Filmcrew arrested - warning

[Rick Bravo]

Marco,

Some would like to blame the government, that of course, is the easy thing to do. Some say it's a kneejerk reaction, some say it's overkill. I don't exactly see it that way.

You're absolutely correct, it is sad that in this day and age we have reverted to how things were many years ago, but...

as long as you have these animals that are hell bent on terrorizing the citizenry of this country with the ultimate goal of one day destroying it, I for one, am more than willing to put up with some inconveniences to help protect us from further attacks.

I was just in DC last November and and had absolutley no problems taking pictures anywhere we went. This includes the White House while the POTUS was in residence. We had just left the Old Ebbitt Grill about 1 block from the White House and a group of us hung out in front of the South Lawn fence at about 10:30pm...we even struck up a pretty cool conversation with the Uniformed Secret Service agent that was assigned to that post.

I think that people that make such huge deals about the whole videotaping / photographing thing have their own agendas.

Granted, if you fit a certain "profile", you may have a slightly more difficult time than others that don't. We live in a very scary time where you can't really tell the good guys from the bad guys so, some concessions have to be made.

The one thing that the powers that be need to do, is to streamline the way security is carried out, especially in airports!

Again, who's to blame? I can tell you one thing, It's not our government!

RB

[Marco Leavitt]

Yeah, but I fail to see how restricting camcorders makes anybody safer. What exactly is it that they think they are preventing?

[Rick Bravo]

It's more a matter of restricting certain individuals from intelligence gathering.

One thing is to shoot footage of well known public monuments and buildings that have been photographed millions of times, it's another,, completely different thing to be unusually interested in nuclear powerplants, electrical grids and out of the way public buildings that hold no historical interest.

And as I stated before, the "profile" that you fit also plays a factor in the degree of harrassment!

RB

[Marco Leavitt]

Yeah, but does anybody really believe that such footage would be crucial to planning an attack? Even if you do believe that, given the shrinking nature of camcorders and cameras, it's flat out impossible to prevent the bad guys from taking those pictures. At best, restrictions on videotaping are a silly waste of time, and at worst, a frightening expansion of the police state.

[Rick Bravo]

OK, we're not getting anywhere with this, so, goodbye.

RB

[Heath McKnight]

I should've been tougher on a student shooting a film where a guy walks up and blows away another guy in a park. It came out well, but the gun was VERY realistic. Some cops pulled up (we didn't have a permit, which is free and my school provides the insurance), but drove away. But our star had to hide the realistic fake gun. Suffice to say, we shot the final shoot out in an empty field behind the school. Which made it scarier and cooler!

About 8 years ago, some students from a film school in Orlando had actors put on hoods and use a non-working antique gun and did a scene in DOWNTOWN ORLANDO! Suffice to say, about 10 cop cars showed up, about 15 cops or so, all guns drawn. The college got HELL for that, and that's BAD to secure future locations.

heath

[James Emory]

I recently saw an episode of Punk'd on MTV and the celebrity victim actually called 911 because the prank scared them so bad. Now, how do you suppose they got out of that one. Could that production company be liable for inducing a call and tying up the lines all for entertainment reasons? After the celebrity called they immediately stopped the action and revealed that it was a prank but the call had already been made. I don't really think its a big deal but I do wonder how they might explain it.

[Peter Jefferson]

"But you know, the cameras and the audio guy just seem to be a hint that it might not be for real."

but thats what i dont get.. are people this selectively blind??

[Nathan Chaszeyka]

I have to argue with a lot the things I have read in this post. I personally find it refreshing that in many cases concerned citizens have called in about something that they have thought as potentially dangerous. In this day and age there are far too many instances where witnesses and citizens could have helped but refused to get involved and someone dies or is victimized.

I understand that having to deal with police is a tremendous hassle, trust me I know as many of the shots I take are inherently tresspassing, but in the long run of things shooting a video comes second to the livelihood of our fellow citizens.

And as far as filming gov't buildings goes, there have in fact been instances where terrorists cased potential attacks using video. Whether or not the gov't can stop this makes no difference, they are doing every thing they can in their eyes to make a difference. I do not wish to argue politics on here though.

[Stephen Finton]

Call the police BEFORE shooting a scene that might be misconstrued as real. Have a deputy or two standing there, drinking coffee. My friend's dad just got finished shooting a convenient store robbery and had his daughter, who is a deputy, show up and stand around. No big deal. Police like to be a part of the movie making process, too.

[Anders Risvold]

A filmsmaker was shooting a robberyscene at a bar. Someone neglected to take notice of the lightning, cameras and crew and called the cops. The director got a fine.

I was shooting a medieval combatscene in an abandoned and ruined church the following week, so I was very quick to call and send notice.

I was quite impressed though. They asked if I needed assistance to keep people away from the scene. I didnt follow up on that offer and it was a very nice session. Lots of smallchildren familys taking their sundaywalk there, and they had a blast watching the armoured grownups battling it out.

[Heath McKnight]

ALWAYS let the cops know, for sure! When my student wanted to shoot a gun fight scene on the side of a road (near the police station) I insisted we shoot behind the school in an empty field. It looked better.

heath