On any given day of the week in Los Angeles, some structure — be it a home, office building or public school — is donning a disguise and going incognito courtesy of local filmmakers. This is “prep” and it’s a time of transformation, when real-life locations become storyboard stand-ins. If you live in the greater Los Angeles area, you’ve seen … Read More
FilmL.A. Staff Patently Inventive
For some, the term “inventor” conjures a mental image of a nutty professor similar to Doc Brown from Back to the Future. FilmL.A.’s inventive staff members — none of whom have wild gray hair or resemble Doc Brown in the slightest — recently created and launched OPS, our Online Permit System, for which a patent application is on file with … Read More
FilmL.A. Upgrades Service to Student Filmmakers
In an effort to better support the filmmakers of the future, FilmL.A. recently unveiled two improvements to its permit process for student filming. The first adjustment involved the creation of a web-based Student Permit Process Guide, a seven-step walkthrough of the film permit process. Students can now access answers to their most frequently-asked questions about the permit process, and do … Read More
FilmL.A. Production Coordinators Set Sights on Film Sites
The March 2008 debut of FilmL.A.’s web-based Online Permit System (OPS), and its subsequent introduction to filmmakers last September, is helping us improve our service to industry customers and area communities. Specifically, the streamlined OPS permit process has enabled us to increase the number of film site visits conducted by FilmL.A. staff. Every week, one of our eight production coordinators … Read More
Preventing Problems Through Production Planning
If you’re working on a feature film, television show or commercial, how do you measure on-the-job frustration? Do you measure it in hours wasted scouting locations that can’t be filmed, either because of conflicts with other productions or area filming restrictions? Or, do you measure it in earfuls of grief from community members or your producer, because the activities you meticulously planned … Read More