In a development that is certain to delight some San Franciscans — and send others into conniption fits — the city is about to become a much more attractive location for filming movies and television shows.

The city’s bay views, scenic hills and diverse architecture have always been a draw for filmmakers. But simple economics have limited productions to “drive-by filming,” where a production company sets up a few establishing shots on the streets of San Francisco (to pick an example) and then flies off to a place like Vancouver or Louisiana, where film production tax breaks are better.

As of Monday, however, that’s changed. California had a modest tax credit program, capped at $100 million per year in tax breaks and was limited to relatively small productions with budgets under $75 million.

But when Gov. Jerry Brown signed AB1839 last year, it created a major boost in incentives. For starters, the yearly tax credit goes up to $330 million and there will be no limit on the size of the productions. In other words, get ready for blockbusters.

Monday was the first day to apply for the TV portion of the program, and decisions will not be made until July, but supporters are convinced it will change the landscape.

“It more than tripled the funding,” said California Film Commission Executive Director Amy Lemisch. “And includes bigger budget feature films. I would say San Francisco is very likely to benefit. What we are hoping is that rather than go to San Francisco for two or three days, they will spend most of the time filming (here) where they want to be.”

That’s good news for the local economy, but all it takes is a couple of weekends of blocked streets and camera-clogged sidewalks to annoy residents.

John Keker, a nationally known local attorney, claimed filming for the movie “San Andreas” essentially “shut down Russian Hill” last year. He provided me with a copy of the letter he sent to Mayor Ed Lee then that begins with the memorable first sentence: “Your Film Commission has gone mad.”

Keker isn’t any happier to hear that more film crews may be coming — and staying longer.

“I am certainly not excited about more filming in a relatively small city,” he said. “But more than that is the arrogance of the film crews. It’s like: People be damned. And the police officers they hire and pay are as rude as humanly possible.”

Of course, Susannah Greason Robbins, executive director of the San Francisco Film Commission, is thrilled.

“I am crossing my fingers that it ends up bringing more work to San Francisco,” she said. “Something like (TNT series) “Murder in the First,” would come up here from Los Angeles and do a couple of days (even though the police drama was supposedly set in San Francisco) and then go back. I hammered on them to do more here.”

Now that seems almost certain. The state tax credit is a big start, but the bill also includes another 5 percent tax break if the project is filmed outside of a 30-mile “studio zone” in Los Angeles. In addition, San Francisco has a $3 million film rebate program, which Supervisor Mark Farrell has proposed raising to $4 million.

Besides ... duh ... it’s San Francisco.

“It’s not a myth,” Lemisch says. “People really do like to film there. They really like the look.”

Lemisch points out something that you might not have considered. San Francisco has such diverse geography that — like a good character actor — it can play many roles.

“When (HBO) filmed 'Hemingway and Gellhorn’” in the Bay Area, she said, “they were able to match locations in Spain, Germany, China and Northern Europe. They did scenes from the Spanish Civil War from the countryside.”

It also has benefits for the city. To get the credit, productions must spend 75 percent of principle photography days in California or spend 75 percent of the total budget here, meaning lots of local hiring. There’s even a provision that will require productions to “help train high school and college students for jobs in the industry.”

All that and international exposure, too. That should make everyone happy. Or almost everyone.

“By the way,” Keker said. “I have seen the trailer for “San Andreas” (scheduled to open later this month) and it looks perfectly awful.”

C.W. Nevius is a San Francisco Chronicle columnist. His columns appear Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. E-mail: cwnevius@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @cwnevius