hassles while shooting!

ok, maybe im just having a cranky day, but is anyone else totally sick of joe-every-guy on the street bothering you about what youre doing when shooting in public????

probably 96% of every shoot i have on a public street, in a park, at an office building, etc... - some jack-hole walks up or drives up and either looks over my shoulder or asks crap like "are you making a movie?", "whats it about?", "can i be in it", "what channel is it gonna be on?" - GRRRRRRRR!

often times, i will be polite and answer them as simply as possible then do my best to look engrossed in the shoot itself - but some times i just want ask them "do i come to your job and ask you a buncha stupid questions while youre trying to work?"

then there is the tight-ass, self important admin twit who always wants to know who you are, what youre doing and how it pertains to where you are, whether or not they actaully have any authority to effect whats going on. ive started asking them in return "who are you and why do you need to know?"

i think im gonna have a black t-shirt printed up with big white letters on the back that read "YES, i am making a movie. what its about does not effect you, and NO you CANNOT be in it. please move on!"

sorry, i just had to get that off my chest...

love wayne.

Wayne,

Did a commercial many, many years ago with Michael Ritchie where this woman approached him and started asking him questions. He looked at her, arched backwards as he pulled at the bottom front of his shirt and asked, "Lady, does it say information anywhere on here?"

I don't believe those people are going away, so I suggest you do like Michael and put some fun into it.

Tom Smith

LOL - at least you can say your job is interesting enough that people will want to know what you are doing almost every time... you should be proud.

...imagine you worked in a Sewage Plant you would have a problem with anyone coming near you.


Hey that might be an idea - wear a old dirty hard hat and fluorescent overcoat that says Sewage surveyor on the back next time you go filming and I bet no-one asks whether you are making a movie or even comes near you.







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BRILLIANT BEN! im so ON that!

I forgot to mention that you may get mistaken for one of the Village people and get totally mobbed by fans of "YMCA" and "In the Navy" !!!





For instant answers to more than one hundred common FCP questions, check out the LAFCPUG FAQ Wiki here : [www.lafcpug.org]

ahhh CRAP! 6th grade flash back!!!!!!
"in the navy, we can sail the seven seas..."

Ask them if they want to invest in your movie and watch them take off like rabbits.

this is houston man, there is such a dearth of anything cool there that they'd likely ask - "where do i sign?"

which leads me to think - this is houston, people arent used to seeing cameras and cranes and steadicams here... maybe thats my problem.

thats it. im selling my house and moving to LA!!!!!!!!

No matter what we are shooting in public, we always tell bystanders and passersby that we are "shooting a mayonaise commercial". Always shuts them up for some reason.

I think we could do a grand conspiracy if all of us in the industry, no matter what we are shooting, just tell everyone that "we are shooting a mayonaise commercial". How cool would it be if EVERYONE, whenever they saw a TV or film crew thought that a mayonaise commercial was being shot? Well, um...at least I think it would be funny.

Dan

Keep in mind that if you are shooting on the streets of LA, you get a different kind of pest. Replace the star strucken "whatcha sooting there" guy with the "do you have a permit to be shooting" jerk who calls the cops. I've been to shoots where everyone had to have a college ID so we could say it was a student film. in LA everyone wants a pice of the pie!

The complete spiel: "Hi, I'm Alan Smithee and we're shooting a mayonnaise commercial."

Scott

I haven't shot so much since college, but that used to drive me nuts. When shooting wide, I'd have people go out of their way to sneak into the background. And they couldn't help but slow down and look at the camera. I wouldn't be shocked if I weren't shooting with an old BOLEX and maybe a couple friends as "crew!" As if this was a major TV show or something, with me winding up the little camera every so often, and trying to maneuver my buddies holding shoddy pieces of foam core. [this was my first film shooting experience, in Marin]

In LA it wasn't a problem unless you get in people's way, where they are of course far less likely to be sympathetic. Also the cops go crazy for even the smallest shoots w/o a permit. Obviously hassling a kid with an XL1 is a good way to spend police time in a city where people get shot every single day.



- Justin Barham -