LA residents frustrated by filming on city streets

LOS ANGELES (AP) When a blinding light awoke Jonathan Jerald at 3 a.m. in his downtown loft, he briefly thought he was being kidnapped by aliens.

``I was terrified for a second, and then, of course, I knew what it was,'' Jerald said.

The light was part of a film shoot one of thousands of commercials, television shows and movies filmed on city streets each year.

The film industry says such shoots are minor annoyances that bring big money and jobs to the region.

But in Los Angeles County, where 44,000 days worth of filming occurred last year, many residents have had enough.

They want the City Council to give neighborhoods more control over the way film shoots are conducted on their streets.

``I bought a house on a residential street,'' Van Nuys resident Joe Montoya told the City Council. ``I didn't buy on a back lot.''

The film industry is not taking the charge lightly. It has warned that if residents get to micromanage film permits, studios will take their productions and thousands of jobs elsewhere.

``Producers have a lot of choices these days...from as close as San Diego to as far away as Australia, Canada, Eastern Europe,'' said Melissa Patack, vice president of the Motion Picture Association of America.

Pamm Fair, deputy national executive director of the Screen Actors Guild, cautioned that many jobs are on the line.

After the film industry's warnings, the council recently shied away from Councilwoman Cindy Miscikowski's proposal to let neighborhood councils help draft new regulations for the agency that hands out the film permits.

The members instead asked an accounting firm to meet with residents to try to incorporate their suggestions without scaring away movie makers. The meetings were scheduled to begin this week.

But many residents wonder whether that will be enough.

Residents in neighborhoods across Los Angeles and surrounding unincorporated county areas say their sleep is interrupted by the bright Klieg lights, simulated gunfights and staged car crashes. They also complain that the crews take up valuable parking spaces.

Much of the solution lies with the embattle Entertainment Industry Development Corp., a nonprofit agency that facilitates film shoots in the area and provides the permits. Last fall the corporation came under attack after officials began investigating it for misuse of funds.

The agency is now being overhauled. But some residents say the investigation ignored the way the agency allowed producers to do whatever they want on residential streets.

Part of the problem is that permits are issued so quickly, residents say they don't have time to respond.

``We're not secret agents from Canada,'' said Jerald, who serves on the downtown neighborhood council. ``We don't want to get rid of production. We just want it to be reasonable.

(Copyright 2003 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)