TV Q&A: What do I do if a TV show filming on my block is disruptive?
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Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen answers reader questions every Wednesday at TribLive.com in a column that also appears in the Sunday Tribune-Review.
Q: I have a controversial opinion: I hate having film crews here. I have the unfortunate luck to have “A League of Their Own” filming on my street.
This is noisy, disruptive and keeps us up at night. We can’t park in front of our home. Production assistants have complained about our flag, our Halloween decorations and our solar lights. We are getting no compensation for the disturbances.
How long do these things usually take? I know it’s a series, but I’m hoping there’s no season two.
– Dee, Crafton
Rob: “League” wrapped production at the end of October, so that show is no longer on Dee’s street. But here’s some general advice from veteran locations manager Jim Mahathey, who currently works on Netflix’s “Rustin.”
“I feel this resident’s pain and I understand it completely,” he said. “TV shows filming are the hardest on neighborhoods and towns. They find a location and keep coming back every episode. Our welcome wears thin pretty quick. I by no means am perfect and no matter how much planning you do, it is really never enough.”
Mahathey said it’s sometimes necessary to politely ask residents to make accommodations. For instance, in a period piece, they may need a resident to move a non-period car.
“We offer an inconvenience fee and have them sign a form so we can get them paid,” Mahathey said. “Things get bad when production asks for something to be moved right away and a production assistant, not in locations, runs and is rude. It turns things sour right away.”
He suggests if that happens, residents should ask to speak to a member of the locations department.
Specific to “League,” locations manager Eric Dilucente said the production visited Creighton Street in Crafton, which plays the street where the “League” baseball team lives, at least seven times over its three-month shoot in Western Pennsylvania. Dilucente said homes impacted by filming received a letter and later those homeowners signed contracts to be compensated for the inconvenience.
Dilucente said if someone doesn’t get a letter from locations, they ought to reach out to borough management to find out who to talk to on the production.
“It’s Pittsburgh,” he said. “Everybody knows everybody and they kibitz with neighbors: ‘These jags are paying you and not paying me!’ We try to make sure there’s parity amongst everybody in the neighborhood and treat everybody the exact same way. We know everybody’s gonna talk to each other.”
I checked back in with Dee, who said she never received a letter, just a contract with blanks where dates should have been and no phone number to call. The contract said someone would be by to collect it, but Dee didn’t want to sign it without details and had no way to get in touch with the production.
“I guess I was supposed to just sign a contract with tons of blanks and hope for the best,” Dee wrote.
Dilucente gave his phone number to me to pass along to Dee so he could offer compensation, but she declined to call him.
Q: What is the status with Stephanie Allison on WPXI? I looked at the news team page on the station’s website and she is not on there. Is she a regular at this point or not? I know they had Danielle Dozier leave and have not replaced her. I think Stephanie does a nice job and would like to see her stay.
– Mike, South Side
Rob: Allison’s Twitter bio describes her as a freelance meteorologist for Channel 11. I emailed WPXI news director Scott Trabandt to confirm that, but he did not respond to Mike’s query. My expectation is WPXI will eventually hire someone to fill Dozier’s position and get the station’s number of full-time weathercasters back up to four, a process that may have become more urgent once WTAE bolstered its staff to five weathercasters, giving Channel 4 bragging rights.
Q: Why all the character changes on “Chicago Fire?” We will miss Matt (Jesse Spencer).
– Cindy, Greensburg
Rob: Cast changes are natural for a long-running TV series.
Spencer wanted out, telling reporters, “I realized I’ve been doing TV for a long time. I added it up and I think this year is my 18th year of network television straight, because I went straight from ‘House’ into ‘Chicago Fire.’ … It was a difficult decision because I’ve loved the show from the start, but there [are] other things that I would like to do in the future, and there’s some family that I need to take care of – and 18 years is a long time.