LA Film Festival Moves Downtown (with Press Release)
Downtown
Where the folks are broke. You go
Downtown
Where your life’s a joke. You go
Downtown
Where you buy a token. You go…
Home to Skid Row.
There are often conversations about why Sundance is in the tiny ski resort that is Park City. LAFF reminds us why, as it moves its “hub” for the third time in a decade, from Hollywood’s Arclight to West Hollywood’s Sunset 5 to Westwood, and now to the downtown hub, centered around LA Live.
It is a special Los Angeles reality that each move has made parking harder and more expensive for potential patrons.
On the other hand… Downtown Los Angeles is trying hard to revive itself… and except from the occasional hip party at the hotels down there… still no go. The facility around LA Live, which I have to admit, I had not been at until LAFF parent FIND put the Independent Spirit Awards down there, is impressive. And aside from the aforementioned parking – The ISAs gave attendees parking passes that generously allowed us to pay only $15 to park for the event – it might make an interesting center for the fest.
But… if you want to go see a movie at 7 at LAFF and you live in Santa Monica, you will have to leave your home at around 5 to be sure to get there in time… 5:30 on the weekends… unless it’s been a beach day… then 4:30. Even from where I live, pretty much in the middle between Santa Monica and downtown, I would be looking at a minimum of 45 minutes of travel allowed to be safe.
However… if you live in Los Feliz or Silverlake – which if you are truly hip, you must – the festival is now a little MORE accessible than in the past.
Bottom line… this is a political, financial move for the festival. Westwood is shutting down as a place to view movies. The Arclight has matured into a place that is not nearly as generous to festivals as it once was. And the AFI’s move to the Chinese and Chinettes in Hollywood was a success in terms of how they did the fest last year, but not an option if you want to show more than 50 films or so.
There is nowhere else to go. And no doubt, LA Live et al, made it financially attractive for the festival to be there, with opening night scheduled on the last possible night of the NBA Finals… dear God, they must be rooting for the Lakers to win in 4 or to miss the Finals.
The Indie Spirits move downtown was almost unanimously seen as a flop. Part of that was that it was cold, the space was laid out in a less inviting way than it had been in Santa Monica, and the aforementioned – repeatedly – parking. Personally, I think they can make downtown work for the Indie Spirits, even if we will all, forever, miss the beach and the daytime event.
About the parking… I might seem obsessed, but the truth of the LA movie universe is that parking and general ease of access is the #1 issue in building audience. One of the reasons that Westwood has died as a weekend film hub for the city… parking. Why is American Cinematheque having issues in both locations… parking? Why is teh Showcase on La Brea closed? Parking. Why is the Sunset 5 a niche house in spite of being dead center in its market? Parking. It’s also why Landmark has had such a success atthe Westside Pavillion, why the Arclight in Hollywood thrives, and why the Chinettes at Hollywood & Highland are doing well.
Anyway…
There is a romantic notion about this working. I would like it to. I would like to find myself spending at least a few of the 10 days rushing downtown and catching up with the scene down there. I would love see the LA Times, the presenting sponsor of the event, which with a failing AFI Fest is now LA’s clear hometown festival of choice, expend as many dollars covering this event as they will covering Cannes, a festival that is of interest to less than 10% of the paper’s readership.
Let’s give it a couple of years to settle in and hope for the very best…
Press Release After The Jump…
FILM INDEPENDENT BRINGS 2010 LOS ANGELES FILM FESTIVAL,
PRESENTED BY THE LOS ANGELES TIMES,
TO DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES
– L.A. LIVE to serve as primary hub
Uh, what’s wrong with the generally easy-to-deal-with parking under Sunset 5?
Anyway, I didn’t realize opening night could potentially overlap with a game 7. Wow.
