Next Steps for Film Liaisons – 10 of Them!
Last month, Community leaders representing 57 Neighborhood Councils met with Public Works Commission President Kevin James and FilmLA President Paul Audley in LA’s first Neighborhood Council Film Liaison Town Hall.
For those who were there and for those who have signed up as Film Liaisons since then, here are 10 steps to Empowerment!
Make it Official – Take Mayoral Directive #6 to your Neighborhood Council and have them pass a resolution supporting the City of LA’s commitment to supporting the film industry and to working with Film LA.
Create a Space – Place the FilmLA logo with a link to their website so that your stakeholders can quickly connect with “the official film office of the greater Los Angeles region.” You can also place a link to the Film Liaison for your Neighborhood Council. Ultimately, the objective is to make it easy for the community to connect with FilmLA and to create good channels of communication in both directions.
Get Social – Follow, Like, Friend, and connect with all 96 Councils, all 42 Departments, FilmLA, and all of your new best friends – the other Film Liaisons. Then share the information with your network and become the trusted source of information in your community.
Work Together – There is strength in numbers and there is great value to be enjoyed by sharing best practices. Connect with your neighboring Neighborhood Councils and work together.
Forge Relationships – The fastest route to conflict resolution is to create a network of people who can identify issues, connect with the right people, and pursue solutions. Typically the most significant frustration comes from knocking on the wrong doors and getting bad directions to another wrong door. Establishing a Film Liaison who is connected to FilmLA’s representatives makes it easy to give great directions to the right people with the best solutions.
Partner with Power – Your City Council office is an awesome partner and CD3’s Michael Owens is a great example. He works with his community to ensure great relationships with FilmLA and he also gave location Managers a tour of his district to promote filming, resulting in a “double-digit” increase in local filming which generated local income. He also introduced WraPal which allows the community to register their property for use as a film location.
Invite those Guests – One of the great things about the Film Liaison Town Hall was the large number of Industry professionals that are ready to jump at the opportunity to meet with community groups to talk about filming and ways to create win-win opportunity. When they introduced themselves, they also gave their neighborhood and it turns out, they’re your stakeholders!
Inform to Engage – The simplest and most effective route to engaging your community starts with great information. Linda Alexander of Central San Pedro has done a great job creating a resource guide that informs and engages people by connecting them with the information they need. San Pedro also has a Filming Brochure.
Engage to Empower – The most resilient communities are those that are engaged, connected, sharing information and inspiration at every opportunity. The most significant route to Empowerment is to engage each other in the journey and to work together.
Share Best Practices – LA is the center of the creative universe, filled with storytellers! We’d love to hear your stories and we promise to share them with others so that we can all benefit from your hard work. Seriously, email us and let us know what you’re doing!
Each of LA’s 96 Neighborhood Councils can designate one Film Liaison who can be a Board Member or a stakeholder. The President can appoint the Liaison or the Board can select the Film Liaison. Some councils have more than one liaison but there must be a lead who is the single point of contact for FilmLA.
The Mayor’s Executive Directive #6 calls on the City of LA to support the Film Industry and it is in that spirit that the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment is supporting the organization the Neighborhood Council Film Liaisons.
FilmL.A. is a 501(c)4 not-for-profit public benefit organization and the official film office of the City of Los Angeles, providing streamlined permit processing and production planning services to filmmakers and comprehensive community relations, marketing services, film policy analysis and more to local governments, FilmL.A. works to attract and retain film production in Greater Los Angeles.
LA is both the Film capital of the world and the civic engagement capital of the world, and the continued partnership between Neighborhood Councils and the Industry will be a force to reckon with!
For more information on the Neighborhood Council Film Liaisons, email Stephen Box at [email protected] or call 213-978-1551.