{"id":333542,"date":"2026-05-26T23:11:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-26T23:11:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/333542\/"},"modified":"2026-05-26T23:11:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-26T23:11:09","slug":"one-battle-after-another-filmed-in-san-diego-and-won-an-oscar-the-mayors-budget-cuts-the-staffer-who-helped-bring-it-here","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/333542\/","title":{"rendered":"‘One Battle After Another’ filmed in San Diego and won an Oscar. The mayor’s budget cuts the staffer who helped bring it here."},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Two<\/a>Leonardo DiCaprio, left, waits as director Paul Thomas Anderson frames a scene from \u201cOne Battle After Another,\u201d part of which was shot in San Diego County. (Photo by Merrick Morton via County News Center)<\/p>\n

The city of San Diego is preparing<\/a> to get rid of its only budgeted position that works with film productions. Film industry professionals say the decision is going to cost the region.<\/p>\n

San Diego collected headlines<\/a> last year when the Oscar-winning film \u201cOne Battle After Another,\u201d filmed downtown and in Otay Mesa, brought in an estimated $6.8 million to the region.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt shows Hollywood what San Diego can do,\u201d Mayor Todd Gloria wrote in a Facebook post<\/a>, touting the local crews, businesses and jobs the production supported.<\/p>\n

But the filmmakers originally only planned to shoot downtown. The production then ran out of days to film outside of California while still receiving a tax incentive from the California Film Commission. Michael Glaser, the location manager for the film, told Times of San Diego that director Paul Thomas Anderson wanted to reshoot the film\u2019s arresting opening scene, so together they looked to San Diego.<\/p>\n

They sent some scouts to Otay Mesa and found what he referred to as the \u201cchippy chippy chippy bridge\u201d in the film. Securing the necessary permits required approval from various entities \u2014\u00a0 Homeland Security, private land owners and Caltrans \u2014 all in less than two weeks. Glaser credits Guy Langman, the city of San Diego\u2019s filming program manager, with getting it all done.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think I\u2019m being dramatic in saying this, but it just, it wouldn\u2019t have happened,\u201d Glaser said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt would have had to push weeks and weeks, which is not possible because we lose Leonardo DiCaprio to another movie,\u201d he said. \u201cLike, it just wouldn\u2019t have happened.\u201d<\/p>\n

Glaser said there\u2019s one major thing a public film office or dedicated commission can do that he can\u2019t: fast track permit approvals with a city or county.<\/p>\n

Langman\u2019s job is currently the only dedicated position to working with and helping to bring film productions to the city of San Diego. Under Gloria\u2019s proposed budget, that position will be eliminated.<\/p>\n

Ramon Galindo, a city spokesperson, said San Diego would stop providing concierge services for location scouting, permit advisement and guidance, interjurisdictional support and student film mentorship. Those are all tasks currently handled by the city\u2019s filming program manager.<\/p>\n

Under the new structure, Parks and Recreation \u2014 a department itself facing significant personnel reductions in the proposed budget \u2014 will be responsible for issuing permits for filming. The city issued 439 such permits last year.<\/p>\n

Galindo said last year the estimated economic impact of filming in the city was $10.6 million. A year earlier, filming contributed an estimated $17.4 million to the local economy.\u00a0<\/p>\n

If films, commercials and photo shoots that contribute to this economic activity can\u2019t get permits on their fast-paced timeline, multiple location managers who spoke with Times of San Diego said they\u2019d likely move to another city.<\/p>\n

Lisa Rothmuller has been a location manager in San Diego for decades. She was the location manager for \u201cAnchorman,\u201d \u201cBring It On\u201d and \u201cTerriers,\u201d among other projects. She watched the transition from the city\u2019s film commission, which was eliminated in 2013<\/a>, to it being replaced by\u00a0the filming program manager position, housed under Parks and Recreation.\u00a0<\/p>\n

She said the collapse of the commission \u2014 along with the 2007 writers\u2019 strike a few years earlier \u2014 set back San Diego<\/a> production greatly. She now says she works mostly on commercials, but can build out a full-time work schedule through word of mouth.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Rothmuller said she relies on the city\u2019s filming project manager for key assistance, such as advising her to avoid a house on a block that has previously complained about filming or giving her a direct line to the police department.<\/p>\n

Rothmuller said losing the position would be another major blow to the industry.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would hate to see this whole entire community of filmmakers go under because we have a city that is so blind that it doesn\u2019t understand that one position is kind of keeping this industry afloat,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Typically, a location manager like her or the city\u2019s filming program manager is the first person a producer calls when deciding where they are going to set up their shoot.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me personally, I would say my biggest concern is that when a producer calls me and asks me if I can get a permit, they have a shoot in two weeks, can I get a permit? I won\u2019t know if I can,\u201d Rothmuller said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd if I\u2019m not confident in knowing that I can make what they need happen, they will turn around and go to Florida,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

That was recently the case for Welton Jones, a San Diego-based location manager.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Oscar-nominated film, \u201cIf I Had Legs I\u2019d Kick You,\u201d was loosely inspired by a true story that took place in Del Mar, and he said the production was originally looking to film there. But Del Mar was not willing to \u201cplay ball\u201d with the production \u2014 as Jones put it \u2014 so the filmmakers packed up to shoot on the east coast.<\/p>\n

The city says that while it is eliminating the filming program manager,\u00a0 it is also supporting the county\u2019s efforts to establish a regional film office to replace some of the tailor-made services the manager used to offer.<\/p>\n

Greg Sowizdrzal, the president of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees Local 122, which supports the county\u2019s initiative, said a regional film office would help San Diego remain competitive. He said the amount of work the city\u2019s filming program manager has taken on has essentially given him the role that a regional commissioner would normally do. He said losing that person right now, would set back their efforts.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe still need somebody working inside the city,\u201d Sowizdrzal said. \u201cWe\u2019re going to\u00a0 try to push the initiative at the county anyway, but without somebody at the city \u2014 that definitely hampers it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Leonardo DiCaprio, left, waits as director Paul Thomas Anderson frames a scene from \u201cOne Battle After Another,\u201d part…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":333543,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[15743,8504,1743,74,69940,76,75,3235],"class_list":["post-333542","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-budget-cuts","tag-del-mar","tag-hollywood","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-budget","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news","tag-todd-gloria"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333542","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=333542"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333542\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/333543"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=333542"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=333542"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=333542"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}