Entries tagged 'filming'

i complained about the site for collecting special conditions feedback, but here is some more specific suggestions on how to fix it:

• make it clear who will be reading the comments, and how they will be used. possible wording: “These comments from the public will be read by Russell Brown, president of DLANC, and Bert Green, co-chair of the DLANC ad-hoc filming committee, and compiled into a report to accompany the special conditions when they are sent to the Los Angeles City Council.”
• remove the restriction on identifying information. just get rid of that paragraph. i understand 100% why it is there. it is wrong. the path to hell is paved with good intentions.
• change "To Post a comment" to "To send a comment".

things i am not suggesting:

• making the comments public.

to be clear, i support the special conditions. my concern is that we remove any appearance of impropriety in how comments from the public are collected. it will be far too easy for opponents of the special conditions to dismiss them if there is the hint of an appearance that dissenting opinion is being discouraged or worse.

the draft special conditions for downtown filming have been made available for public comment, but i have to say i am tremendously disappointed about the method in which comments are being collected. the site says:

Comments must include the commenter’s full name and phone number for verification purposes. Multiple comments may be made by the same person or organization. Comments that do not contain verifiable contact information will not be recorded.

there is a long and rather proud tradition of anonymous or pseudonymous political speech in the united states (like the federalist papers), and this is very contrary to that.

it also totally fails to say who will be doing the verification of this contact information, or how the contact information may be published along with the comments in the future.

the way this is structured, a cut-and-paste feedback operation like the parents television council would be given more weight than cogent feedback from someone with good points to make but reasons for staying anonymous.

for example, let us assume that bert green or russell brown are reviewing these comments. now what if you are an artist who hopes to one day be represented by bert and his gallery (or his many friends in the downtown gallery community) — would you be comfortable sending comments that are critical of the conditions that bert has been so instrumental in drafting? what if you were someone looking for help in starting a new business from the historic core downtown business improvement district?

the public comments should speak for themselves. identifying yourself is simply part of the speech, it should not be a prerequisite for speaking at all.

it’s just the day for disrespectful film crews in our neighborhood. here’s the spring street side of the alexandria hotel, all lit up after 10pm for a shoot happening in one of the ballrooms.

i called the after-hours hotline at filmla to confirm the shoot information. valerie, the on-call person, didn’t have information about the shoot at hand, and took my phone number to call me back after she called the on-site representative. she didn’t have the shoot on her list of productions, because it was a two-day shoot starting yesterday. she went home to look up the information, but never called me back. they shut off the lights at 11:53pm.

based on the filming notification i could dig up, i think this was “off!” being produced by go films, inc. the permit number was F-204466. the location manager was adam baxter, 213-925-9050. the notification was for 7am-10pm.

since this isn’t shining directly into my building, i’m more just offended by the principle here. why issue film permits if they don’t mean anything? why have rules for downtown-area filming if they’re just ignored? why have an on-site film monitor if they don’t do anything when the permit is violated?

this video shoot set up in the parking lot behind our building and started making use of their smoke machine, which naturally blew up into our windows.

celia went down to have words with them, and finally got their useless filmla rep, who had never heard of the new downtown filming rules. (the notifications for today’s 6am start time went out last night, and those said it was “pending community survey”?)

i called filmla while celia was down getting the run-around from the production, and they didn’t answer their phone.

the smoke has done wonders for my cough.

the production was called “natasha”, the production company was crossroads films, and their film permit was F-205458. the location manager, who refused to talk to celia, was bruce boehner, 213-925-5379.