Hollywood by the Sea

Residents complained about filming in Oxnard, officials limited hours for shooting in Thousand Oaks, and Santa Paula imposed a temporary ban.

But a Long Beach neighborhood, down on its luck, rolled out a welcome mat for a production featuring building-rattling explosions, crackling gunfire and half a dozen cars burning simultaneously on a downtown street.

Merchants and residents have embraced the Warner Bros. crew filming the opening scene from “Lethal Weapon 4.” For days now, the magic of Hollywood has been infusing Tinseltown excitement into the economically depressed neighborhood, where some buildings date back to the first half of the century and some hotel rooms still go for $25 a night.

Along with the gunplay and explosions, there have been fire and rain in biblical proportions, speeding trucks and blown-out plate glass windows.

Spotlights have suddenly transformed aging buildings into fabulous-looking landmarks. City streets have been made shiny and bright by the constant spray of water trucks.

“That’s right, get up all that gum, wash away those cigarette butts,” said store owner Steve Fazekas. He was cheering on a movie crew member using a high-pressure hose to wash down the street outside the little tchotchke shop, The Gift Box, he runs with his wife, Eve, at Broadway and Linden Avenue. Before long, the block was sparkling.

“This street has never looked better,” he said.

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Some California communities would just as soon do without the improvements. In Ventura County, Santa Paula last year imposed a temporary ban on filming after merchants objected to the disruption it caused their businesses.

Three months ago in Oxnard, residents complained at a City Council hearing about increased traffic, noise and bright lights accompanying the shooting of “Melrose Place.”

And Thousand Oaks adopted a new ordinance, in the wake of residents’ protests, that restricts the hours of filming, sets higher fees and limits parking on residential streets by production crews.

Some residents of Hermosa Beach complained in 1993 about the filming of “Beverly Hills 90210,” and a court ordered the show to stop shooting there.

But Long Beach city fathers know that where movie cameras go, big money is sure to follow. And “Lethal Weapon 4” is leaving behind lots of friends and a trail of dollars.

In 1996, Warner Bros. alone spent $8.5 million in Long Beach. The city could not supply totals for all production companies that year, but the figure would be much higher, because many firms besides Warner shot footage there.

The crew’s street cleaning was only one fringe benefit for Fazekas and other downtown merchants during five days of filming for “Lethal Weapon 4.”

With about 200 technical workers, and scores of actors, extras and support crew members working on the set, downtown hotel rooms have been rented out in big blocks; restaurants and coffee shops are bustling; and retailers have new customers to pick up the normally slow post-Christmas period.

On top of that, Warner Bros. is paying local retailers and merchants from $500 to more than $1,500 for inconveniences caused by filming. Because of falling debris, broken glass, ash and other risks, the studio has also insured businesses for blocks around against damages.

There is a club for members of Alcoholics Anonymous and other 12-step programs in one of the buildings on 1st Street that figured in the film’s fire sequences.

In addition to giving the club $1,500 to vacate the structure every evening, Warner Bros. secured the group a room in the nearby Westin Hotel for AA and other meetings.

The production crew moved through the downtown neighborhood twice, beginning in early December, distributing 3,000 door hangers containing a shooting schedule. The cards also told residents and merchants what to expect and invited them to call special numbers if there were problems.

Tracy Rogers, 36, who works for a medical supplies firm, lives in an apartment on 1st Street. He was concerned about losing sleep after the movie company warned him of incendiary devices’ possible dangers.

“They said, ‘Try and find another place to stay, and if you can’t, we’ll put you up,’ ” Rogers said. So the studio gave him a room for a week at the Inn of Long Beach, a downtown motel. “They want everybody to be satisfied.”

Bhupal “Babu” Barua, operator of the motel, said Warner Bros. guaranteed filling 20 rooms a night but probably would need as many as 40. “They’ve been very good for business,” said Barua, whose motel is two blocks from the shooting site.

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Not everyone was as pleased. Karl Doetsch, 40, in a group watching the filming from behind barriers placed in the street Monday night, said the movie lights were keeping him awake.

“I had to tape aluminum foil to my windows,” he said.

But such objections have been relatively rare.

“Complaints are inevitable with something like this, but we get surprisingly few,” said Jo Ann Burns, the city official who coordinates filming in Long Beach.

Because it has aggressively pursued film production, the city has appeared in numerous movies, though it is not always recognizable.

The restaurant scene in the current Jack Nicholson hit, “As Good as It Gets,” was filmed in an Alamitos Bay area eatery--not in Baltimore as the movie suggests.

The slave vessel Amistad in the Steven Spielberg movie of that name was actually the tall ship Californian, which docks in Long Beach and was painted black for scenes shot off the coast. When Michael Jordan played baseball in Warner Bros.’ “Space Jam,” the “game” was at the city’s Blair Field.

“Speed” used Long Beach’s Ocean Boulevard and freeway look-alike Shoreline Drive. The closing speedboat crash scene in “Face/Off” was filmed in San Pedro Bay. The parking lot scene in “Thelma and Louise” was shot outside a South Street bar. And an elaborate carnival and Ferris wheel set was recently built in the port of Long Beach, then ignited for the yet-to-be-released film “Mighty Joe Young.”

Two other major Warner Bros. movies, “Batman and Robin” and “Batman Forever,” were filmed on a sound stage in the old Spruce Goose dome, where the studio has a long-term rent agreement.

“We have a long history of being a partner with Long Beach,” said Michael Walbrecht, director of studio and production affairs for Warner Bros. “It’s been a fabulous relationship.”

This week, Warner Bros. turned several blocks near 1st and Elm streets into a movie set. Filmmakers took existing buildings and created phony facades so they could be ignited during filming. A Union 76 station was built to perfect scale. A gleaming stainless steel tanker has been parked out front all week. It will be blown 30 feet in the air sometime after dark Thursday.

As Steve Fazekas watched the beginning of the chase scene being put together outside his gift shop, the longtime movie buff couldn’t believe his good luck. Raised in the San Fernando Valley, he said he had spent endless hours standing behind barricades watching movies and television shows being filmed. But most of the time, he said, he rarely got a glimpse of big stars.

Now, here he was, looking through a crystal-clear picture window from his second-floor shop as Mel Gibson and Danny Glover got ready for the car scenes on a dry, moonlit street.

“This is unbelievable,” Fazekas yelled at one point, unable to contain his excitement as he watched flames dance up the side of a car carrying the two actors while simulated rain was showered on the vehicle.

“Fire and rain,” the merchant said. “This is cool. This is amazing. This is what it’s all about.”