue elephant that needs to be reined in.”

“My enthusiasm has been substantially diluted by this incident of heavy handedness and complete lack of respect for local needs,” he commented. “Deukmejian’s name was being invoked by the California Film Office rather recklessly as supporting the closure when he hadn’t even heard about it.”

McClintock said he is considering adding language to next year’s film office budget to require consultations with local governments before filming is approved.

Another area legislator, Sen. Ed Davis (R-Valencia), on July 10 urged state officials to include local governments in planning location shoots in their towns.

Davis, in a letter to John Geohegan, the state secretary of Business, Transportation and Housing, also promoted the idea of compiling a list of “pre-approved” state highway and freeway sites--drawn with Caltrans recommendations--that would be available to movie makers on short notice.

Master List of Roadways

In fact, the film office says, a master list of available roadways is already started.

“We’ve reached a critical juncture in the use of state freeways with the film industry,” said Kathleen Milnes, the film office’s deputy director who pitched Cannon’s proposed freeway closures in Ventura County.

The loss of road movies to other states, Milnes said, gives urgency to developing new techniques for filming on California highways.

For example, on June 10, Caltrans and the California Highway Patrol slowed traffic on a 14-mile stretch of Interstate 5 north of Castaic to allow Cannon film crews to shoot sequences of motorcycle police pulling over a truck.

The “rolling brake” of traffic, Milnes said, accommodated Cannon’s filming needs while only briefly disrupting travel.

As an example of road closures, Milnes noted the use of Vincent Thomas Bridge on the Terminal Island Freeway for two weekends in 1985 for shooting a chase scene in “To Live and Die In L.A.” It was also closed recently on a Wednesday night to shoot scenes from the movie “Blind Date,” and for Saturday filming of a Neil Young music video, she said.

“The more roads are used, generally, the more accessible they become,” she said.