Civic Spark Fellow Resiliency Project
The Ventura County Film Commission provides connective liaison for all of the elements of film production in Ventura County. Since 2013, that function has been in a development form. The linking of production to permitting and regulatory schemes and, the collection of data relative to the economic and social impacts of film production in the county is a primary purpose.
The Ventura County Film Commission core function: Liaison
“A liaison is a person and function who builds and maintains mutually beneficial relationships, facilitates communications and coordinates activities among two or more people, agencies or organizations. … They act as technical or subject matter experts for the person, agency or organization they represent.”
In the recruitment and support of the function, the following template recruitment framing is helpful:
The Ventura Film Commission Liaison function is facilitated by an organized, efficient, and communicative liaison officer to coordinate between our organization and partner/stakeholder entities. In this role, the liaison acts as the middle person between our business and the other entity to streamline operations, resolve issues, improve communications, and generally ensure that the relationship is as beneficial as possible.
- Maintain thorough knowledge of the business, as well as an understanding of how the business impacts the other entities of contact
- Monitor, coordinate, and communicate the strategic objectives of the business
- Collaborate and communicate successfully with other entities outside of the business
- Work with other staff members to develop a greater understanding of the business and any issues that arise
- Build, develop and foster relationships with the community, stakeholders, and other entities
- Collect, analyze, and utilize data and feedback to identify opportunities to improve the relationship between the business and the other entity
- Identify impact of the relationships and their leveraged benefit to both the larger community and the partner organizations
- Compile reports about particular incidents, events, or updates about an important issue for the business
- Proactively solve conflicts and address issues that could occur between the business and the other entity
- Promptly respond to incidents and other events as necessary
- Act as a positive representation of the business to the community
The support of the liaison required the creation of a website. The gathering of organizational, jurisdictional – permitting regulatory schemes; through the collection of contacts and process for each scheme; resulting in an initial understanding of a path to meet the required processes for each scheme and each production.
Now, it is time to decant the knowledge that has been gained and in that decanting, create resiliency. The resiliency creates additional value through building a dynamic knowledge system and database. The product that emerges requires a new set of eyes, ears, and analysis to create a vessel for the dynamism that is all things film. This means actively interviewing the current systems, using those interviews to update the relational databases that currently exist and to iterate the next generation of those databases. The Product that comes as a result will both increase the ROI on current investment and will also set a standard for value moving forward.
This website product is designed to honor both the dynamic nature of communities as well as the continual development of both the projects that are seeking to be produced and the regulatory, location and permissions systems that are supporting this economic driver.
The current cost of the EDC – Ventura County Film Commission is $60,000 annually. The coordination of connecting production to location, support and permitting along with production impact information that is compiled through the liaison function shows that the combined impacts for 2019 are in excess of 4000 film activity days and more than $70 Million in economic impact to Ventura County.
What follows is an outline of work product that an 11 month Civic Spark Fellow deployment will engage. It envisions some of the product development for ongoing resilience with the unique industry sector that is film and media production. The short set of qualifications belies the challenges of building the resiliency products that are needed to take the Commission structures to the next level.
Liaison Fellow Requirements and Qualifications
- Customer-oriented attitude
- Excellent verbal and written communication skills
- Ability to establish and nurture beneficial relationships
- Self-motivated with a willingness to take initiative and solve complex problems
- Capability to negotiate with and influence others
- Analytically and mathematically minded to analyze data and create necessary reports
- Ability to thrive in a fast-paced and sometimes high-pressure environment
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Goals
To make rigorous the template for permitting schemes in Ventura County so that tracking film impact and resiliency are a critical economic driver in the county becomes clearer.
Distillation of a dynamic data base that can interact with more than one person.
Improve messaging about connection of production to permitting
Document filming in the time of the COVID and the resiliency of systems.
Operational Health and Safety Plans that leverage best practices and save cost through systemic implementation.
GIS updates on permits, permitting and permitting schemes linked to locations in Ventura County.
Automation of Email and Contact info for Newsletter Sends and Data collection.
Mapping Taxonomy of organizational structures and connections
- Internal
- Ordinance and enabling laws
- Fee Structures
- Layers and overlaps (Permit, Environmental Health, Business Tax License etc)
Organizational structures for creating a film project
Organizational structures for allowing (Permitting) that project
Multi-level connection by and between the permitting structures
Opportunities for greater connection by and between film, permitting, locations and support structures.
