Oil Spill Could Affect Location Filming

Joseph Cleary, dodging traffic on his bicycle, rode up and down the streets along the beach near the Newport Pier on Thursday night as he monitored the thick brown foam that washed up on the shores.

The oily sludge that struck the beaches between 15th and 28th streets was a portion of a 300,000-gallon spill from a ruptured oil tanker off Huntington Beach.

“It’s just heartbreaking,” said Cleary, a 36-year Newport Beach resident who takes more than a local’s interest in the pristine quality of the sands. Cleary is a film producer who runs the city’s film liaison office as an independent consultant. The office encourages local film production and helps producers cut the red tape for location filming.

“This is my back lot. This is my studio,” Cleary said. “It’s going to ruin my business, as far as making this city a showcase for film.”

Cleary said Newport Beach, with its wide beaches and picturesque landmarks, is an especially popular location for commercials: As many as 100 shoots were projected for the year.

By Friday morning, mild Santa Ana winds had pushed the oil back to sea, and cleanup crews and equipment blanketed the beach.

But Cleary worried that another wind shift would bring the slick back and that oil that has sunk below the ocean’s surface would continue to wash ashore in the months ahead.

“I don’t see our beaches ever being clean, tar-free, for quite a while,” Cleary said. That’s bad news for the film business.

“The summer is over with as far as being a clean, pristine kind of location,” he said.

A magazine photo shoot was scheduled for Friday afternoon in Newport Harbor, Cleary said, but that project wasn’t expected to be affected by the spill. Beyond that, Cleary said, no other film shoots are scheduled in the Newport Beach area for the next several days.