The Sunset 5 underground lot has all those zillions of speed bumps and steep ramps; It’s fine these days now that it’s relatively subdued there, but back about 10-12 years ago when that was THE place to see the cool new movie on a Friday night (and when people still bought CDs and went to the no-longer-there Virgin in droves), it would take forever to empty that lot, you’d be stuck for seemingly 80 minutes choking on exhaust and worrying that the idiot in front of you with a stick-shift would roll back and hit your front bumper on those inclined ramps.
DRIVE AUTOMATIC or you’re a DOUCHE.
The Highland lot leaving the Chinese on the same night as a concert or big event is absolutely the most hellish parking lot experience of any of these venues.
“Downtown Los Angeles is trying hard to revive itself… and except from the occasional hip party at the hotels down there… still no go”
That’s a pretty narrow view. There are a lot of great new restaurants and stores downtown (esp. on Main, a little south of where the above-mentioned Downtown Independent theater is located), and the monthly Art Walk which has gotten HUGE in terms of size and attendance proves that you can definitely get people to come down on a regular basis for organized events.
“However… if you live in Los Feliz or Silverlake – which if you are truly hip, you must -”
LF and SL are both too bourgeois to be considered truly hip. It’s all about Echo Park (or actually living downtown), and had been for several years now.
Hey Lex, I drive manual and I’ve probably been that douche who’s rolled back in neutral and almost hit your car. Where you behind me after the recent screening of The Room?
lex– you live in the valley, just park at the universal train station (free) and pay 2.50 round trip to h&h… no fuss, no muss, no parking garage and the trip is under five minutes in each direction…same with arclight, two more minutes and a three block walk from the new ‘w’ to the theaters/amoeba…
“Downtown Los Angeles is trying hard to revive itself… and except from the occasional hip party at the hotels down there… still no go.”
Uh, talk about myopic. Tell ya what Dave. Go to the Art Walk on Gallery Row tonight (started a few years back by my pals) and then get back to us.
My hyperbole met by your own, Christian.
There is all kinds of stuff downtown that wasn’t there 5 years ago. And much of it is used/attended.
But the truth, in my myopic, but seasoned view, is that most of the area is still a homeless canyon at night, people who attend Disney concert hall or events at Staples don’t tend to stray too far from those venues unless they have a specific next location to land at, and when people try out some of the hip new-ish restaurants, getting there by walking over the homeless is not a great encouragement to return.
Yes, there is an artists’ loft community down there. Absolutely. But downtown is still not a major nighttime destination for most Angelenos. It’s not a place that most people just say, “Nothing to do tonight… let’s head downtown and check out the scene,” which is what they did/do with Westwood, 3rd St Promenade, Los Feliz, CityWalk, etc. It’s what they are trying to do on Hollywood near Vine and what they are after with the complex around the convention center.
It’s true that I have probably been around too long through the worst of downtown at night, including a few years of going down there 2 -3 times a week as a Lakers season ticket holder.
SUBWAY POWER. I’m just gonna take it to 7th and Fig every day of the fest, and walk the rest of the way. Waaaay better than Westwood parking.
The only issue for me will be if they still do midnight movies. Subway don’t go late.
i think they still go late on the week-ends….i use the train for all things downtown as well as hollywood….staples center is a two block walk and la live is four (with many cocktail options along the way)….
on the way home from ‘pee-wee’s playhouse’ in january, we managed to hit ‘lucky strike’, ‘trader vics’ and ‘riordens’ on the way back to the station….a comfy 22 minute ride to noho ended at ‘big wangs’ and then home…..
seriously, if you eschew the subway, you’re just not getting the city….
“…and when people try out some of the hip new-ish restaurants, getting there by walking over the homeless is not a great encouragement to return.”
this would certainly explain the lack of night life in manhattan, san francisco, chicago and new orleans… what ghost towns they’ve become….
seriously, the presence of ‘homeless people’ is pretty much a given in metro areas… you might want to consider leaving the west side once in a while….
In fairness, if one lives nowhere near the subway, like on the westside, it’s not a lot of use. I live right by a stop, though.
scooterzz — how late is “late”? Has the LA subway ever run after 2 a.m.? For midnight movies, it would have to. There’s always the #4 bus, I guess.
