Cash-Strapped Schools Open Campuses To Hollywood

LOS ANGELES (CBS) — It's "lights, camera, action", but it's not on a studio lot.

Local film and television productions are taking their cameras inside real Southland classrooms and school hallways in what is being touted as a win-win for both the productions and the schools.

CBS2's Melissa McCarty visited one TV set on location at a Van Nuys school.

Schools hit hard by budget cuts are jumping at the extra revenue that film and television productions can yield, typically around tens of thousands of dollars. In 2010 alone, nearly 450 schools earned a piece of up to an estimated $2 million from hosting the shoots.

Meanwhile, studios that have trimmed their production budgets are looking for more cost-effective ways of keeping their cameras local, and schools say the opening their campuses can give their kids a glimpse of a business most have never seen.

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