County concerned over celluloid zeroes
By ROBERT FATURECHI Special to the Daily Press
A recent tailoring of filming regulations in this wealthy beachside community could leave a ripple effect, resulting in significant changes for filmmakers working in neighboring Santa Monica — a prime location for shooting TV shows and ads.
After a fierce drawn-out battle between filmmakers and residents fed up with sound disturbances, the Malibu City Council on Monday approved stricter guidelines on filming, stressing the need for neighborhood consent.
Though only time will tell what kind of impact — if any — the new Malibu rules will have on neighboring cities, the stricter guidelines have sparked much speculation for the future.
Steve MacDonald, president of the Entertainment Industry Development Corp., which manages the distribution of film permits in Los Angeles, said the Malibu ruling might have a “domino effect,” encouraging neighboring cities to adopt similar policies.
“Other cities might see this and think it’s a good idea and follow suit,” MacDonald said, adding that more stringent regulations could be especially troublesome now as several states — including New York and Louisiana — are using tax incentives to lure the film industry their way.
“Other states and other countries are opening up their doors, trying to make production easier,” MacDonald said.
Kathy Ruff, a permit specialist at the office of environment and public works management, which is in charge of distributing filming permits in Santa Monica, said she doesn’t expect the Malibu ruling to affect Santa Monica, as the city already has a set of regulations on daily and hourly limits. She added that there hasn’t been a problem with too much filming in any specific location, making limits on the number of days a filmmaker can stay at one location unnecessary.
Filmmakers in Malibu can only stay in one residential location for a maximum of 20 days, the last four of which must be approved unanimously by neighbors.
“(The locations of) our residential filming are really varied so I don’t see how (the Malibu ruling) will impact us,” Ruff said.
Regardless of the actions of neighboring cities, MacDonald anticipates that the new rules will have a widespread negative impact on the entire region, as many TV shows and feature films often film in multiple cities in any given area.
Following that logic, a blow to filming in Malibu could deflate the entire region, including Santa Monica.
“We don’t really know what’s going to happen, but it’s definitely not going to improve filming in the LA region in the minds of filmmakers,” MacDonald said.
Currently, filming regulations in Santa Monica are relatively lax. With the exception of some holidays, filming is allowed for any number of days at any given location from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m., according to the city’s Web site.
“We do not have anything in writing saying you can only be at a certain location for a certain number of days,” Ruff said.
“If someone said they wanted to film for a whole year, we wouldn’t say ‘no’, but we’d probably have them speaking to the neighborhood hoping everybody would be happy,” she added.
The most stringent filming rules in Santa Monica bear down on parking, as filmmakers are obligated to receive permission from the occupants of the homes and businesses they park in front of.
“We don’t have too much of a problem in residential areas, but when (we do) it’s usually the parking issues,” Ruff said.
Attaining a film permit in Santa Monica is a relatively easy task, as filmmakers are simply asked to fill out a form at the office of environmental and public works management — with fees ranging widely based on location, from $500 daily in residential areas to more than $1,000 a day at the beach.
Santa Monica issued about 600 filming permits last year, many of which were used by still photographers along the beach, Ruff said. Last year, City Hall enjoyed almost $360,000 in filming revenues, according to the Bayside District Corp. budget.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on July 15, 2005. Read the original PDF.