Sorry, David, but you are somewhat misinformed here.
Parking is not the issue in Westwood. There is more a thousand parking spaces in Westwood at night, on Kinross between Gayley and Veteran. Westwood is dead because moviegoers in Los Angeles do not want to travel all that far to see a movie, even if the experience will be better. You know how many times the Village has had a truly explosive gross in the past 10-15 years? When it has an exclusive or semi-exclusive run.
The Aero and the Egyptian do good business, when they have movies people want to see.
The Showcase in La Brea is closed for a number of reasons. Parking is not one of the top issues there.
The Sunset 5 does good numbers, when they have movies people want to see.
The success of the Landmark 12 has much to do with its being something new and exciting.
The Arclight’s success has more to do with the branding of the facility than the parking. (I am so grateful I live within walking distance of the Arclight in Hollywood, because the few times I’ve had to park there because I was running late, it took me nearly half an hour every time to get the hell out of that God forsaken structure.)
And if you think the Chinettes are successful outside of private screenings, you are in for a rude awakening.
If you want to see the real numbers of what every theatre in the Los Angeles DMA is doing, and see which locations are truly successful and which ones are disappointment to say the least, drop me a line. We’ll talk about it privately.
Parking is definitely a factor, Edward, by which I mean price, not availability. The owner of a restaurant near the Egyptian (which has also suffered because of this) told me that he has sometimes closed up as early as 10:PM on weekends because there was nobody there, not even in the bar. As he put it, “Who wants to pay $15 parking just to have dinner?” Meanwhile, Burbank, which has gobs of unlimited free parking in the Media district, looks like Westwood in the 80s.
I don’t want to get into a pissing match with you, Edward.
All I will tell you is that I was watching movies in Westwood when there was not room for people on the sidewalks and they were in a constant fight with the then-new AMC in Century City for regional slotting. Parking was not why Westwood started sliding… gunfire was… even though the vast majority of people visiting Westwood on a weekend, back then, had to pay $5 or more to park. But the unwillingness of the community to compete, from parking on, is why Westwood is dead. There are more than enough people in the area to support the theaters and the real thing is that it, like the other places, used to be a destination… park, eat, movie, fun evening. Very few choose to go there anymore… and it starts with parking frustration. And if you really think there are 1000 street spaces in central Westwood, you are doing magical math.
All I can tell you is that there is no one associated with AC who will tell you, when they are being candid, that they are happy with the consistent attendance at either theater. Yes, they have events that fill the room. But you can’t have movie stars and singular events at all times. The idea of a cinematheque is to have a place that people gather at as a habit. And parking is a major issue – by price or availability – at both.
The reason that no one – and there are many – who would love to have a nice theater to play with is willing to get involved is parking. That theater, like others, sold out when it had Dances With Wolves and there was no Arclight or Grove. It can happen. But in terms of an ongoing business, there is no parking in that neighborhood that expands for another 300 or more cars showing up all at once.
As for The Arclight, the biggest problem AFI had in their last two years there? They had their tent city on top of the parking structure, taking up a level and a half of spaces, and people could not longer find parking. Killed them… not just with paying customers, but with people who were guests and who were inconvenienced. Parking. (And yeah, the curved screen in the Dome.)
The success of Landmark 12 is, in small part, because it is new. The fact is, they have programmed at least half the screens with studio movies. The theaters are nice, but no better than anywhere else new. But even if you have to circle around to 4 levels, you can (almost) always park your car within 200 feet of an escalator.
Same with The Grove. Same with The Arclight. (Branding? Are you kidding? Good theater with good parking… finally got stable when pricing rose elsewhere to make the Arclight premium seem less ridiculous.)
