Filming in parking garages?

P

Pete

Hey all,

I'm planning on shooting the sequel to Sword Fight Club ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eq-o9TKVtRo ) this coming weekend. We wanted to switch some things up for the next one, including the location, and our best idea so far is to shoot it at night in a parking garage (note that we will not actually be bringing our cars up this time, just walking there).

Does anyone here have experience shooting in parking garages? Did you ask for permission from somebody first, or just show up there? As of now, I haven't been able to contact anybody who may be in charge of the particular garage that I want to shoot in, and I'm wary of bringing ~20 people up there only to get them (and me) in trouble.

Any insight is appreciated,
Thanks!
 
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Pete said:
I'm wary of bringing ~20 people up there only to get them (and me) in trouble.
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Good to be concerned about that. A parking garage is most likely private
property. You will need permission to be on that property. I do have
experience shooting in a parking garage - I got permission. I'm thinking
that having 20 or so people on private property without asking permission
to be there might cause some issues.

My personal insight is five days before the shoot is not enough time to
find the people who can grant permission and show them you are prepared
and responsible.
 
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We've shot LOTS in parking garages. The privately owned ones are easier here because you just need owner permission where the city owned ones they treat like a street and you need permits, officers to shut down traffic and insurance.

We've shot a few times without permission too, just jumped up there to get a shot. It was always pretty fast and never more than a handful of people. Most likely you wouldn't get in trouble if you tried to pull it off and were caught, they'd probably just tell you to leave. That's not a gauruntee though and it's still expensive because that shoot is wasted if you can't finish it.

Also, logistically, how are you going to light? Parking garages are dark and have few or no outlets. We always shot during the day. If you decide to go through with it, take your camera up there one night and see what the available lighting looks like. I'm guessing it's not great.
 
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Thanks for the replies, guys. I ended up calling the company that owns the particular garage that I wanted, and they were (shockingly) easy to work with and said it would be fine.

As for the lighting, I'll probably go there tonight or tomorrow night and take a few test photos, but I scouted the place out previously and the existing lighting seemed pretty good and even. This will strictly be a "get in and get out" sort of project, so as long as the lighting isn't bad it should work fine.

Thanks!
 
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Glad it worked out for you.

Just wondering, how do you find out who owns a parking garage? For example, there's a bunch of office buildings but they share a garage. Which one do you contact?

I think parking garages make for a pretty creepy setting for thriller/horror films.
 
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Well this particular garage is owned by a bank and is for its employees on the weekdays, but parking is open to the public at night and on the weekends. I used my web-creeping abilities to track down the company that owns the actual garage (they just lease it out to the bank), which was ABM Services. I called their local office, was put in touch with the manager, and she gave permission to film there (she didn't even ask what we were filming or how long we'd be there)!

Hopefully that helps answer your question. I would imagine that the city I'm in is more lenient than most as far as the hoops you have to jump through.
 
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Cool man! Lighting is always different with people there, bringing a few fixtures or some modifiers to remove light is a good idea.

PS: run your shutter speed lower, 1/48 or 1/50 and it'll look better and be twice as bright.
 
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PaulGriffith said:
PS: run your shutter speed lower, 1/48 or 1/50 and it'll look better and be twice as bright.
Click to expand...

Hmmm... I'll be honest, I've never understood why a 180-degree shutter supposedly looks "better." In the past, when I've shot people at night and reduced the shutter speed to get more light, the ghosting effects proved to be really distracting. Is there something I'm doing wrong in that department?

But in this case, I will be shooting the majority of the video at 720/60p for slow-ish motion, so I'll need the higher shutter speeds anyway.
 
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So I finally finished the video that we filmed in the garage. It was pretty funny actually -- around 20 college-aged kids goofing around and being obnoxious, and a security guard drives right by us and doesn't even stop to ask what we're doing :P
 
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Last, but certainly not least, please don't forget about insurance issues. If you're filiming a car chase scene, and someone gets injured, he could sue the property owner as well as the film production company. These defendants are supposed to be covered by their insurers, but those insurers may say, "you never said you were going to film in a private garage - that's not part of the insurance contract, so we're not covering you."

To be safe, the property owner and production company must notify their insurers. Yes, this could scare off the property owner, but this is also proper procedure to follow.

Good luck, and tell us how it goes. :)
 
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