Orange, CA Filming & Production: Student Filming (2026)

Chapter 5.45 of the Orange Municipal Code creates a defined carve-out for nonprofit and educational filming. Section 5.45.010 defines 'charitable or student films' as any filming by a nonprofit organization that qualifies under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code as a charitable organization, or by an accredited educational institution, for which no person directly or indirectly receives a profit from producing, marketing or showing the resulting film, digital recording or photographs. That definition matters financially: Section 5.45.040(B) states that no application fee or location/lease fee shall be required of charitable or student films, or of filming conducted on behalf of the City or any City department or division, while every other commercial filmmaker must pay the City Council-set application fee plus a location/lease fee for using city property, billed at half the daily rate for setup and strike days.

The fee waiver does not eliminate the permit process itself: a charitable or student production filming on a city street, park or other public property still must apply for and receive a permit from the City Manager or designee under Section 5.45.020(A), and the application must still meet the content requirements of Section 5.45.030, including the location, dates, personnel count and equipment list. Charitable and student filmmakers filming only on private property in ways that need no public property, cause no impairment of neighbors, and use no pyrotechnics are exempt from needing a permit at all, the same as any other private filming under Section 5.45.020(B)(1)-(2).