I have a couple storys which might help clarify... of course we haven't done the festival thing yet, but in a year I'll be able to answer the other half of the equation.
Food Ba$ics:
The first scene we shot for MacBeth was in a grocery store where I worked at the time. We waited in the cold of winter for the manager to leave, and then guerrila style, just barged into an aisle with cameras, boom mic, track pieces, 3 witches in full costume, a metal bucket, and 7-8 uniforms I had been collecting over the years by "loosing" my shirts. We ran extension cords to the back of the store, set up lights, and put "employees" on either end of the aisle to get products for customers if they needed them. I had a friend on cash press the page button every time we filmed so sound would synch, and we just did it.
As a side note, the manager on duty came up to me and asked if I had permission... I lied and said, "Oh yeah Goron, Mario told me it was OK"... he then called Mario, and Mario didn't have a clue, so Goron comes back and says "I just called Mario- he says he has no idea what you're talking about". So I say, "Listen, Goron, I talked to him. Maybe he doesn't remember, but he was tired when I asked him, so that's forgivable. But listen- there's 15 people here with all this equipment. Do you really think I'd get all of this together if I didn't have permission? C'mon Goron..." And he says: "How long are you going to be?" And I say: "Just 15 minutes... relax, don't worry man."
So 3 hours later we leave and go home. The next day I get a call from the manager, Mario. He wanted me to bring in the tape to him and destroy the footage. I said I was sorry and would bring it tomorrow. (another blatant lie, because I had heard some rumors.....)
Next week he was fired for grabbing a cashier's butt.
Potential problem here: We could get sued eventually from the company, but the manager "did" give us permission...
Mall:
A near-defunct mall in our city had the perfect stark white hallway for our purposes, and we wanted it. This time, though, we wanted to play it legal (due to problems with mall security during an earlier filming of a fake trailer) and get insurance. We were still in high school at the time, so we asked if the school could cover us. No dice. So we enquired with the mall management and this is what we heard: "You'll need insurance with a liability of one million dollars, which will cost about a 500 dollars for one day"
Not only did we not have a million dollars, we didn't have 500.
So we shot it anyway.
Mall security arrives to find us and a brown guy in a green trench coat with a fake Iraqi flag, a paintball mask, and a fake gun. The "terroist" waves. The security guy waves back. He simply asks: "Do you have permission to be here?"
This is where the bullshit comes into play again. "Oh. Well, you see, we had permission to film a few weeks back and we did, but we're just doing some pickup shots. It'll only take a few more minutes, and we were just hoping that was OK." I dropped the name of the person who denied us earlier and he found that to be enough to continue on his rounds.
Potential problem: We could get sued (although unlikey, we can just deny it was filmed there, right?)
The SWAT team:
The scene is this: Lunch time at high school. Let's pickup a stunt in our spare time... might as well, right? Ok, we'll just mosey on down to the industrial zone and film Geoff jumping off the car with a gun in his hand. Sinch right? No problem.
Geoff mounts the car. Bill is on the exterior cameras (both tripoded, one zoomed, one wide). A security guard comes out. We go. I hit the pedal, Geoff jumps, rolls, Bill cuts, they run and pile in the car. The security guy nears. I see him reach for his belt. He pulls a notepad. I think it's a gun. A moment of clarity.
I hit the pedal to the metal and screech out of the parking lot onto the service road- INTO ONCOMING TRAFFIC! I swerve to the left as the right lane is blocked- skirting the ditch to the fanfare of horns. Zooming back past the traffic onto the road I begin to notice Bill and Geoff are screaming at the top of thier lungs. We did it! We got away! Excitement! Victory!
We arrive in the school parking lot and get out. That's when the police come in. The first cruiser pulls up right behind my car as we stand beside it. We had no idea they knew where we were, but apparantly, my car was easily describable (broken winsdhield from an earlier stunt, covered in mud, falling apart) and someone had overheard us in the Ind. Zone talking about Erindale (our school). The cops get out, producing SHOTGUNS and aiming them at us. Then, about 5-6 more cruisers (I kid you not) pull in behind, forming a line of blaring sirens. About 14 cops get out of the vehicles and begin to move in. In the distance the K-9 unit parks precariously behind the cruisiers. At this point, being that the school parking lot is now full of students, we are getting quite a bit of attention. Geoff and I are placed on the hood and patted down at gunpoint. Bill is standing there, apparantly unnoticed. They begin searching my car, and what do they find?
A dummy of a man (Leonard is his name, thank you), several fake guns, lightsabre hilts, a plethora of MacDonald's bags, my "lost" essay for English, the script for Macbeth 3000, a teapot, and lo and behold... an Iraqi flag. The officer holds it up to my vision and exclaims: "What the F*** is this?"
Uh-oh.
The principal came out and kindly explained to half the active force that day that we WERE making a film with political implications, but were not terrorists (context: this is at the beginning of the war on terror, and tension was still hot). In the meantime, I'm waving to my friends who are coming out for the 2nd lunch period to find us surrounded by cops. All in all, they began leaving, and a very nice officer explained that a couple of his friends got in a similar situation when he was in high school, but not to this degree. Several officers muttered "stupid idiots" and other such dickish comments under thier breaths, and eventually they all left. We were informed by the last officer that the SWAT team (or Canadian equivalent of,) had been dispatched, and we were lucky the blue boys had got there first, because we would have been tear gassed and on the ground. Not a pleasant thought.
From then on, we made it a habit to call the local police department before filming ANYWHERE to let them know we would be in the area. I recommend you do the same. I recommend you TRY to be legal, but hey, do what you can and worry later... I'm somewhat proud of our ignorance, as it makes great stories to tell in the end.
On the flip side, we're probably going to get sued. But hey- I heard that there is no such thing as bad publicity right? Getting sued might be the free advertising we need to get our company off the ground.
Sorry about the length of the post- I'm a bit of a rambler, but I hope my anecdotes help you in some way (if even just to amuse).
If you're going guerrila- get a guy with charisma to do the talking, and it never hurts to ask first- that way you at least get a name to drop later when you do it anyway.
-Logan-
Side note: We filmed a lot at a place called Cooper Lighting without permits or legalities. We simply had a friend's dad who was chums with the company prez and got permission without even meeting him. Maybe he thought we were filming a drama and not an action- but it severly helped our picture and we pretty much had weekend run of the place. Try exploring the friend and parent connection- you might be surprised what could result.
