Location, Location, Location

As much as filmmakers love shooting here, long or short, it's not easy, and has become less so since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The older problems had to do with Washington's 68 square miles of overlapping federal and local jurisdictions and a greater metropolitan region with about two dozen jurisdictions, each with its own set of rules and regulations.

· The National Park Service hasn't allowed commercial movie companies to film inside a Washington monument in many decades.

· The use of even fake firearms on park property is strictly prohibited.

· The Supreme Court? Only if a movie pertains to the court and it gives permission.

Crystal Palmer, director of the D.C. Office of Motion Picture and TV Development, says increased post-9/11 security measures have "caused people to reconfigure their shots, but with technology, computer graphics and long lenses, they really do compensate. As long as they're able to get reasonably close to the location, they can pretty much doctor it."

Aerial shots of the nation's capital? They're almost all stock footage these days because commercial filmmakers face tremendous obstacles getting permission to fly around, much less above, Washington, because of the Air Defense Identification Zone, established in 2003, and the Flight Restricted Zone, which extends about 16 miles in radius around Reagan National Airport.

Of course, there are a lot of local location "cheats," architecturally similar buildings whose exteriors can substitute in part or in whole for the hard gets. Carol Flaisher, whose Flaisher Films has been the premier location finder in Washington for 30 years, with more than 100 credits, says the Internal Revenue Service building is a popular stand-in for the Russell Senate Office Building. Robert Redford was the last person to film inside a hearing room in the Senate building, for 1994's "Quiz Show," and only because the film, which he directed, dramatized the infamous "Twenty-One" game-show scandal. But for the upcoming political thriller "Lions for Lambs," Redford was denied the Hill entirely.

According to Flaisher, even the easy-to-get landmark shots can be challenging.

"Every single director says to me, 'I want to do something a little different.' " Flaisher says. "It is what it is: If you haven't seen it in a movie, it doesn't exist. There's only so many angles of the White House or Capitol you're going to get."

The standbys:

THE WHITE HOUSE The Web site http://www.whitehousemuseum.org/special/movies.htm examines accuracy in Hollywood portrayals of the White House (though not of its inhabitants), offering reviews of choice movies and television shows, with a caveat that fictional presidents are entitled to fictional White Houses. "The American President," "Dave" and "The West Wing" get high marks. With no filming allowed inside the White House or on its grounds, filmmakers must either construct facsimile Oval Offices and briefing rooms or head to Toronto's Cinescape studios, home of a major White House: a 36,000-square-foot, two-soundstage facility built for 1997's "Murder at 1600" and used most recently for "Man of the Year" and "Head of State." The Burbank, Calif., set built for "The West Wing" was packed up when the show ended last year.

THE U.S. CAPITOL The towering structure looms large, but no filming is allowed on the grounds. Hence two particular favorite shots: the "bustling city" shot down Pennsylvania Avenue from the U.S. Treasury steps at 14th Street NW and a closer-in shot in front of the Senate Garage Fountain and smaller Capitol Reflecting Pool, as close as filmmakers are allowed. Filming there was already rare, but after major problems with 1977's "Billy Jack Goes to Washington," Congress barred the filming there of all fictional movies to maintain "the aura of dignity that appropriately surrounds the Capitol as a worldwide symbol of freedom and democracy." "Legally Blonde 2: Red, Hot & Blonde" opted for the Utah and Illinois state capitols. "Dave" and "The Contender" used the Virginia Capitol.

THE TRIFECTA MALL SHOT Encompasses the Lincoln Memorial, the Reflecting Pool and the Washington Monument. Each also gets many individual shots. Daniel Chester French's larger-than-life sculpture of Abraham Lincoln staring pensively toward the Washington Monument is a favorite, but no commercial filming has been allowed inside the Lincoln landmark or any other memorials since the '50s. One can film up to the marble steps, though, which is why so many films feature conversations there, with the memorial behind the actors or the Reflecting Pool and Washington Monument before them. The most famous scene shot here: "Forrest Gump," with Tom Hanks addressing an anti-Vietnam War rally and reuniting with Forrest's true love, Jenny, in the Reflecting Pool. In the 2001 remake of "Planet of the Apes," astronaut Mark Walhberg's space capsule skips down the Reflecting Pool like a stone; when he climbs out and goes up the memorial steps, he's greeted by the statue of the Great Emancipator . . . Ape Lincoln!

THE PENTAGON Almost always shot aerially and from a distance; no filming is allowed inside. Those "No Way Out" Pentagon interiors? Shot at the Department of the Interior. Philip Strub, the Pentagon's Hollywood liaison, says the real Pentagon command center is boring compared with the ones in "Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb" and other crisis films. "We don't mind if they want to doll up the command center," Strub says.

THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS JEFFERSON BUILDING Provides an occasional opportunity for a classic crane shot from the huge Reading Room's ornate 160-foot-high ceiling -- the highest point in the building, with a gorgeous mural by Edwin Blashfield -- down to a floor where circular, beautifully lit desks are always teeming with researchers (see "All the President's Men" and "National Treasure"). Although much of the latter's sequel, "National Treasure: Book of Secrets," a big Christmas release, was shot inside, outdoor scenes had to be shot in London because filmmakers couldn't shoot on the Capitol Hill streets around the building. ·