Don’t like the movie shoot that has taken over your street, ma’am? Take a hike, ma’am, and don’t come back until we leave.

In a city brimming with abundance, one of the greatest gifts bestowed on the little people is film production. It puts Toronto on the map and adds pizzazz to our humdrum existence.

Hey, you might just catch a glimpse of a B-list actor whose name is right there on the tip of your tongue. Or maybe recognize a Toronto street in the background while watching a late-night rerun.

Those are the main benefits of film shoots to the hoi polloi. But Toronto’s film office says they “add a sense of vitality, vibrancy and excitement to Toronto streets.”

All that vibrancy may be lost on Karen Newton, who sent us a marvellous note outlining her encounter with a film crew on the Esplanade, which was filming on a nearby basketball court in her neighbourhood.

Newton walked to the TTC stop on Tuesday at the Esplanade and Hahn Pl. to catch a bus and took a seat inside the shelter. She says she was “accosted by a film person who told me, ‘Ma’am, you can’t sit here. Ma’am, you have to stand at the side of the bus shelter.’”

So she left the shelter and stood beside it, noting “there was no sign on the shelter saying we couldn’t use it.” She also wondered why a fancy BMW was parked in front of the shelter, where it was in the path of oncoming traffic.

Newton said she was soon approached by another “aggressive” film staffer, “who also could not say two words without ma'am-ing me. “He told me, ‘you can’t stand there, ma'am.’ He said ‘ma'am, the bus is not going to be stopping at that stop, ma'am.’

“I told him the other person just told me to stand beside the bus shelter. He insisted I could not stand and wait there, ma'am.

“At that same time, someone I know was going to cross the street to get to work. She's been doing that for years. He told her she cannot cross the street. She told him off and rightly so. They were not filming in the street.

“Then the ma'am-er asked where I was going. I asked him, who’s asking? He then said, ‘ma'am can cross the street if ma'am wants to.’ I told him I've felt free to cross the street my whole life, it has nothing to do with him.

“He was angry and telling me I can’t wait at the bus stop, even though I was hidden behind the shelter as I was told to. He said I have to walk halfway to Sherbourne,” to another TTC stop. “Stupidly, I believed him.”

Newton said she’s been stewing about it ever since she returned home later and noticed that buses were indeed stopping at the TTC stop she was told she couldn’t use.

“Is it acceptable for film crews to block bus stops with cars for an entire day? I guarantee you they were not using that car for filming, just to block the stop.

“And is it acceptable for them to tell us we can’t sit in the bus shelter, then be told we can’t use that shelter at all and have to find another one? We need to use the bus stop. We need to cross the street. We need to get to work.”

STATUS: We passed along Newton’s note to the city and got the following reply from spokesperson Shane Gerard: “The Toronto film office has been in contact with the production company to determine why this occurred and how it can be remedied for the future. The City of Toronto takes these concerns very seriously and immediately engages with production companies who have had concerns expressed by residents. We encourage people to notify us at 416-338-FILM (3456) or filmtoronto@toronto.ca with any individual or community concerns. The City also knows that improving production and community relations is an ongoing process, and this area has been identified in the City's five-point plan (http://ow.ly/8xoY3088p8D) for enhancing Toronto's screen-based infrastructure, customer service and labour force development that was endorsed by City Council in June 2016.”

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If you’ve had an experience — good or bad — with a film shoot, let us know about it.