Scam of Disrupting Movie Sets Is on Rise : Hollywood: Production companies say they are forced to make payoffs to silence noisy people or get them out of a shot. Legislation introduced to battle trend.

Scene 1, Take 1: A radiant young actress bounds up the church steps. Strains of organ music fill the air. Suddenly, amid “Here Comes the Bride,” a bystander blows a foghorn. “Woooo-oooo gh !”

Cut!

The director tries the shot again. Once more, the foghorn blares. The disruption continues until a $200 payment is arranged for the horn’s “rental.” Finally, silence descends on the location. But by then the light has changed. The bride has lost her glow. And overtime costs have accrued.

Scenes such as this are growing more common in California, film industry representatives say, as an increasing number of opportunists prey on on-location film crews with a harass-for-cash extortion scheme.

In a random survey of production personnel, the California Film Commission documented scores of cases in which residents, merchants, gardeners or others held film crews hostage by disrupting work until a wallet cracked open.

So widespread is the problem that the highest levels of state government have stepped in to find a solution, fearing economic loss for California as production companies get fed up and relocate out of state.

State Sen. Herschel Rosenthal (D-Van Nuys) is carrying legislation to allow off-duty officers to ticket nuisance-mongers and take them to court. His bill has the backing of Gov. Pete Wilson, the state Trade and Commerce Agency and the film commission.

“It’s blackmail,” said Rosenthal, who sits on the film commission as an appointee of the Senate. “When I heard about it, I thought maybe this is something that is happening only occasionally. But it’s quite amazing. All over the place, people are blatantly saying, ‘I won’t sound my horn or blink these lights if you pay me $500.’ ”

Most incidents have occurred in Southern California, where film crews and their sprawling equipment are sometimes regarded as a disruption to neighborhood life. But the scam has also surfaced in San Francisco, Santa Rosa, San Luis Obispo and elsewhere across the state.

“There are grumpy people out there who do this out of sheer greediness,” said Patti Stolkin Archuletta, film commission director. “These aren’t thugs or criminals, just people who have this idea that the film industry is a cash cow with deep pockets.”

For a solid grasp of the problem, the commission mailed confidential surveys to 572 television and movie producers, location managers and others. One-fifth of the surveys were returned, with half the respondents reporting they had been victims of intentional disruption. A sampling of the responses offers a glimpse:

* “In one incident in Culver City, someone actually resorted to throwing things at the crew. This individual was compensated for the disruption. After filming was in process, he decided the compensation was not enough and decided to throw empty cans.”

* “Santa Monica homeowner persistently used a foghorn until we paid him $200 to ‘rent’ his foghorn and eliminate the noise.”

* “Chinatown L.A. merchants stood in the shot. Resolved when production company paid merchants for their cooperation.”

In California, film production amounts to an annual $16.3-billion industry, with about half that sum spent on payroll, according to commission figures.

Industry personnel noted that, in the field, time is money and delays due to disruption prove costly. Some said the incidents left them exasperated enough to consider moving their operations to out-of-state communities that welcome the attention and revenue that filming brings.