Film Shoots on City Streets

Re “Incessant Film Shoots Leave Residents Reeling,” June 16: Some time ago, when I lived in Studio City, a church across the street from the apartment building my roommates and I lived in would be the scene of film shoots almost on a weekly basis. No notice was provided, parking disappeared and studio crews were as rude as overworked postal employees.

After numerous attempts to secure parking and other amenities most people take for granted, my four roommates and I each purchased hand-held air horns. When we would leave our apartment, or come home after a hard day’s work, we would give the film crew a nice little toot from our air horn just to show how much we appreciated their presence in our neighborhood.

Perhaps if every film shoot was greeted by neighborhood residents this way, entertainment companies would find places where people don’t come home from work or school to conduct their business. Further, I’m willing to bet the cost of a film shoot that they’re never held on the street where the producers or actors reside.

Andrew Johannsen

San Gabriel

*

Thanks for your article. After I was informed by my city councilman’s office and the Los Angeles Police Department that Fox Studios was behind the re-striping and addition of another traffic lane in front of my house, I realized that the studios own Los Angeles, not the residents. Far from just being an annoyance, Fox has created a dangerous and deadly situation on my street. I am certain that the city benefited monetarily from allowing Fox to redesign my street markings, but what about the residents? All we are left with is a smash-up reality show visible from our living-room windows.

Deborah Larcom

Los Angeles

*

The “industry” is always threatening to leave L.A. if it doesn’t get its way. I say, good riddance. Sure, many high-paying (or, more aptly, overpaying) jobs will leave town. Great! That is certain to make housing more affordable.

Robert Constant

Venice

*

Councilwoman Cindy Miscikowski’s idea of neighborhood film commissions reeks of lunacy. My wife and I bought a house in the Midvale Estates area of Van Nuys with full knowledge that some of the streets were consistently used for filming of feature films and commercials. I have never found any of the production companies to be abusive, and if I had a question, either the location manager or the Entertainment Industry Development Corp. was able to give me an answer.

As for the majority of complaints, they seem to come from people whose piece of real estate is never chosen and feel left out of the rental fees some get. My house does not get rented; it just does not fit a need. However, I am glad for those who do get their house rented for a production.

Now that Gov. Gray Davis has chased most of the work out of California, Miscikowski can finish the film industry off and chase it out of Los Angeles along with all the jobs and the important tax dollars that the poor depend on to help them get along. I work in the film industry, and I’m sure that Miscikowski would be more than willing to pay my mortgage and health insurance, along with that of others who work in the film industry and are losing their incomes and jobs to such ideas as neighborhood film commissions.

Thomas Roy Bender

Van Nuys

*

I’ve worked in downtown Los Angeles on and off for more than 25 years and have lived in the San Fernando Valley for more than 20 years and have been inconvenienced by dozens of film shoots in that time -- one recently, only three houses away from me. Lindsley Parsons Jr., interim director of the EIDC, says in the article, “The picture business is on wheels. We’d be in San Diego or Phoenix in the morning, depending on the weather.” I say don’t let the doorknob hit you on the way out.

As an African American man, I find it difficult to sympathize with an industry of high-paying union jobs with great benefits doled out by white males to other white males. In all my years of watching them film, I’ve seen maybe three blacks and a few Asians and have never seen a Latino unless he was working as a security guard or serving food. Until the crews filming on our streets truly represent the makeup of our city’s population, maybe San Diego or Phoenix would be a better place for them to film. Quite frankly, I’ve had enough of the blatant racism.

Volney E. Hyde

Van Nuys