2 – 16. Structure
Dynamic Manual Creation (operations and logistics)
Dynamic Relational Mapping (Regulatory and Creative Interactions)
Dynamic Process Mapping (Project creation, Project Permissions, Project Execution, Project Impact)
Dynamic Outcome and Impact data collection.
Making information a resource
In order for these past years of work to have any value (Return on Investment), the formalization of all of these processes into a dynamic, relational data structure is critical.
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Civic Spark Fellow Outcomes
A project portfolio that includes:
Project framing
Project Management
Project Elements and relationships
Measurement structures
Relational data base construction: (needs interview for clarity and mapping)
- Resiliency through diversity and connection of layers of project as well as regulatory scheme
- Public policy overview through regulation, engagement with number of projects that successfully move through the process, actual film days and some awareness of how many touches each day has from the various project structures. (Production, location, permitting)
- An understanding of the layers of bureaucracy on both sides of a project and how to navigate the path to completion.
- Move assumptions to element descriptions with a method to move through the various schemes; both development and execution.
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Products
Download Information from Head to Book
Book Contents
Narrative
Relational Database
Search Function
Connection Function
Develop a System Query Framework
Who, What, Where, When to inform How
Develop a data entry template to create the buckets to pour into the data lake
Give granularity to data so that the data becomes information
Operations guide
Scope, Scale, Context and Capacity Framework
For Permitting
For Production
For Coordination
For Liaison Functions
For Budgeting Framework
Data Collection and Analysis for Impacts
Direct Fees and Permits
Multiplier as economic impact
Film Days (Prep, Film, Strike)
Production type
Production size
Time of Production Impact
Day
Night
Single
Multiple
Sensitive Receptors impacts
Watercourses
Private Properties
Communities
Business Districts
Neighborhoods
Transportation corridors
Mitigation
Fees
Payments
Liaison Library
Website
Industry
Locations
Permissions
Contacts
Production Support Resources
GIS coordination
Searchable relational database
Contact Connection
Industry
Regulatory Schemes
Jurisdictions
Property/Location Contacts
Newsletter Mailing list
Quarterly Contact
Permit Palooza Event
A gathering both physical and virtual of the layers of permitting schemes for the county.
The agenda is to put faces to names and links by and between parties.
Invitees:
Permit Leads
Supervisors
State Partners
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Civic Spark Fellow Activities
Establish a weekly schedule and project plan
Establish agenda for weekly meetings
Maintain schedule with supervision
Active Interview and documentation
System organization – Taxonomy Development – Documentation of process
Relationship Mapping
Search Function Framing
Scheduling for Interview and Agenda for Interview
Mapping Permit Structures
Linking Structures to Contacts
Development of Daily, Weekly, Monthly and Project Milestones with timelines.
IRAC
Issue
Rule (Regulatory Scheme, Project, Who, What, Where, When – Framing)
Analysis
Conclusion and recommendation
Who, What, Where, When to inform How?
What is the Project, Scope, Scale, Context and Capacity?
What are the Foundational Principles, What is the Core Business, What are the Product(s), What is the Revenue Architecture, What are the Systems and Who is the Team?
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Permitting Jurisdictions
County of Ventura
Planning
Public Works
County Fire
County Environmental Health
Watershed Protection
Parks
Contacts in Hierarchy Order or Organizationally
Cities
- Simi Valley
City Manager’s Office
County Fire
Simi Valley Police Department
Contacts
- Moorpark
Planning
County Fire
County Sheriff
Contacts
- Thousand Oaks
Community Development
County Fire
County Sheriff
Contacts
- Camarillo
Planning
County Fire
County Sheriff
Contacts
- Port Hueneme
Public Works
County Fire
Port Hueneme Police
Contacts
- Oxnard
Community Development
Oxnard Fire
Oxnard Police
Contacts
- Ventura
Community Engagement
Ventura Fire
Ventura Police
Contacts
- Ojai
City Manager’s Office
County Fire
County Sheriff
Contacts
- Santa Paula
Parks and Recreation
County Fire
Santa Paula Police
Contacts
- Fillmore
Film Commission/City Manager’s Office
Fillmore Fire
County Sheriff
Contacts
California Film Commission
State Roads/Highways
Highway Patrol
State Fire Marshall
State Beaches
State Parks
Coastal Commission
State Agencies
Fish and Wildlife
Coastal Commission
Federal Agencies
US Forest Service
Naval Base Ventura County
Special Districts:
Rancho Simi Recreation and Parks District
Conejo
Seaside Park (Fairgrounds)
Ventura Harbor District
Oxnard Harbor District
School Districts: (needs a taxonomy of organization alphabetical? Locational?
