The residents of Queens Park in New Westminster have grown used to, or even a bit weary of, the carnivals of trucks and herds of crews that come to their neighborhood with repeated production work.

Pockets of the upscale Shaughnessy neighborhood in Vancouver are also so sensitive to the barrage of filming that certain blocks can be considered ‘hot.’ The same could be said of heritage areas like Gastown and Yaletown or gritty locales like the Cambie alley near Victory Square in the downtown Eastside.

During a recent high-profile incident at the seaside village of Steveston, meanwhile, tensions between a merchant and a film crew snapped, a situation that left the merchant in handcuffs and cooling off in a police squad car.

While the boom in film and television production volumes in Vancouver is creating jobs and wealth, it is also treading heavily on the city’s most precious film industry resource – locations. The past 10 years have seen a fourfold increase in the number of productions in Vancouver and more than a sixfold increase in spending.

And because of the bounty of other productions that haven’t been able to squeeze into Vancouver, there has been pressure to expand the capacity to handle even more film and television work. That has led to the creation of new infrastructure – most recently Vancouver Studios’ new six purpose-built studios and four renovated studios at Grandview Highway – that will only spur more production and pose a greater risk to locations.

Resource management

For residents of the Lower Mainland, who have already seen enough glamour manufactured outside their front steps, the prospect of even more production is less than appetizing. It’s a reality that location managers are taking seriously as they use communications and diplomacy to keep the best shooting locales open for business.

‘We have a long way to go before we become l.a.,’ says First Wave’s location manager Kendrie Upton, referring to the situation down south where certain neighborhoods are off limits to film crews and homes sport signs stating that crews ‘need not apply’ for access for filming. ‘We try to be responsible about using locations.’

In fact, location managers refer to what they do as ‘resource management,’ a practice that takes its cue from the local forestry and mining industries. There is a limited amount of goodwill to extract from residents at certain locations before it is used up or even ‘clear cut.’

Key issues for residents are loss of parking, blocked roads, proper notification and excessive noise.

‘We have to see things from the homeowner’s point of view,’ Upton explains. ‘We need to make sure that people are compensated for their inconvenience. But I am still being paid by the producer so I have to do this in a way that takes in everybody’s concerns.’

Communication key

Constant communication with residents is key to keeping support, she says. That might mean papering the neighborhood with letters explaining that production is about to start, or it could mean going door to door to talk with each neighbor individually.

Increased professional standards will also help, says Upton, who teaches a course for aspiring location managers. She’s also pressing for her colleagues to share more information about locations and how best to keep everyone happy.

There is a small contingent of disgruntled people who hold a grudge against the industry and will never be satisfied, Upton concedes, and she notes that residents are savvier to the lucre that can come their way by being difficult. But she and other location managers contend that while rates for some locations have certainly gone up in the past decade, gouging remains a minor and infrequent challenge.

More regularly, the productions get caught up in a political battle between the residents and municipalities over issues such as parking, sewage and garbage pickup.

‘There is still a lot of support for the film industry,’ maintains location manager Kirk Johns, who is currently at work on Sylvester Stallone’s new feature Get Carter. ‘People just get tired of it. They just want a break [from production] which is totally fair.’

Johns says that by spreading money around to residents or making donations to the local community center or heritage society, productions can assuage a lot of unhappy residents.

‘We are buying cooperation,’ he explains. ‘And we take care of loss of business.’

To stem abuse by businesses, Johns asks to look at the books to ensure the losses are real or he asks the merchants for gift certificates equal to the value of his compensation, a strategy that also keeps the business owners honest.

Johns says providing a neighborhood with adequate notice (which he admits is not always possible) helps to diffuse tensions, as does connecting with the local residents group or business improvement association. He also believes that encouraging production in locales such as Victoria or Kelowna will help abate the traffic at overused locations in the Lower Mainland.

‘Our main thrust is to get our own industry to believe that locations are a resource,’ says Johns.

On the other hand, there are locations that are willing to take on as much production as they can.

Bolstering bottom line

The Vancouver Art Gallery, for instance, now plans for rental revenues from film companies to offset operation expenses for the facility – which is one of the busiest, if not the busiest, locations in town. To date in 1999, the vag – once the city’s courthouse – has hosted 28 productions that primarily use the gallery space, the old courtroom or building exteriors for one to three days at a time and have paid $62,000 in total. In 1998, 29 productions paid $89,000. In 1997, 33 productions paid $55,000.

‘Our experience has been very positive,’ says Robin Naiman, rental coordinator at the vag. ‘We have very good guidelines – including restrictions of hours and protecting the building and the artwork – and we’re very film friendly.’

The Greater Vancouver Regional District, meanwhile, predicts it will raise $300,000 in non-tax revenues from rentals to film companies wanting to use the region’s parks. Campbell Valley Park in Langley and Belcarra Park in Port Moody are the busiest right now.