Yes, the Chinettes are a mixed bag. But as far as I know, Mann would like to keep operating them while it would like to abandon the Chinese. But maybe I am wrong and they are done with The Chinese too. Thing is, Hollywood & Highland IS your example of location that you try to use for Westwood. It’s a tourist location that needs locals in order to work. And these two things, plus a nearby population that is not a monied, have made the whole thing an iffy proposition.
But the point on my comment on parking was… and is… that destination locations require parking on Los Angeles. Period. Even if you are turning off – and away – just 30% of your potential audience, you are fucked. In the end, people do look at the movie listings and besides deciding what they want to see, they consider what the experience of going to see that movie will be. If it includes circling the block(s) for 20 minutes, hoping to steal a meter space or worrying for hours whether where you just parked is sticker parking and you are getting a $45 ticket or you are running late and you just don’t know if you can get into the theater (and you are not under 35)… guess what… you don’t go there.
And it’s not just theaters. It’s restaurants and shopping too.
People are willing to pay $11 to park at Mozza for lunch… but not to go to most other restaurants that have lived and died on Highland. So yeah… “give ’em what they want” is a clever answer… but few businesses can always give them what they want, much less what the feel they “need,” which is what “when they play movies people want to see” really means.
So… no… Westwood is not just about parking. It is about a district that used to be flooded with foot traffic every weekend and often on weeknights and now is not, removing it from the list of destination venues in LA. With that, it became less viable for movie theaters and especially for the big houses. Doesn’t help that the smaller houses mostly suck either.
And Scooter… I spend time in all of those cities… I am a city person… and have stayed in all of those neighborhoods where homeless are around. And none of the others are like downtown LA.
San Francisco’s SOMA district is closest. Taking a stroll down Market after 10 can be Night of The Living Dead creepy… which is why you don’t see people giddily strolling down Market Street at night.
Anyway…
David, as a former Bay Area denizen, there ain’t nothin’ going on Market Street after 7 pm. It’s the area you’re least likely to find something to do.
Agreed, Christian… except there are now a number of hop restaurants a block or two off of market and the homeless migrate a bit… and you still have to get to your hotel, if you are visiting and staying in that area.
It is the cavernous quiet combined with the homeless that makes it feel more like LA’s downtown at night than any part of NY or Chicago.
I didn’t say there were a thousand street spaces in Westwood, Dave, but that doesn’t change the fact that there are a thousand additional parking spaces available at night in Westwood.
But through this discussion, you’ve finally hit the real head on the nail in terms of Westwood’s problems. There isn’t enough for people to do in the area to make it a full evening, to justify the cost of going and parking there.
I don’t know if you remember, but you and I met in front of the Criterion in Santa Monica a few years back, when I was a manager there. The Third Street Promenade is the perfect example of why parking isn’t the main problem with places like Westwood. The six main city-operated parking structures are always filled on the weekends, and those who just go straight to the Santa Monica Place to park, not wanting to deal with the city lots, are having a hard time finding parking as well. Yet Third Street is always filled with people, regardless of ease of parking, or lack thereof. It has to do with the expected experience versus ease and cost of parking. On the Promenade, there are many places to shop and eat and be entertained, plus you have the option of walking down to the Pier or going down to the beach. The expected experience overrules what troubles one might have with parking. (Imagine how much worse it will get down there when the SM Place reopens in August.)
As for the Egyptian, there is plenty of parking right down the street… at Hollywood and Highland! Two dollars for four hours, by either getting validated at the box office or showing your movie ticket at the cashier’s station. Same deal as the El Cap and the Chinese.
Four hours doesn’t cover a double feature, plus dinner, plus the ten minutes to find a space, plus the 15 minutes to get out (45-60 minutes if there’s a big event at the Kodak or Chinese that just ended), plus the 10-15 minutes each way it takes to fight your way through all the people blocking the sidewalk watching the failed musicians and the idiots in costumes posing for pictures with tourists.
It’s my understanding that the festival has arranged special DTLA parking rate during the actual events, $5 for 4 hours and $8 for the whole day. But I’m going to use the subway for the most part.