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Oakland Turns Against Film by Doniphan Blair
BREAKING NEWS April 11: According to an article in the Mercury News: "Also probably safe, [Mayor Jean Quan] said, is the Oakland Film Office, which coordinates between the city and filmmakers who produce work in the city and which drew a handful of supporters to give public comment." But "We still need to keep the pressure on the City Council as the budget has to be ratified by them," according to Film Center member Tim Ranohan. For updates contact .
ARTICLE UPDATE: At the Oakland City Council meeting April 5, seasoned producer Debbie Brubaker read a letter from the over 30 film groups and people present, including the Screen Actors and Directors Guild, the Teamsters and others. It thanked the council for fostering the agreement that the Oakland Film Center is "recommended" to be part of the old Army Base development, albeit not "mandated" as in previous documents. Moreover, Mayor Quan backed of her "Budget Option" of axing the Oakland Film Office and Ami Zins by saying it was just an "idea."
Oakland Film Center spokesperson Sean House, at the podium, while Tim Ranahan, John Behrens and Sophie Aissen wait their turn; seated far left: the developer Phil Tagami. photo: D. Blair
Then word came out Thursday, April 8, that the Oakland City Council was going to terminate the Film Commission, which will end outside production in Oakland, as it did in San Jose when they did that. Talk was heard after the meeting in the lobby that the FIlm Office did not make money for the city. This is odd considering last year "Moneyball" spent $1.7 million in three weeks, netting around $150,000 in taxes. According to FIlm Office estimates, average years total $10 -12 million and around $1.5 million in taxes just on declared expenses. The Film Office and Center received over 400 emails in support but please keep sending them to .
ARTICLE: Mar 31: In a two day period at the end of March, the Oakland City Council voted to remove the mandate of the Oakland Film Center, potentially to make way for its eviction from the old Army base, and the new Mayor Jean Quan published a budget suggesting the elimination of the Oakland film commission headed by the well-known Ami Zins.
Considering Oakland has a surprisingly large number of filmmakers and associated professionals—unless the city has a completely tin ear—it sounds like a declaration of war. Moreover, it reveals a city gutted not just by the recession and budget woes but patrimony and power brokers that sometimes make their way all the way to the top.
The Oakland Film Center (OFC), an association of cinematographers, producers, gear rental companies and others, started at the Army base in 2004. And it was mandated to remain there when the hundreds of millions of tax dollars for infrastructure improvements allocated for the base finally materialize.
Unfortunately, matching funds requirements oblige the City of Oakland and the property's developer, Phil Tagami, to invest tens of millions of dollars. With one party broke and the other the master of the sweetheart deal—or the heroic developer who restored the Fox theater, depending on your perspective—it appears they have decided it would be more profitable to oust the OFC, despite the OFC's offer to pay market rates.
At the Oakland City Council meeting on March 28th, a couple of dozen film professionals presented in favor of retaining the mandate and the issue will go to a vote on April 5th. Starting with Tim Ranahan, a rental firm owner, and Sean House, a construction and effects coordinator, members of the OFC told city councillors, including old-Oakland hand Ignacio de la Fuente, that they were not even informed they were being dropped from the mandate and were ignored when they said they would pay market rate.
Currently the OFC pays under $.20/sq. ft. for 57,920 sq. ft. of drafty and leaky structures—one tenant reported he needed seven garbage cans to weather the recent deluge—while new industrial space in West Oakland runs around $.55 sq. ft. Statements were also made by filmmakers not associated with OFC.
"The Oakland Film Center is a vital part of my industry," Carl Brown, an owner of Corduroy Media of Berkeley, told CineSource, when this reporter met him outside as he was preparing to bike home. "I am able to accept projects that require tools and services beyond my in-house resources because I know that the vendors at the Oakland Film Center will provide me [what] I need."
"The real bottom line," according to Ranahan, "is that [the developer] Tagami doesn't want us because he has to pay for us. He has to pay for non-port related development and the word on the street is he is millions in debt. The agenda is to push out anything that is not logistics and port-related. Sure, he has stood up in the City Council and said, 'We want film.' But what they say is different from what they do. He and the city officials never contacted us about cutting us from the mandate."