Fillmore Unified
Santa Paula Unified
Santa Clara Elementary School District (Little Red School House)
Simi Valley Unified
Conejo Valley Unified
Oxnard Unified
Ventura Unified
Colleges and Universities: (needs a method of organization)
University of California Extension Service (Faulkner Farms)
Ventura College
Oxnard College
Moorpark College
Channel Islands State University
Cal Lutheran University
Airports
Camarillo Airport
Oxnard Airport
Santa Paula Airport
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Industry Partners
Warner Bros.
Netflix
Sony
Viacom
Teamsters
Film LA
FLICS
Location Managers Guild
Scouts
Local Locations
Allied Film Studios
Fillmore & Western
John Farrow
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County Ecologies
Santa Clara River Valley
Fillmore, Piru, Santa Paula
Ojai Valley
Santa Paula Branch Line (Short Line Railroad)
The 33 Corridor
The Coast North and West of Mugu Rock
The PCH (Highway 1)
Santa Monica Mountains
Tapo Canyon
Simi Zone Area
Studio: Allied and the Simi District
Dedicated Back Lot Ranches: Big Sky, PW Gillibrand, 76 Ranch, Ventura Farms
Lake Sherwood Area
Potrero Road
The Coast
The Oxnard Plain
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Contact and links Taxonomy
Elected
Administrative (CEO, City Managers)
Economic Roundtable Members
Planning Directors Coordinating Group
Permit Permissions Ordinances
Law Enforcement Leadership
Industry Governmental Affairs Offices
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GIS
Managing and tagging shape files
Linking various Ecologies to mapping layers
Specific locations and film permit data
Cities
Area Ecologies
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See Something, Say Something
Expectation:
- Seeing the great connections of the large systems
- Seeing the inner connections by and between the tendrils that are the organizing structures of both there production and the permissions
- End Product
- Discreet Permitting locations
- Layers of behavior and areas that need a plan and permissions
- Documentation (moving from static to dynamic)
- Convening for Relationship (connecting through relationship and communications)
- A weekly plan to be designed and engaged.
- A homework metric to make sure the project is delivered as a package.
- Basic organizational structures (a wireframe or outline or mind map)
- A set of milestones to meet the completed project moment with timelines to measure the project.
Tools:
- Computer
- Basic understanding of government and subsets of government
- Basic understanding of the elements of a production
- A willingness to build and then break dynamic systems to both test and demonstrate resiliency and ability to be clear in the face of larger systems static
- Systems Mapping
- Data tabs to create dynamic maps
- Data collection to give depth to a data point
- GIS base mapping to create a set of links and a path to completion of project from idea through permitting and actual image collection
Impact:
- Fee Collection
- 100% recovery
- Multiplier
- Fee and taxing schemes
- Program Support
Players:
The project being produced
The locations where the project is being produced
The Regulatory Schemes that engage that location
The Layers of departments that have jurisdiction over a place
The support players
Local
From Elsewhere
Talent
Production Crew
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When Yes means Yes and No means No
Timelines:
What can we do?
How long will it take to get permission to do it?
How much will it cost?
Answers needed to get to answers:
What are you doing?
Who is doing it?
Where is it being done?
When is it being done?
Things that might get in the way:
Do you have permission from the property owner?
Is the property legal to have this kind of behavior happening on it?
Are there any zoning or building and safety violations on the property?
Are you interrupting circulation flows by doing the production?
What is your footprint relative to neighborhood?
What are the ancillary impacts that your activities may create?
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Information Updates:
Time frames for permit
Fees
Office administering permit:
- Planning
- Fire
- City Manager
- Community Engagement
- Public Works
Process map
Waivers
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Contact Update Form
Point of contact
Phone Number
Permit Forms
Fees
Special Requirements
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Department Contacts for All Jurisdictions
Department Head
Department Permit Lead
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Weekly Schedule
Check links for permitting updates
Check for new locations
GIS Data Layer Build
Updating all Locations