UPDATE: The Streets of San Francisco

In regards to my previous post regarding the San Francisco Film Commission denying a request by the USMC to film a recruitment commercial featuring the USMC Silent Drill Team, I, and apparently many others, let Ms Stefanie Coyote (Commission Executive) and the mayor of San Francisco know exactly how I/we felt about it. 

 Take Dramamine, if you suffer from motion sickness, because you're gonna spin.

 The response from Laurel Barsotti (laurel.barsotti@sfgov.org):

Hello, Thank you for contacting the San Francisco Film Commission regarding the United States Marine Corps' recent filming of a television commercial in San Francisco. There has been a great deal of misinformation about the filming and we would like to set the record straight: The United States Marine Corps' film production company, Tight Productions, did recently film part of a commercial in San Francisco. Reports claiming that a film permit was denied are incorrect. Initially, Tight Productions requested a permit for a specific location at a time that could not be accommodated. (The request would have required closing a busy downtown intersection for the majority of a workday including commute hours.) Tight Productions was immediately offered a variety of other San Francisco locations that could accommodate their filming at the time requested OR the specific downtown location at another time. They chose to film at their original location at another time and a film permit was promptly issued. Tight Productions never had a problem with this process. The company has in fact written a letter to the President of the San Francisco Film Commission assuring him that their production needs were fully met by our office. I have attached a copy of that letter to this email for your review. The San Francisco Film Commission issues film permits without regard to content. It is our mission to both promote and facilitate filming of all kinds here in our great city. When issuing permits, our primary concerns are safety and managing disruption to the residents and workers of San Francisco. Please be assures that Mayor Newsom and the San Francisco Film Commission welcome the United States Marine Corps to San Francisco at any time. We appreciate your concern with regard to this matter and hope this information is helpful. Best regards, San Francisco Film Commission

415-554-6241 Phone
415-554-6503 Fax
www.filmSF.org

Attached was a letter from Donald Block, founder and owner of Tight Films, who passed the 'misunderstanding' off onto Larry Kelly (apparently one of his employees).

 Mr. Block mentioned something about "Larry Kelly was somehow threatened or we were somehow threatened by the Film Commission" .... "Unfortunately, I suspect Larry Kelly is the one who misrepresented what really happened." 

Mr. Block kissed enough ass to ensure that his production company would not be denied future filming permits.

 I, for one, would be most interested to know what the threat was, made by whom and to whom, and what Mr. Kelly has to say about all this.