Started by a handful of local filmmakers, producers, and techs, the OFC blossomed into a well-known fraternity with a high degree of ability and a bit of an edge: they are able to equip and crew literally anything from a Hollywood feature to a guerilla documentary. Centrally located (right off the first exit over the bridge from San Francisco), it is the perfect place to rent a lighting truck or the latest gear, or park your tractor trailers if you're a Hollywood production just pulling off Highway 80.
"The whole reason we work there is location. If my clients had to drive to the Coliseum, I am screwed," noted Ranahan. Also maintaining offices there is the well-known indie feature producer Debby Brubaker, who now sits on the San Francisco Film Commission, cinematographer John Behrens, Arthur Freyer Lighting, American Biograph Pictures, McQuaid/Hoffman location managers and over a dozen others. (For a full list see). If they are cut out of the base development, the OFC hopes to stick together, perhaps renting in West Oakland.
The loss of the Oakland Film Office, as the local film commission is called, would be even more deleterious. An office of two, it is headed by Ami Zins, who is a well-known figure in Bay Area film and beloved by Oakland filmmakers. In the March 30th "Mayor Recommendation: Discussion And Action On An Informational Report On The City's Fiscal Condition And Framework For A Balancing Plan," a title that spells doom on the face of it, the "Possible Budget Options" on page 56 of "Attachment A" (see document) recommend terminating the film commission.
Ever since Ms. Zins brought "Matrix 2" and "3" to Oakland in 2002 she has proved her value in gold—indeed, she is one of the most successful film commissioners in the Bay Area. There was also Sean Penn's "The Assassination of Richard Nixon" (2004), "Rent" (2005, directed by local Chris Columbus), "Pursuit of Happyness" (2006), "Bee Season" (2005), and the recent "Hemingway and Gellhorn" (see article) as well as a number of television shows and numerous commercials, which have brought millions into the local economy.
Big projects require a lot of work and handholding, of course, but Zins is also famous for providing her "mother hen ministrations" to low-budget filmmakers. "Working with the Film Commission has been fine," said Samm Styles, an independent producer who now finishing his third feature, a futuristic hard scrabble drama titled "Milk Money. "We shot right in city hall. [Ami Zins] set it all up, they let us in and we shot away." Styles also organized last year homage to the Harlem Hundred Musicians photo from the 1950s with an Oakland fifty filmmakers, see Oakland's Filmmaking Family.
In point of fact, Oakland has an astounding number of filmmakers/. They range from Pixar animators who live in West Oakland two minutes from their expanding campus in Emeryville to DIYers like Jaylani Roberts who just finished her second feature "Mercury Rising," about 1980s drug lords. When CineSource did an "Oakland Issue," in April 2008, its web hits jumped from 5,000 monthly to 25,000, an amazing 500%.
Alas not everyone likes Zins. Sources close to CineSource, who asked that they not be named, recall that during a big shoot on Broadway in 2005 a dustup developed between the producers and a couple of local businesses over fees for lost income during a street closure. Zins tried to mediate but ended being blamed and even threatened which brought in the police. Although she declined to press charges, bad blood was brooked between the Film Office and the Uptown Merchants Association, which happened to be headed by—perhaps you already guessed—Phil Tagami.
Tagami is lauded by many in the Oakland establishment for his ability to develop hard luck sites. The renewal of the gorgeous Fox Theater with its magnate Oakland School for the Arts, which started when Jerry Brown was mayor, is the crown jewel in the welcome revival of the once-dead Telegraph corridor. But Tagami's projects are almost all tax payer funded, he awards himself a healthy salary and they often go over budget.
"Tagami has proven himself to be no friend of filmmaking in Oakland," according to the above mentioned source, "He has tried to stymie filmmaking since that incident in 2005."
As of this writing, the OFC and Amy Zins have not been terminated. Nevertheless, Oakland is in a severe fiscal crisis and many establishment powers, especially those close to the new mayor, may not realize the value to a city of supporting the arts. Although he eventually thru his weight behind the School for the Arts in 2002, Mayor Brown started his military school first, which was crazy. A healthy culture creates jobs, lures kids away from crime and promotes civic esteem.
As the rest of the Bay Area gets increasingly gentrified, Oakland is the go-to place both for inspiration and reasonably priced square footage. CineSource's Second Oakland Issue is scheduled for April so look for us to explore these issues more indepth there.