Los Angeles churches show up on silver screen

Published 9:00 pm Friday, June 23, 2006

LOS ANGELES – It was the stuff of Hollywood legend – a happenstance discovery leading to a film career.

True, this career doesn’t equal that of movie goddess Lana Turner – famously discovered while still in high school – but that’s fine with the Church of the Epiphany. In its own way, the church has made it in the movies.

A location scout was driving through the Lincoln Heights neighborhood three years ago when he spotted the church built in the English Gothic Revival style. Soon the Rev. Will Wauters received a phone message: Would he be interested in letting his church appear in a movie?

Wauters was intrigued. “There is a certain thrill to it all,” he said.

At the scout’s urging, he signed up with a company called Media Locations. Like any good actor, the parish is versatile and can assume various roles. The main church, built in 1914, may be English Gothic Revival, but the 118-year-old parish hall – which once served as the original church – is an example of the Romanesque Revival style.

The Church of the Epiphany has since appeared in a handful of productions, including a music video for Grammy-winning artist John Legend and HBO’s recent “Walkout,” in which Wauters had a small role as a priest.

Throughout Los Angeles, churches have signed up as possible filming sites for movies, TV shows, music videos and commercials. Some have had great success over many decades. Others have had a few gigs here and there.

Hollywood United Methodist Church is a veteran. Its filmography includes: “Back to the Future,” “Sister Act,” “That Thing You Do!” and, most recently, “Jarhead.”

Elsewhere in L.A., Kanye West’s video for his song “Jesus Walks” was filmed at McCarty Memorial Church, and in the upcoming “Spider-Man 3” movie, one might recognize St. Brendan Catholic Church.

The reasons churches want to be in these productions vary, though the main one is income.

For big churches, money from filming is a nice extra.

For small churches the money matters.

Wauters, of Church of the Epiphany, said his church receives about $5,000 for a full day of shooting. That’s a significant sum for a church that gets, each year, about $8,000 from pledges and offerings from parishioners and $4,000 from fundraising efforts. Its annual expenses, largely underwritten by the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles, total about $93,000.

At some churches, filming provides not just income, but a chance to give back to the community.

“We’re trying to be helpful to the Hollywood industry,” said Mark Stephenson, business administrator at Hollywood United Methodist Church.

Father Robert J. Gaestel of Church of the Angels in Pasadena takes it to another level.

“I personally believe that Christianity is supposed to support the arts,” he said, adding that his church has been in the movies for nearly 60 years.

The church has been in a number of TV commercials and shows, too, including “The West Wing,” in which it is set in New England.

Some churches have been known to turn down offers if they don’t approve of the message or material of the production.

“We’re very particular about script material,” said Stephenson of the Hollywood United Methodist Church. He reads the scripts before agreeing to any filming. “We’re not going to just let anything be filmed here. It depends on the type of content.”

And there is one more condition, adopted by many churches: No filming on Sundays.