Community leaders representing 57 Neighborhood Councils met with Public Works Commission President Kevin James and FilmLA President Paul Aubrey in LA’s first Neighborhood Council Film Liaison Town Hall.
The evening began with welcoming remarks from Commissioner Eli Lipmen and Grayce Liu, General Manager of the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment, both who highlighted the significance of so many Neighborhood Council volunteers coming together to improve the quality of life in our communities.
James opened with an overview of Mayoral Directive #6 which establishes the city’s commitment to supporting the film industry, establishing positive relationships, and creating opportunities for communication.
Aubrey initiated a community dialogue, giving an overview of FilmLA and how it strives to coordinate location filming for the City of LA, support the Industry with location support, and serve the communities of LA to create win-win partnerships.
To view the slide deck, click here.
Joining James and Aubrey were Production Manager Richard Prince and Location Manager Duffy Taylor who shared “how things work” from their perspective and offered some best practices on how they work with communities during location filming.
James and Aubrey both laid down the significant economic impact of location filming in LA, including this factoid; for every Starbucks in the City of LA, there are three film industry related businesses.
Prince and Taylor took the dialogue from big-picture to hyper-local, providing personal anecdotes of the positive impact of location filming on them, their families, and their neighborhoods. This point was driven home during introductions when several location managers introduced themselves by the neighborhood they lived in, ranging from Studio City to Silver Lake to Mar Vista.
Aubrey brought several members of his team, including FilmLA’s Community Outreach Liaisons, Arturo Pina and Guy Langman, who shared FilmLA’s strategies and commotion to ensuring that neighborhoods are well represented. Both Arturo and Guy offered examples of community partnerships and production solutions that support filming and serve neighborhoods.
Representing Neighborhood Councils was Linda Alexander, past-President of the Central San Pedro Neighborhood Council, past-FilmLA Board Member, and as the Film Liaison for the San Pedro Chamber of Commerce for the last several years. Alexander stressed the importance of communication and education.
Council District 3’s Michael Owens wrapped the dialogue with a success story that started with a tour of his district for location managers that resulted in “a double digit increase in location funding.”
Each of LA’s 96 Neighborhood Councils can designate one Film Liaison who can be a Board Member or a stakeholder. The President can appoint it the Board can select the Film Liaison. Some councils have more than one liaison but there must be a lead who is the single point of contact for FilmLA.
The Mayor’s Executive Directive #6 calls on the City of LA to support the Film Industry and it is in that spirit that the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment is organizing the Neighborhood Council Film Liaison Town Hall with the following desired outcomes.
FilmL.A. is a 501(c)4 not-for-profit public benefit organization and the official film office of the City of Los Angeles, providing streamlined permit processing and production planning services to filmmakers and comprehensive community relations, marketing services, film policy analysis and more to local governments, FilmL.A. works to attract and retain film production in Greater Los Angeles.
LA is both the Film capital of the world and the civic engagement capital of the world, and the continued partnership between Neighborhood Councils and the Industry will be a force to reckon with!
For more information on the Neighborhood Council Film Liaison Town Hall, email Stephen Box at Stephen.Box@LACity.org or call 213-978-1551.
