Malibu May Tell Filmmakers: Cut!

Is the movie colony no longer movie-friendly?

Filmmakers contend that movie production in Malibu could fade to black if strict new rules limiting movie-making go into effect in the 21-mile-long beach city.

The regulations, which the Malibu City Council will consider for final action Monday, would ban late-night and early-morning film shoots, prohibit the use of helicopters and limit the amount of time production companies could use a particular site to 16 days.

Industry officials contend that the rules are among the strictest they’ve seen and would prevent them from filming during the so-called “magic hour,” a prized period at dusk and dawn when the light is best.

The restrictions, they say, would also make it difficult to shoot lengthy features, not to mention the many reality shows such as “The Bachelor” that use Malibu’s ocean-side mansions as their backdrops.

“The paradox is that many Malibuites made their fortunes in film,” said Don Mann, who has been involved with location shoots for two dozen years. “Now they’re saying, ‘I made my money. You guys go do your [shooting] elsewhere.’ ”

Diana Klein, owner of a film location company that specializes in Malibu sites, also finds the proposed rules ironic.

“Half of the movie industry lives in Malibu,” she said. “I think the community should be more sensitive, since it makes its living that way. It’s almost a vendetta. It’s weird.”

City officials disagree with the grim predictions, saying the rules would still allow adequate time for filming while also offering protection to neighborhoods that sometimes seem to be overrun by production trucks and movie crews.

At a public meeting on the issue, Councilman Ken Kearsley recalled taking an angry call from a homeowner late one night. The resident held the phone toward her window, and Kearsley said he could hear singer Janet Jackson making a music video in the distance.

Malibu is the scene of about 700 shoots a year, said Kimberly Collins Nilsson, who issues film permits for the city.

It has been a backdrop for scores of movies and TV shows over the years, including the 1947 film noir classic “Out of the Past” as well as “MASH,” “Planet of the Apes,” “The Rockford Files,” “Terminator 2: Judgment Day” and “Baywatch.”

More recently, the town’s collection of opulent beach houses has become a favorite for reality TV producers as the setting for such shows as “Beach Party House” and “The Osbournes.”

To this point the city has allowed location filming after 10 p.m. -- and up to 20 days -- if producers persuade residents near a film site to sign a waiver saying it is OK with them.

Often, studios managed to get the necessary signatures by paying those neighbors who balked “inconvenience fees” totaling thousands of dollars.

Considering that the going rate for renting a Malibu home for a movie shoot is $10,000 a day, production companies call the amount spent paying off a complaining neighbor a minor cost of doing business.

But when one resident demanded that a neighbor chop down trees that interfered with her ocean view as a prerequisite for signing a waiver for filming on his property, the homeowner called that extortion.

He hired a lawyer who complained to the city that giving neighbors veto power over film shoots was unconstitutional.

The city responded by revising Malibu’s filming ordinance and eliminating the waiver provision entirely.

“We listened to their attorney. We don’t need another lawsuit. So we got rid of the signature thing,” said Mayor Andy Stern, a former entertainment lawyer who says his grandfather was a founder of Universal Studios.

Not all residents support the proposed restrictions.

Susan and Norman Nelson, who live on Bonsall Drive, one of Malibu’s most popular filming destinations, wrote the city urging maintenance of the status quo: “We feel that location filming in Malibu is a way of life that has been a tradition in our community.”

The Motion Picture Assn. of America pleaded in a letter late last month for what director James J. Fitzpatrick called “some flexibility in the filming process.”

He said Malibu residents working in motion pictures, television and commercials earned $99.2 million in 2002, the most recent year surveyed. Malibu businesses earned more than $2.6 million from location shoots.

Fitzpatrick complained that the proposed ordinance would make it significantly harder for production crews to do their jobs. It would prohibit the use of bullhorns, the covering of any traffic signs -- a common technique for camouflaging the true location of a film site -- and the parking of movie trucks within 25 feet of any driveway.

Mayor Stern said the city had long been discussing tougher filming rules. But it all came to a head over the tree-cutting issue.

Attorney Benjamin Reznik said the homeowner who demanded that his client’s tree be cut down in exchange for approving the production was holding everyone hostage.

“Asking to chop down trees in order to film was extortion,” he said.

Stern said the proposed nighttime filming restrictions are particularly important in Malibu, where beachfront homes are closely packed together.

“They didn’t like the fact that one neighbor could stop a film shoot after 10 p.m. But my neighbor’s door is seven feet from my bedroom window,” Stern said Friday. “When people want to film to midnight or 1 or 2 and the front door is seven feet away, that’s a problem. This is a residential area. One neighbor should have the right to do that if they’re affected.”

There is some dispute over how the rules would affect filming during the “magic hour” of dusk and dawn. Industry officials said shoots during those times would be impossible because it takes hours to set up and tear down each production scene.

City officials, however, believe that filmmakers could learn to adapt.

But Steve MacDonald, president of the Entertainment Industry Development Corp., which oversees film permits for the city and county of Los Angeles, said he worried that the tightened Malibu rules would have a negative effect over a wide area.

“Anytime any city or jurisdiction in the region makes it more difficult to film, it makes it harder for us all,” said MacDonald, whose organization issued about 9,000 permits resulting in 53,000 production days last year. “Other states and countries are working hard to lure filming there.”

Malibu resident Dr. Samuel A. Seelig is among those who feel that filming is part of the community’s allure and should be encouraged, not restricted.

Wrote Seelig to the city: “The mystique of Malibu was in large part created and perpetuated by the very industry we are now attempting to inconvenience and essentially drive from our community.”