Tourism is a product of filming. When this temporary business impacts a community, visiting crews, talent and producers have to eat, sleep and relax somewhere -- and they do, when they finish filming every day. The Film Commission becomes the concierge to this business giving filmmakers brochures, lists of restaurants, hotels listed on our Web site and other information about entertainment.

The economy is still suffering. Because of the General Motors financial challenges, San Diego hasn't seen any of the usual car commercials. Business is cutting back on advertising so we see fewer commercials being made.

April 30 was like any other day at the Film Commission until Supervising Producer Toby Gorman called from "American Idol."

Director Werner Herzog, nominated for his directing talent for an Academy Award in a documentary in 2008, knows how important location is to the storyline of a script.

Guerilla filming is filming without proper permission, which usually results in community concerns, risk to the public and filmmakers, safety issues and of course, in general, it gives filming that is legitimately done, a bad name.