Your closest call
- Thread starter Zensteve
- Start date
Okies, we've all had our share of places we should not have been shooting at...
Share a few tales of brushes with authority, that worked out okay in the end.
Two other filmmakers and myself got together at a festival near Chicago and shot a film, which was mostly improvised at various Chicago landmarks. Inside one public building, we were shooting, and got some great shots of the main character, Marty Yacovelli, standing in front of these statues, a giant flag - stuff we couldn't get anywhere else.
A security guard came up to us and asked us what we were doing, and one of us said I was making a video for my family, just to send them to tell them how I was doing now that I'm in Chicago. And he asked to see the footage, so the DP ran the tape back and showed him the footage. But we didn't have the sound up for him to hear and he eventually asked us to fast-forward it while he watched. And since we were shooting a mockumentary, and the character was supposed to look awkward on camera, it looked like someone making a video for his family. He asked us to stop filming inside and let us keep the footage. And we left and kept the footage.
The finished film, "Cabbie," premieres in March at the Lake County Flm Festival in Libertyville, IL.
What'ya got, Zen?
This morning I shot in a public park -- about five minutes of that time in bikini briefs two sizes too small.
Poke
Poke
The County Attourney's wife in our fair city called us in as a drug deal. Aparently, we had a large silver case (the outside says canon, BTW) and looked shifty. The cop asked to see the case and giggled a bit. I got the impression this happens alot with her. This was 2 weekends ago shooting Ext's for French Onion.
side note: I recognized the cop from filming in the same park last year for my feature, he was asking us if we had seen a man run though brandishing a knife
We offered to take him down for them.
side note: I recognized the cop from filming in the same park last year for my feature, he was asking us if we had seen a man run though brandishing a knife
We offered to take him down for them.
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A public park, my shirt open, bruise makeup all over my face and blood packets pouring out of my mouth. My director gets on his back and straddles me to get a low-angle of my face. Cops get called on charges of pornography being made in proximity to children.
That story is also good because part of those park shots was me lying halfway in a FREEZING creek. Like, mind-numbing, the darkness is coming over my eyes freezing. Never say I don't work hard for my films.
That story is also good because part of those park shots was me lying halfway in a FREEZING creek. Like, mind-numbing, the darkness is coming over my eyes freezing. Never say I don't work hard for my films.
None of my other stories will ever beat the SWAT team incident.
We filmed Geoff jumping off a car wth a fake gun during lunch on school, in an industrial section. A security guard chased us off the property RIGHT after we got the shot, and after swerving through opposing traffic and the like, we got back to school. Pulling into the parking spot, we were almost immediately followed by 8 cruisers with like 14 officers. The K9 unit was at the back of the motorcade. They had us on the hoods with shotguns to our faces, while they searched our car. They pulled out fake guns, lightsabres, our dummy "Leonard", and then a printed Iraqi flag (prop)- which seemed to really piss off one cop.
That cop told us if the SWAT team (which had arrived just then as well) had gotten here first, we would've been on the ground and hurting. Nice to know.
We filmed Geoff jumping off a car wth a fake gun during lunch on school, in an industrial section. A security guard chased us off the property RIGHT after we got the shot, and after swerving through opposing traffic and the like, we got back to school. Pulling into the parking spot, we were almost immediately followed by 8 cruisers with like 14 officers. The K9 unit was at the back of the motorcade. They had us on the hoods with shotguns to our faces, while they searched our car. They pulled out fake guns, lightsabres, our dummy "Leonard", and then a printed Iraqi flag (prop)- which seemed to really piss off one cop.
That cop told us if the SWAT team (which had arrived just then as well) had gotten here first, we would've been on the ground and hurting. Nice to know.