Look Who’s on the Outside at Movie Expo--L.A.! : Movies: After failing to obtain a booth at a key gathering of film commissioners, the city will erect a huge tent in front of the courthouse in Santa Monica to woo producers and lucrative projects.

Claiming that location shooting drains more than $1 billion a year from the local economy, the city of Los Angeles plans to erect a tent on the front lawn of the county courthouse in Santa Monica on Friday to woo Hollywood producers attending a movie and TV location trade show this weekend at the nearby Santa Monica Civic Auditorium.

Los Angeles officials are upset that they were unable to secure a coveted booth inside the auditorium for Location Expo ‘94, which is sponsored by the Assn. of Film Commissioners International. Film commissioners from all 50 states and many foreign countries will be out in force at the show.

“We weren’t invited inside (the auditorium),” said Cody Cluff, assistant deputy mayor for entertainment industry affairs. “They would deny it, but this is a show designed to come into Los Angeles and take away our jobs.”

Leigh von der Esch, president of the AFCI, denied there was any attempt to keep Los Angeles out of the trade show, and said the city simply failed to respond to repeated requests to reserve space at the show.

“Only at the last minute, when all available space allotted to us had been assigned, did the (Los Angeles Film) commission finally request a booth,” Von der Esch said in a prepared statement. “We would have been happy to accommodate the commission, if only they had responded to us.”

Location Expo ’94 is the world’s largest for film locations and services, attracting 168 domestic and foreign film commissions and 29 affiliates, some from as far off as the Netherlands, South Africa and the Cayman Islands.

Cluff said Los Angeles did not apply promptly for a booth because the city’s former film czar, Beth Kennedy, had left office several months before and he had not yet taken office.

“You’re telling me that when 60% of the filming in the nation is done here in Los Angeles and 80% of the filming in California is done here, that because of a technicality, you’re going to bar us?” Cluff said. “It looks to me like this is a show designed to take business out of Los Angeles.”

So, armed with a 30-by-30-foot tent, a portable billboard, big balloons, popcorn and refreshments, the city will set up shop on the courthouse lawn.

His sales pitch to Hollywood: “Los Angeles understands the entertainment industry. We have a new mayor and a new attitude toward business. We will provide all the assistance we can that producers are looking for.”

Cluff admits that Los Angeles County--which last year saw 325 films shot out of about 600 nationwide--is facing stiff competition from other locales.

Some states offer free helicopters, cars and cellular phones as incentives to film in their areas, he said.

But commissioners in other states say that they are not out to strip Los Angeles of its $4-billion industry.

“I don’t think it’s raping and pillaging,” said Suzy Kellett, director of the Illinois Film Office. Illinois reaped a record $115 million last year providing location shooting of such films as the Oscar-nominated film “The Fugitive,” and two television series, “Missing Persons” and “The Untouchables.”

“We are not going after every piece of filming in Los Angeles,” Kellett said. “We are only going after those projects that are going out (of L.A.) anyway.”

Among the films made in Illinois recently were portions of “My Life,” “Rudy” and two films that have not yet been released: Oliver Stone’s “Natural Born Killers” and John Hughes’ “Baby’s Day Out,” which shot 27 weeks in Illinois.

Some governors have made the pilgrimage to Hollywood to help lure filmmakers to their states. Massachusetts Gov. William F. Weld, for instance, made a trade mission here last March and got a commitment from Columbia Pictures after meeting with them.

In the last 15 months, Massachusetts has had all major studios shooting motion pictures there, including “The Good Son” with Macaulay Culkin, “Malice” with Nicole Kidman and Alec Baldwin, portions of “Hocus Pocus” with Bette Midler, and snippets of “The Firm” and “The River Wild.” In 1992 alone, Massachusetts reaped $210 million in direct revenues from Hollywood filmmaking.

Linda Peterson Warren, director of the Massachusetts Film Office, said her state has instigated a number of measures to ease the process of making movies there. They include giving production companies a “blue pass” to park curbside at Logan International Airport when dropping off film and use of a proposed special traffic lane to whisk them past gridlock from the airport to Boston.

She said her office last year worked to help producers of the Tommy Lee Jones/Jeff Bridges action film “Blown Away” to carry off dramatic special effects in Boston with a minimum of problems, including blowing up a ship in East Boston Harbor and detonating a police car in the historic section of the city called Copley Square, which features Trinity Church dating back to the 1700s.

In Boston Harbor, she said, the film office helped get city and state officials on board so that producers could detonate a ship. “Windows were broken and people were evacuated at no expense to them (before the special effects took place),” Warren said. “They were given dinner and free earplugs.”