L.A. city, County vie openly with other regions for film location work.

The big winner at last week's Location Expo '94 may have been an exhibitor that was not even in the entertainment industry trade show inside the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium.

Film offices of the City and County of Los Angeles pitched a tent in front of the Santa Monica Superior Court House and attracted about 5,000 location managers and studio executives to hear their arguments about why they should shoot their productions here and not go elsewhere.

Runaway film production is a threat to Los Angeles' economy and Location Expo underscored the problem. The show attracted 187 film commissions from around the world, which set up booths inside the auditorium to woo Los Angeles-based entertainment companies to their locations with incentive packages that include outright cash giveaways.

Instead of being part of a show that drains about $1 billion from the city's economy, according to city/county film office statistics, the local film officials -- Cody Cluff at the city office and Stephanie Liner at the county one - decided to rebel and stage their own L.A. Expo a few hundred feet from the civic auditorium in a large white tent emblazoned with colorful tubing.

No booth inside the show was as spacious or as eye-catching, many show-goers said. Inside the L.A. tent, free hot dogs and drinks were served and free T-shirts were doled out.

Visitors included Gov. Pete Wilson, who also went inside the auditorium where several California regional and county film commissions had their own booths.

Last year both Los Angeles city and county were inside the auditorium. The move outside was applauded as bold and effective by studio executives, state film officials and even Los Angeles' competitors inside the show.

"With this booth, they are making lemonade out of lemons," said Gini Barrett, senior vice president of the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. "The problem has been in the last decade, while the production pie was getting bigger, the L.A. slice was either staying the same or getting smaller. Now L.A. is positioning itself to get some of that growth along with the other states."

Barrett added there is a new "can-do attitude" at City Hall where the film industry is no longer taken for granted. The alliance is an industry trade group that represents the major Hollywood studios and independent producers.

Cody Cluff, assistant deputy mayor for entertainment industry affairs, said the rebel stand paid off because many location executives came to the city/county tent to discuss their upcoming productions and hear his pitch on how the film permit process is being streamlined and how costs are trying to be lowered for filmmakers.

"We were able to get leads on new productions and were able to set up meetings next week to see what we can do to bring producers back into town," Cluff said. "The biggest thing we can do is to eliminate the hassle and make it easier to obtain permits. We're also working to cut costs for filming in various neighborhoods and homes."

Television production flight has been much greater than feature film losses, Cluff said, and is the most cost-sensitive area because TV budgets are considerably less. In 1993, about 4,000 film permits were issued in the county, slightly less than in 1992, but the actual number of film days was actually up, according to Liner.

Film production represents about $4 billion in revenues to the county while it's an $8 billion income generator for the entire state.

Competition is intensifying, with states and countries using various marketing techniques to gain the attention of L.A. producers. Canada's film commission used a full-page ad in the L.A. Times' business pages on Feb. 25. Cluff said Florida has offered the producers of "seaQuest" $500,000 if they pull out of their Los Angeles sound stages and take the production there.

Cluff said he hopes to recapture some production in about six months when policies regarding fire inspectors on sets are due to be liberalized so daily attendance by inspectors is changed to spot checks. It costs film crews between $29 and $45 per hour to have fire inspectors on their sets.

He is also hoping that film permits will no longer be required from the city's public works department. A proposal has been made to create a regional one-stop film permit center.

According to Patti Archuletta, California state film commissioner, feature-filming in the state was up 36 percent last year, with San Diego and San Francisco the fastest-growing locations. She labeled Canada as California's biggest production enemy.

Hollywood crews seem to be migrating north in flocks. In British Columbia, productions went from 60 to 73 last year and revenues jumped from $210 million to $285 million (Canadian dollars), according to Dianne Neufield, director of the British Columbia Film Commission. She said Walt Disney Co. is negotiating to bring its "Journey to the Center of the Earth" feature to Vancouver's Bridge Studios and it will have a $30 million impact on that economy, the largest of any production ever there.

Hollywood execs at Location Expo said they have no bias against shooting in L.A. and will continue to shoot here as well as outside the county.

"Where we shoot depends on the picture and each gets judged separately," said Don Zepfel, vice president of physical production at Universal Pictures. "The City (of L.A.) is trying hard to streamline its operation and its tent shows a little flair. I give them credit for making a bit of a splash. After all, this is show biz and that's what it's all about."