During a specially scheduled session of the New York City Council last month, several Council members expressed concerns about industry shoots causing significant disruptions in local neighborhoods. Looking to have such complaints addressed, the Council’s Committee on Parks, Recreation, Cultural Affairs and Intergroup Relations called on a contingent from the Mayor’s Office of Film, Theatre and Broadcasting (MOFTB) to offer its perspective on the situation.
On hand at the Council oversight meeting were MOFTB commissioner Patricia Reed Scott, deputy commissioner Jane Brawley and director of production Dean McCann. City Council members questioned commissioner Scott about several issues. But most of the discussion revolved around complaints that local communities have not received advance notification of shoots in a timely fashion. City Council members cited instances in which constituents have been unable to gain access to their homes and their cars. Residents object to the noise levels, the nighttime shoots and the unhelpful attitude of some crew members.
The MOFTB’s policy is to notify Council members, local resident community boards and neighborhood residents when the agency decides that the shoot is big enough to potentially disrupt the community. According to the agency’s guidelines, production companies are required to post notice "no later than 5 p.m. at least two business days before filming commences." This applies to "any shoot of more than one day involving a feature film, [TV] film/television series, movie, miniseries, or large scale commercial or music video with major exteriors and large cast or crew." In these cases, the MOFTB faxes a copy of the permit, which contains relevant details about the time, place and expected duration of the shoot, to the local City Council member and community board.
However, the onus for notification is really on the production company. MOFTB director of press and new media Julianne Cho explained to SHOOT that the MOFTB’s supplementary faxes are "a courtesy provided by the Mayor’s Office."
It is not clear whether local residents and the MOFTB agree on what constitutes a shoot large enough to inconvenience a community, but according to Cho, "We’ve faxed copies of over 2,000 permits to community boards and local Council members in the last three months."
She added that community boards have been receiving these faxes for the past two years, and that production companies have always provided advance notification.
Cho said that large or extended shoots (like the 1998 movie Godzilla) often have pre-production meetings several weeks prior to the shoot and, in that case, "We will give notification to the community boards and Council member for that district one to six weeks in advance. But for the most part, we do supplementary notification one to three days in advance."
Cho declared, "If what the City Council is asking for is the enforcement of notification, then our response is that we are already providing notification on three separate levels [the MOFTB faxes to the community board and the Council member, and the production house posting] to when there is a production that will significantly impact that area."
There are no hard and fast rules for determining what qualifies as "significant impact," Cho explained. "We review it on a case-by-case basis because every production is different." She mentioned that the MOFTB considers such variables as the number of vehicles, sets and employees. "Any combination of those factors will result in notification."
But Councilwoman Margarita Lopez, of District Two in Manhattan, claimed that notification often does not reach her or her constituents: "We are not being informed," she said. "If that were happening, I would not be flooded with all of these complaints. The community board people call me when they have not been notified, when they don’t know where the film crews have moved people’s cars, or when they receive complaints from local store owners. … When the police precincts in my area ask me to help them, it’s bad," Lopez noted, adding that over 200 permits have been issued for her community alone in the past year.
Stephen DiBrienza, Council member for District 39, Brooklyn, wants to increase the amount of advance notice time given to local communities. "The Commissioner said [at the oversight meeting] that there’s sometimes very little time between the fax [when the Council member and community board receive a copy of the permit], and when the shoot occurs. But she [Scott] indicated in her testimony that there’s a preliminary application when the company and the office negotiate. So I suggested that they fax us the preliminaries."
Cho said that as the final permit often varies a great deal from the original application, particularly in terms of dates and locations, DiBrienza’s request would involve multiple faxings to various offices. This, in turn, could impinge on the MOFTB’s mandate, which is to efficiently expedite New York City production.
Filming in New York City has been on the rise, amounting to an estimated $5 billion in revenue in 2000. Furthermore, Cho observed that with the threat of possible actors’ and writers’ strikes, "we’re seeing both television and film studios rushing to finish this work before the contracts expire in May. So between now and May, there’s just a huge volume of work."
Council members suggested that the MOFTB is understaffed. Lopez pointed out, "It is clear to me that a staff of sixteen people [the number of MOFTB employees] is inadequate, particularly when Commissioner Scott testified that right now this industry is bringing over $5 billion dollars a year to this city."
Lopez has proposed legislation that could impede a quick turnaround time for permits, but might, she contended, lead to local communities having a more positive attitude towards filming. Her proposal, which has not yet had a hearing by the City Council, "is a local law that will regulate the notification process," ensuring that community boards, local residents and the precinct will be notified a week in advance.
However, Lopez added that the weeklong notification period is negotiable: "What I’m trying to achieve is a situation where notification is adequate for both parties."
Additionally, City Council members questioned Scott and her MOFTB colleagues about the agency’s delays in getting information out regarding commercial shoots during the six-month SAG strike (SHOOT, 8/20/00 and 10/20/00, p. 1). Council members Lopez, Bill Perkins of District Nine, Manhattan, and Annette Robinson of District 36, Brooklyn, also voiced concern over the lack of minorities in the film industry workforce.
"The diversity that doesn’t exist in the personnel that the film industry employs," said Lopez, "is a very serious issue in a city where more than 51 percent of the population are people of color. That is something that the industry needs to look at and try to improve."
At press time, it had not been determined what, if any, follow-up would be done regarding the issues raised. No further Council meetings on the industry-related matters are currently scheduled.
The executive board of the New York Production Alliance (NYPA) has asked the MOFTB for a copy of the meeting’s proceedings, but had not received one as SHOOT went to press.
A veteran of the New York filmmaking community, who requested anonymity, told SHOOT: "Most members of the industry did not know about the oversight hearing. Besides Pat Scott, no one from the industry was there to respond to complaints about the industry, some of which are real." The source added, "We’re not denying that there are problems, but we’ve got to [work together to] find a solution as a team."
