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This intersection here, home to a hotel, a gas station, a CVS, a mall, and this U-Haul,
is one of the most significant locations in the motion picture industry, but nothing’s
really here.
But what was here was the headquarters of the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television
Producers and so they decided that they would determine the way people got payed off an
arbitrary thirty mile circle around them.
Still today, this thirty mile zone sets Hollywood’s rules and explains why movies are filmed where
they are.
As it turns out, the film industry is incredibly bureaucratic.
There are dozens of unions each with their own rules on how, when, and for how much their
members can work.
For example, Sag-Aftra, along with most other unions, has some super-specific rules on exactly
when their members must eat.
The first meal must start within six hours of the initial call-time then the second meal,
if there is one, must begin within six hours of the end of the first.
Most of the time, the food is provided on-set, but if it’s not it’s defined as a “walk-away”
meal and the workers must be given exactly $12 if it’s breakfast, $18 if it’s lunch,
and $30 if it’s dinner.
According to the rulebook, union members must also be put up in first or business class
on flights when they travel, but of course there are exceptions.
Economy class is permitted on flights that are non-stop, 1,000 miles or fewer, and within
the US or if they’re non-stop to or from a destination in the US within 1,000 miles
of Vancouver or Toronto or if they’re non-stop between Vancouver and LA, which is 1,086 miles,
or if there are six or more members traveling together on the same flight in the same class,
presumably to help in times when planes only have six first class seats.
But back to the thirty mile zone.
The TMZ, which is indeed what this fine journalistic institution is named after, essentially determines
whether a film shoot is considered local or on-location.
Within the zone, actors, producers, extras, crew members, everyone just reports to work
like a normal job.
They sleep at home, pay for their own meals, and make their way to or from work on their
own.
A crew member could live in Westminster, California, just within the TMZ, where it would literally
be faster for them to drive to Long Beach Airport, arrive 45 minutes before their flight,
and fly to Denver than it would be for them to drive to Thousand Oaks, California, also
within the TMZ, and they still would be paid local rates.
Since Los Angeles is the City of Stars and cars, crew members can be asked to drive what
can be up to six hours roundtrip each day within the TMZ without any additional compensation.
If a shoot is outside the TMZ, though, it’s a whole different story.
It depends on the union or production company, but generally, the moment a crew member drives
outside of the studio zone they must start getting reimbursed for mileage.
That’s set at the IRS minimum of 53.5 cents per mile, which by itself isn’t much, but
when there are hundreds or even thousands of crew members and extras driving potentially
hundreds of miles, that can add up.
These rules have a big influence on where films and TV shows shoot.
It’s just much cheaper to film within the TMZ so most projects are filmed here.
For example, here’s where Pirates of the Caribbean, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and the
Muppets were filmed; here’s where Westworld, Django Unchained, and Deadwood were filmed;
and here’s where Zero Dark Thirty, Iron Man, and American Sniper were filmed.
Each of these locations are just within the thirty mile zone which means all those hundreds
or thousands of crew members only had to get paid for a normal day’s work as if they
were in the studio.
Hollywood production companies, especially historically, have set up movie ranches where
they have these vast open spaces that can simulate the wild west, a dense forest, or
any other environment despite being within thirty miles of that fateful intersection
in downtown LA.
Largely because it’s just so much cheaper to film within LA, Hollywood continues to
exist as the definitive epicenter to the film industry and it will continue to as long as
the thirty mile zone exists.
What will also exist for as long as the thirty mile zone exists are Hollywood jobs which
require knowledge which requires education which is what you can get from Skillshare.
With Skillshare, you can learn skills that could actually eventually get you a job in
Hollywood.
They have classes on things like how to use a Red cinema camera, how to edit in Adobe
After Effects, how to direct actors, and so much more.
The great thing about Skillshare is they have over 17,000 classes so if you want to learn
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Skillshare makes this show possible so please do give them a shot and try out these two
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