Clarifying Film Shoot

I would like to correct certain facts reported in the article “Shooting Wars” by Carolyn Ramsay (Times, April 4).

Steve White Productions and The Aldrich Group did not “descend” on Hudson Avenue in Hancock Park, “filling the block with trucks, trailers, film crews, generators and spotlights, infuriating neighbors” to film “What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?” as implied in the article. To the contrary, our production company approached this street six weeks prior to production and used the residents’ ideas on how to accomplish this lengthy filming (13 days), while trying to remain as invisible as possible to the rest of the neighborhood.

Trucks were parked on Hudson Avenue for one day to unload all necessary equipment into the Bresee house and then were removed for the duration of the filming. It was virtually impossible to notice where our company was filming. Eighty percent of the neighbors gave their written approval for the filming prior to preproduction activities. The portable generator used was placed behind the filmed house, to avoid disruption of neighbors.

The crew was bused to location daily from a commercial parking lot on Wilshire Boulevard. Not a single crew member was allowed to park on Hudson Avenue or the surrounding streets.

All exterior scenes were scheduled for filming in one day, again, in an effort to remain as invisible as possible.

To my knowledge, no complaints from Hudson Avenue residents were registered with our company or with the Los Angeles Motion Picture Coordination Office. Our company took extraordinary precautions to avoid disrupting this neighborhood, and it worked. Yet, there is no mention of this in the article. Instead, The Times has painted a negative view of film companies invading a neighborhood with no regard or respect.

I would hope that The Times is aware that articles like these make securing locations and filming in California increasingly difficult.

STEVE WHITE

Los Angeles