Ask permissioon before or after?

[joey1320]

Ok here's my problem. I'm working on a scrip and it has an actor going into a jewerly store to shop for his girlfriend's wedding ring. The short film will be a "home video type" and I was planning on calling the store beforehand and asking them if it was ok for me to record my friend while he looks for wedding rings.

I would tell the store owner/manager that we are doing it for a video that is going to be played at the reception, because I want an honest sales experience from the workers at the store. After the actor goes in looks around and "buys" a ring, I was going tell them it's for a short film and get signatures for release.

Is this ethical or legal? I would be lying to them when I call and ask permission to shoot, but I wont use the footage unless they allow me. I just don't want the sales person knowing it is for a "film" because then they will think too much about it.

Sorry if it's a little bit confusing, my mind and my typing skills are sometimes in different modes lol.
Joey

 

[Blade_Jones]

I'm not so sure a jewelry store would want anyone filming in there.

I agree. If I owned a store, much less a jewelry store, I wouldn't want ANYONE in my store for anything other than shopping for jewelry. I guess it can't hurt to ask. One alternative would be to rent out some fake jewelry and an empty store that has glass cases. You might be able to cheat the exterior shots by showing a profile shot of them walking into a REAL jewelry store.
It's just really tough shooting footage inside of real stores without money. I remember "shopping" for a liquor store to shoot in. I mailed out letters to every store I could find in the area that I wanted to shoot in. About 1 in 10 responded. In my letter I stated that I would pay $750 to rent their store on a week night, during closed hours. I would up renting a big store in a very nice neighborhood, so everything worked out great. The owner was actually very familiar with how the film business works and that it's all about the shoot budget.

I remember another owner from a different store called me back and asked for $5,000. I tried to explain to them that I wasn't Paramount Pictures, but they were too fixated on how much they had been paid a few years ago, so that was the end of that discussion.

 

[mlesemann]

I rented a bakery and a wedding dress store during their "closed" hours for about the same amount of money that Blades Jones mentioned. Also got the dress store to lend us a dress for the actual wedding scene in exchange for a credit card deposit that was cancelled when the dress was returned in good condition.