Editor:
To Supernatural 5 Films: Your production team came and left a mess in front of our home after obtaining an extension for your late filming in the quiet Crest area of Burnaby this week.
I wanted to thank you for dismissing our calls during your shoot to your location manager and assistant location manager to simply clean up after your production left their mark in our community.
I suppose the tax incentives to the city would pay for litter and trash pickup and street cleaning for the fresh oil stains your trucks left and, technically, the first couple of feet of the front lawn are city property so the litter is really not on our yard until it blows closer. We will try to keep quiet while your support crew sleep in their trucks in the daytime, smoke and discard their waste in front of our homes.
Our neighbours are happy to offer shade as your staff loiter under trees on the unusually hot days but, again, would it be an imposition to ask your crew to be reasonably quiet and simply pick up after themselves and respect the community?
With the heat, some residents opened their windows and have small children who are trying to nap while your staff banter back and forth. Perhaps with the final season of Supernatural approaching, there is less incentive to be a good corporate community member in your own city.
We recognize the valuable film industry is a major employer in B.C. and have had many crews shoot movies, TV and commercial productions in our community and all were respectful.
Our community is comprised of a lot of seniors who have mobility issues and other challenges, although the inconvenience of walking further to access our vehicles or neighbourhood pharmacy is a small price to pay for the day.
Why should residents be tasked with cleaning up after your mess? We also have employees of the city who reside here and members of the local RCMP and other civically minded residents amongst us, so we try to look after our community.
We will ask the city to actively monitor your production if you come back.
We reached out to the City of Burnaby to get some support, but I suspect they are there to promote film production, rather than support residents and businesses impacted by crews. I guess our community is just another backdrop to your tight shooting schedule and production interests and the task of cleaning up after your shoots is unreasonable.
The next time you come to our doors soliciting for support for shoots in our neighbourhood for your production, perhaps don’t be surprised to receive pushback. Some of us have even offered to use our leaf blowers to keep your trash off our properties and offer our civic duty to clean and pressure wash the streets, too. I hope this doesn’t awake your slumbering support staff or disrupt your actual outdoor shoot.
Bob Lee, Burnaby
