What it Will Really Take to Have Indie Films Stay in LA (part 1)
The issue no one really seems to be talking about...
Hello film folks!
I’ve been living in LA for a long time now, and I’ve shot 6 feature films, dozens of music videos and other projects in this beautiful city that I call home.
However, like many others, most of my work in the last several years has been out of state or out of the US entirely,
LOTS has been written about the decline of filming in LA, the shift to filming in other locations, the newly expanded California tax incentive meant to bring production back and other efforts to make it easier and less expensive to film here.
The #StayinLA movement is growing and has had some legit wins in the last few weeks!
I’m going to assume if this is something of interest to you, you are likely hyper aware of these things (or can click the links above for a crash course).
So I’m focusing instead on:
The way filming in LA is challenging that no one seems to be really acknowledging
How the California tax incentive can actually be better for indie film by focusing instead on big budget films and primarily on TV series (it will make sense, I promise!)
{Super Mario voice} Here we go!!!
1. What No One is Talking About
It’s simple - the people who live and work in LA, including those in the TV / Film industry, REALLY don’t like filming in their neighborhoods!
Most of the indie films I’ve done in LA have filmed on location, which means we’re in real homes, real businesses and other public places. Again, a lot has been written about the ever-increasing costs and challenges working with FilmLA (who recently renewed a 5 year contract with the City of Los Angeles despite many in the industry hoping to replace or reform them).
In order to film on location in LA, you not only need to pay the $931 permit fee, but there are many additional costs that revolve around lessening the impact to the people who live near the filming.
Which sounds reasonable, of course.
Productions have to pay FilmLA a fee to post notifications on neighboring homes and businesses, often have to survey the neighbors (who have to essentially ‘sign-off’ of the filming), hire high-cost police and fire safety officers, and pay other fees that really add up.
It’s not just those fees, each day requires hiring a parking lot to park and shuttle crew from (no parking is allowed in or near the neighborhood we’re filming in), and the parking lots can really gouge productions. If you’re renting a parking lot for a birthday party, it may cost you $500. If they know it’s for a film shoot, the same lot could easily be 5 or 10 times more.
Everyone has their hand out.
Neighboring business owners notified by the permit office will try to get payouts from the production that they’re not entitled to and may cause (or threaten to cause) disruptions if they don’t receive them.
Neighboring residents will also call the production and try to get payouts, and if they don’t receive one they will call the police and complain! Production contact info is printed on the notifications they receive on their doors ahead of filming and they’re certainly not afraid to use it.
Really predatory stuff happens here, and the production has to decide between trying to placate these businesses or individuals, usually with money we really don’t have, or just roll the dice and hope things don’t escalate and cause the production to shut down. It adds a lot of additional, unnecessary stress and uncertainty. One time, while filming in a commercial space we had rented and permitted from a company whose sole business was renting out this space for shoots, the building owner caught wind of our production and thought they smelled blood in the water.
They were very threatening on the phone call.
We had to make a choice of paying an additional fee of thousands of dollars to the building owner, or risk them following through on their threats to block our entry and have the police show up to shut us down. Our location agreement with the vendor who rented us the space stated that they had the right to rent to us for our shoot, but they were no help and we were simply shaken down. We were set to shoot a very delicate scene the following day and we couldn’t afford to lose a day of filming and / or find a new location, so we reluctantly paid the extortion.
It hurt our production and hurt my heart.
Many of those who complain or try to shake down the production work in the TV and Film industry themselves!
I’ve had Oscar winners who lived near our shoot try to shut us down when we were doing everything completely by the book, simply because they thought we may possibly be an inconvenience for them (we were not). I’ve had people steal our temporary “no parking” signs and cones that we needed to be able to park a tech truck outside of a location to load in gear. I’ve had other homeowners who work in film crews try to shake us down or call FilmLA to complain and make up stories about what we were doing and try to shut us down. How do I know they were film workers? Because they identified themselves as such, thinking it would be helpful somehow to their case?
It really feels like the opposite of what we should be doing as a filmmaking community.
Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE filming in LA, and there have been many wonderful businesses and neighbors who have gone out of their way to be helpful and kind to our productions, but the general sentiment amongst Angelenos around filming seems to be a combination of annoyance and greed.
I get it to a degree, filming near your home or business can be a headache. However, until this NIMBY attitude changes, it’s always going to be a bigger headache for productions to risk making indie films on location in LA, and much easier to film elsewhere where the residents actually like seeing film crews in public view.
On the films I’ve made outside of LA, we’ve been treated so vastly differently. I know I’m just speaking of my experiences, but I honestly didn’t realize how challenging it was dealing with the residents and businesses of LA until I made films outside of it.
Somehow we have to get public opinion on our side! The message has to be that some slight inconveniences to the public are worth having this industry remain firmly headquartered in our city. Ideally, I would love for Angelenos to see production trucks and feel happy that their fellow citizens are working and the industry is surviving here, but I’d settle with them not trying to interfere or extort us. I think that’s a pretty low, but achievable bar to set?
Also, FilmLA and the City of Los Angeles have to really prioritize keeping film jobs in town over every minor inconvenience there may possibly be to the public - or at least things have to be more balanced.
I’m not sure the easiest way to do all this, but I’m open to suggestions!
For some actual positivity, tune into Part 2, coming soon!
In the meantime, I’m borrowing the “Playing me off” segment from
’s essential Wakeup Newsletter for The Ankler to share this classic Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers video, which was filmed in glorious early-90s Hollywood 🤘
I've never shot a production in LA, but I've heard tales of neighborhood people who essentially own leaf blowers for the sole purpose of dragging them out and firing them up when a film crew is nearby, so that a PA with petty cash will run over and give them a couple hundred dollars to shut it down.