In October 2009, the Los Angeles City Council passed a series of nineteen recommendations designed to make the City more film-friendly. One of the recommendations was to have each council office designate a film liaison to be that office’s point person on film issues. On June 24th, FilmL.A. hosted a day-long training session that provided these liaisons an in-depth look into the City’s and FilmL.A.’s processes.
FilmL.A. executive staff and department managers provided information on the activities of their respective departments — covering topics such as production planning, filming in schools, community filming surveys, Special Conditions, community relations and complaint tracking, and the reconciliation of invoicing by City departments.
Lieutenant Ray Garvin was on hand to present an overview of the Los Angeles Police Department’s Contract Services Section Film Unit along with Officer Susan Nelson. Lt. Garvin discussed his department’s role as the City’s permit authority to review and enforce permit conditions as well as crack down on guerilla (unpermitted) filmmaking and willful disruption of permitted film shoots by community members.
“I really enjoyed hearing about the various processes within FilmL.A., especially those that we in council offices normally don’t see, like the accounting group. It was pretty mind-boggling and really shed a lot of light on the extent of the services that FilmL.A. provides,” said Hannah Lee of ouncil district twelve.