Sleepless in Encino: Film Crews at Work

Two nights last week (Monday and Wednesday) many of us in the Encino area were the victims of complete thoughtlessness and lack of planning by a crew apparently filming in the Sepulveda Dam area. Each of these nights at about 11 p.m., I was awakened by a series of tremendous explosions accompanied by what sounded like automatic weapons fire. My first impression was terrorist activity or police and gang activity in our neighborhood. This went on for about two minutes. Monday night it was repeated at about 30 minutes after the first series of explosions. Wednesday night we got lucky. There was only one several-minute interruption to our sleep.

When I was a young man, I heard many similar noises in combat. This was expected. In today’s world, when we find ourselves constantly reminded of terrorism, it hardly seems appropriate for unannounced explosions to intentionally take place in the middle of the night near residential areas.

Why were the residents not informed beforehand? Why was the hour of 11 p.m. chosen for this activity? Many residents are asleep at this time, and it doesn’t require too much intelligence to realize that it is just as dark about 8:30 p.m. as it is at 11 (this time of year). Do the people who authorize the filming in residential or public areas ever consider the disruption caused by their activity? I feel strongly that they could not care less.

If these last few nights of film company activity are an indication of a complete lack of concern on the part of those who scheduled and authorized them, I would like to show my lack of concern for their activities and suggest maybe they return to the studios for future “shoot ‘em ups.”

Randall S. Kramer

Encino