David Ramser of The Artists Company is best known as a comedy director. But in-between those humorous ad jobs, he has donned a reporter’s hat, turning out mini-documentaries which he directs, shoots and edits. We thought it appropriate in the context of our Directors Issue to focus on one helmer’s personal filmmaking pursuits during his spare time.
“There’s an old saying, ‘Dying is easy. Comedy is hard,'” related Ramser. “So for fun, I wanted to take on other kinds of projects that directly affect me, that have been brought to my attention by some relationship to the subject matter. For me, this is fun. This wasn’t a directorial decision so that I could skip out on comedy and get more work of a different sort. I love comedy–that’s what I do professionally. But I wanted some passion projects to express myself in other ways, to explore interesting things I care about or that just strike my imagination.”
One passion project in particular, The Foreclosure of Cristina Ramos, has struck a responsive chord upon being covered in The Huffington Post, putting a human face on the housing meltdown as Ramser interviewed Ramos, a housekeeper whom the director has employed twice a week for the past 15 years. She and her husband bought their South Los Angeles home six years ago with $15,000 down on a $425,000 sales price. The home’s value has plummeted to $170,000. Refinancing and loan modifications have been denied. And auction dates have been set for the house only to thus far be postponed.
Ramos explains she isn’t angry, just sad and depressed. She said the realtor wasn’t forthright, telling them they were qualified for home ownership with “no problem” and that their monthly mortgage payment would remain stable. Instead, the variable rate shot the mortgage from the former Countrywide up from $2,300 to $3,000. Ramser’s seven-and-a-half minute documentary notes that from 2007-’10, nearly half of all foreclosures involved Hispanic borrowers. (Bank of America, which has since bought Countrywide, paid $335 million to settle allegations that its Countrywide unit discriminated against African-American and Hispanic borrowers during the housing boom.)
“I just tried to show how a person and her family have been impacted. I wasn’t looking to take sides in a fight or make a political statement,” said Ramser who noted that online feedback for the most part has been either empathetic or derisive. In today’s polarized era, Ramser observed that he wished more moderate people were vocal.
Still, the film serves as food for thought. Conversely another mini-documentary from Ramser, Bug Nation, serves as thought for food, profiling Mathew Krisiloff, a college student who teamed with others to form Entom Foods, short for entomophagy, which is the eating of insect meat. Introducing bugs to American cuisine, Krisiloff contends, is healthy, good for the environment, economical and believe it or not, tasty.
As for what’s next, Ramser plans to do a follow-up piece on Ramos. And at press time, the director was headed to Watts to explore the Urban Compass program which helps provide elementary school kids with productive activities during the vulnerable 3-6 p.m. daypart so that they will be more inclined to continue their education and not get detoured into gangs or drugs.
L.A. Location Lensing Declines In 2024 Despite Uptick In 4th Quarter
FilmLA, partner film office for the City and County of Los Angeles and other local jurisdictions, has issued an update regarding regional filming activity. Overall production in Greater Los Angeles increased 6.2 percent from October through December 2024 to 5,860 Shoot Days (SD) according to FilmLA’s latest report. Most production types tracked by FilmLA achieved gains in the fourth quarter, except for reality TV, which instead logged its ninth consecutive quarter of year-over-year decline.
The lift across all remaining categories came too late to rescue 2024 from the combined effects of runaway production, industry contraction and slower-than-hoped-for post- strike recovery. With just 23,480 SD filmed on-location in L.A. in 2024, overall annual production finished the year 5.6 percent below the prior year. That made 2024 the second least productive year observed by FilmLA; only 2020, disrupted by the global COVID-19 pandemic, saw lower levels of filming in area communities.
The continuing decline of reality TV production in Los Angeles was among the most disappointing developments of 2024. Down 45.7 percent for the fourth quarter (to 774 SD), the category also finished the year down 45.9 percent (to 3,905 SD), which placed
it 43.1 percent below its five-year category average.
The two brightest spots in FilmLA’s latest report appeared in the feature film and television drama categories. Feature film production increased 82.4 percent in the fourth quarter to 589 SD, a gain analysts attribute to independent film activity. The
California Film & Television Tax Credit Program also played a part, driving 19.2 percent of quarterly category activity. Overall, annual Feature production was up 18.8 percent in 2024, though the... Read More