Local Film Production Is Still Up And Neighbors Are 'Very, Very Angry'

Tinseltown professionals may be thrilled that filming is finally up in L.A., but the neighbors aren't quite so pleased.An updated state tax credit incentive program that went into effect last summer has led to a surge in L.A. film production, and NBC reports that there has been a corresponding spike in complaints from residents pissed off about the film crews invading their once quiet streets.

The station analyzed data from Film LA—the nonprofit responsible for supervising production and coordinating permits, as well as handling neighborhood complaints—and found a total of 2929 complaints were filed in 2015. Many residents were angry about the frequency of filming, the late hours, notification concerns, loss of business and traffic congestion. There were also over a hundred complaints filed in regards to both safety concerns and poor crew conduct, respectively.

The spike in complaints was first noted back in November 2015, when Film L.A. released their complaint totals for the 2015 fiscal year (which begins October 1) which showed a 20 percent increase in complaints filed compared to 2013.

A former entertainment industry professional who also happens to own a home on a particularly photogenic Encino street told NBC that he although he supports the revival of hometown filming, he wishes it wasn't happening so often outside his home: "We recently had three shoots in three weeks!" Marc Gerber said. "It's not a house, it's a soundstage for rent."

L.A. City Council District 5, which includes Encino, along with Bel Air and much of the Westside, housed 364 complaints, but the dubious honor of most-complained-from district goes to District 4, which generated nearly 500 complaints. And yes, District 4 includes Hollywood (along with the Hollywood Hills, Larchmont Village, Windsor Square, Miracle Mile, Toluca Lake, Sherman Oaks, Los Feliz, Silver Lake, and Hancock Park).

Residents of L.A.'s tony Hancock Park neighborhood are so pissed about the frequent filming that their homeowner's association has its very own "film liaison."

"Some people are very, very angry," she told NBC. The only thing scarier than an angry homeowner's association is an organized angry homeowner's association.

Some people are also very, very happy. "From the downtown Los Angeles Arts District to Long Beach, film production is booming and the large and small businesses that benefit from the industry are feeling the benefits, providing hundreds of thousands of jobs, directly and indirectly," Supervisor Don Knabe said in a press release earlier this year.

Or, as one of our friends in the industry told us, "You just can't imagine the luxury one now feels, to roll out of your own bed and go to work instead of living in a hotel in some far away rebate city."