I did more run and gun HELLO recording because today is friday and there is more people in the streets. I did not record to much because people can easily catch me today because there is more people in the streets and it is to hard to get away. I did do more anyway and here is what did happen and scared me. One man in a suit did grab me and I could not run away. He threatened me and did call me bad names. A police women saw it and pepper sprayed the suit in the face and arrested him. The police women ask me what happened and I told her all I said was HELLO and he attacked me. She asked me what I am doing with camcorder and I said I just come from work and always record buildings down town because I like down town Edmonton because I am from the country. She took my name and statement and did charge mr. suit for assault. Now I have better recording because I did record the police women pepper spray and hand cuff the suit. The police women was very nice to me. Edmonton is a good city.

I did not phone today.

So Tom, just to be sure...if we don't hear from you on here for say a day, or two, or even three days, should we assume that the coppers have detained you? If so, did you want one of us to check on the police stations to see if you are there and that you're okay? Or will you instruct your 'chicks' to post what happened to you on the boards? So we don't get overly worried bout you man. Above all, make sure that you get your tapes back if they try to confiscate it. :)

I think it worked to his favour.

Tom, I moved the thread here. Keep us informed. By the way, this is the craziest thing that I've read all week. The stuff you do is something that I may have done when I was 16. I could offer you a few tips, but the boss wouldn't like it. :-))

One tip for shooting people on the streets is make sure your little red light is off, then, assuming you're using a camera with a flipout LCD screen, fold the screen back up against the camera so you can look at it while the camera is aimed out to the left. If you're not looking in the direction the camera is pointed, they don't think you're shooting them.
One time I had to do a time lapse crowd shot, which meant letting the camera run for about half an hour. For about the first 10 minutes, everytime somebody saw the camera they would either duck or wave or, if teenagers, start making stupid faces and scratching their crotches. So I simply turned sideways and looked over the side of the camera, ignoring what I was actually shooting (didn't have a camera with a flipout screen). I got half an hour of uninterrupted footage.

On the other hand, if you're shooting closeups of individuals, that is a bit different. Some people don't want to be identified on camera. Maybe they're in the witness protection program, or an undocumented immigrant or something like that.

In Canada, people on the witness protection program are either sent to Red Dear, Alberta or Regina, Saskabush. Oops.

This was a close call because I did almost become beat up and I must run more to become faster and move faster like a weasel. I will then not get in to trouble because I can move faster and run away faster.

Tom, what do you do for a living?

Perhaps be more careful, Tom, like be ready to run faster. :-))

<<<-- Originally posted by Frank Granovski : In Canada, people on the witness protection program are either sent to Red Dear, Alberta or Regina, Saskabush. Oops. -->>>

That the only way they can get people to live in those comunities. they should be putting Edmonton, St Albert, Sherwood park and Spruce grove on that list as well.

It's a bad idea to tape anything in those locales.

Gee. Sounds like a rough neighbourhood.

:-)

<<<-- Originally posted by Tom E Young : I did more run and gun HELLO recording because today is friday and there is more people in the streets. I did not record to much because people can easily catch me today because there is more people in the streets and it is to hard to get away. I did do more anyway and here is what did happen and scared me. One man in a suit did grab me and I could not run away. He threatened me and did call me bad names.

I did not phone today. -->>>

<<<-- Originally posted by Tom E Young : I must run more to become faster and move faster like a weasel. -->>>

Tom, I don't know if you're being serious but you're hilarious!

He is Funny.

I bet he is 8 years old

I'll bet he's probably closer to 50.

Nah...a mental age of about 14, I'd say.

I never trhought of taking pics of people that are strangers. However, I do manage to get some hotties on my Canon A-70 that my wife scrunches her face up to when she sees them on the computer as they download. I ran out of excuses for why I have this person focused in the center of the frame ;)

<<<-- Originally posted by Michael Sinclair : However, I do manage to get some hotties on my Canon A-70 that my wife scrunches her face up to when she sees them on the computer as they download. I ran out of excuses for why I have this person focused in the center of the frame ;) -->>>

LOL

I wouldn't mind seeing some clips of that footage if you could put some of it on here!


(note: the footage that I'm talking about is the stuff Tom shot on the street, not the 'hottie' photos of Micheal "Peeping Tom" Sinclair :) )

I'd better see the 'hottie' photos of Micheal "Peeping Tom" Sinclair! :)

I'd love to see Tom's video as well. I was filming on my school's shuttle once (URI) and the bus driver pulled over, locked the doors, and wouldn't let anybody out. He made me give him my license, and some other identification. He asked me what I was doing and I told him i was shooting for a film class ( i was in a film class but it wasn't for it). He called his "supervisor" who took all my info, then he wrote it down and let me off. It sucked their were 30 people waiting to get to class, lol, I apologized to them, i think they were more pissed at the driver, ohh and i left my camera on when he called me up to the front of the bus, I started asking him questions. It was really funny, and then i taped over it..... and cried. It was an accident.

I teach HS in NYC. We get some crazy students, teachers and bosses as well. I know that in NY, they enacted a new law on hidden video cameras. I am unfamiliar with it. We have one boss who loves to write up every teacher. Two teachers who had to borrow a video camera walked into the bosses class and started to tape her basically doing nothing in terms of teaching. They just sat in the back. It started a huge incident. The principal seemed to ignore the boss on the issue. As a teacher, they say that we can't film the students in class. However, we can film our classes as we teach as a tool for improving our teaching methods. It gets so confusing that the union has no idea what to tell us. I wish someone on this forum was familiar with NYC, the Dept of Edu, the law and the union rules on this. I would clarify things for my colleagues if I knew the deal. There are so many hostile students where I teach that they make stories up just to get out of a referral. Taping classes would be a real chore if it were totally legal. There are times though when you feel hot in the face when you are telling the principal that you mever did call the student the "N" word or his mother a "bitch". You do wish you had some video to refute their claims.

PS: All of my pics of strangers are from the waist up guys ;)

BTW: Been messing with my Canon Optura 300 on HD wide screen mode. Very clear video for a small camera. People marvel at it's clarity. I am still trying to figure out the best program for converting captured DV to DVD format with such a noticable loss in quality. Especially during movement of the camera.

"She asked me what I am doing with camcorder and I said I just come from work and always record buildings down town "

Good thing you're not recording buildings in the States. In this day and age, you'd probably get a little visit from Homeland Security.

Mike, I grew up in Brooklyn, and, actually managed to graduate HS in Brooklyn (1967, Fort Hamilton HS). Where do you teach? Between detention and summer school I probably went to every damn one of them. Bob