Proposed film office gets another look at City Hall
Department would streamline permit process, help resolve issues related to filmmaking
- Joeff Davis/CL File
- Department would streamline permit process to shoot in the city, help mitigate neighborhood impacts
Vans and trucks line a street, gobbling up all the parking spaces. Nearby spotlights cast blinding light into bedroom windows. A series of blasts puncture a resident's deep sleep. These are frustrations that Atlanta City Councilwoman Joyce Sheperd's constituents have endured during film productions in the community.
With Atlanta neighborhoods increasingly taking on the role of movie sets, communities are becoming more and more exposed to inconveniences caused by productions. And they are looking to City Hall for help.
Last week, community leaders, film industry workers, and representatives from Mayor Kasim Reed's office gathered for a City Council work session about a proposal to help reduce the impact on neighborhoods and assist the booming industry by creating a special department to oversee and boost filmmaking in Atlanta. The proposal, or so we've heard, is supposed to get another look by the Council's Finance Committee today at 1 p.m.
A primary function of the new Office of Entertainment, which would operate under Reed, would be to help mitigate the issues and disruptions caused by filming around the city, according to Michael Sterling, one of the mayor's policy advisers who helped prepare the ordinance. The office would provide a contact point for residents to call and report any problems. In addition, it could create a plan for a city official to inspect sets and ensure crews have the proper permits.
A similar effort by the mayor's office in 2011 to create a special department was eventually tabled over concerns of red tape and additional fees.
Discussing the bill, advocates from the Mayor's office emphasized that the entertainment office would try to strike a balance between respecting residents who live near movie productions and reducing the bureaucracy that film professionals who choose to shoot in the city must navigate.