About shooting without permits

So I know this isn’t exactly legal so what is it? Sure it’s no big felony, so a misdemeanor then? If I go shoot in a city park without permits, can they charge me if they spot what I’m doing?



I know a lot of independent films have been shot largely without permits. Doug Liman even had the fucking balls to go shoot in a big casino without permits! Now that movie became somewhat of a hit and the casino owners must have seen the movie or at least heard about this.



Let’s say I own a casino and some scumbag shoots a movie in my casino without telling me. I happen to see the movie and I get really super fucking pissed. Can I ask them for money or something like that?



Sorry if I’m asking dumb questions… :-</E>

I only know that Ed Wood’s crew in “Ed Wood” ran away from the police when they were shooting without permits. You can always learn from Ed.

Well sure you can run but I’d rather not do that with an expensive camera in my hands ;D

then have car nearby by so you can dump it in the passenger seat and drive the fuck away :stuck_out_tongue:

In L.A people are very sensitive to film shooting. Like one time when I was holding a tripod to my film partner’s apartment shooting his film I was asked by a security guard whether I had releases for filming, I just said that I’m just shooting a student film with no commercial purposes. Also another friend of mine shot his DV film on Sony PD-150 on the bus without permit and the bus driver was nervous… so you can see what I’m talking about…

Speaking of L.A, i shot a short D.V movie at the L.A Union Station some few months ago (the same place, or around the same place, as the final scenes in Michael Mann’s Collateral). My friend and i took two D.V cameras there on an early saturday morning (there’s fewer ppl there saturday mornings) and jumped on a bunch of random trains at the metro station. We went all over downtown just shooting on and off the train, going upstairs, downstairs, all this without a permit. We had help, though. On the train, we got away with shooting as much as we wanted, but when we got off, we had to keep an eye out for the security guards. So we had three other ppl come with us and we had walkie-talkies in case one of them saw guards coming our way, they’d alert us. Had my friend and I shot our movie short with actual film cameras, we’d probably would have tried to get permits. So i say if you want to film at a place that’s likely to have security guards, take friends with you that can spread out and alert you if any guards are headed your way.

I would however like to know more about film permits, like if they cost you anything, if so, how much? where do you get them, are they limited to what and how much you can film, and so on.

go to filmla



http://www.eidc.com



I’m a student so when I was shooting my student film there’s a discount around $50-$100. The thing that pisses me off is that Arnold the governator is not doing anything about this, since he comes from the entertainment industry…

LA is probably the only place that cares so much about shooting without permits. I shoot in train stations and parks and alleys without any troubles. Fuck permits. I ain’t paying for a permit, i pay my taxes (which in Australia are 30%-50%).



LA is different because they have professional filmmakers there and they need to know what parts of the city are being used. Plus there are a lot of people who want to be filmmakers.



I prefer to do it guerilla-style, the only way for a true independent filmmaker in my opinion. Film wherever, just whip out the camera and film.

[quote=“Angel”]
LA is probably the only place that cares so much about shooting without permits. I shoot in train stations and parks and alleys without any troubles. Fuck permits. I ain’t paying for a permit, i pay my taxes (which in Australia are 30%-50%).



LA is different because they have professional filmmakers there and they need to know what parts of the city are being used. Plus there are a lot of people who want to be filmmakers.



I prefer to do it guerilla-style, the only way for a true independent filmmaker in my opinion. Film wherever, just whip out the camera and film.
[/quote]

Oh well, I guess they don’t mind so much if I shoot in my hometown without permits. After all there’s only like 20 000-30 000 people living here and if anything, they should be fucking pleased that I’m promoting the town by shooting my shit here. 8)

Ok, now I got some real info on the subject. Apparently the laws aren’t that strict in Finland.



You can shoot in any public place (streets, malls, bars) as long as you don’t offend anyone’s privacy and (for example if you shoot in a bar) you don’t hurt their business. If it’s a place where you’re free to go without permits then you can also shoot there. You can’t shoot at “private” places like public restrooms and stuff like that but I think everybody can figure that out. And at the airport you can’t shoot after the security check without permits but everything before that is basically allowed.



So, it should be pretty easy. You can go to a mall and shoot the whole fucking day if needed. Just don’t get in way of their business and try to keep outsiders out of your shots. :slight_smile:

Permits just aren’t a big deal where i come from and where most people here come from, i am assuming. Though, we have established that it is if you come from LA. Our police are too laid back, i think, to even know what to do when someone is filming without a permit. I don’t think it is really much of a problem unless you are filming a big studio film (cause all the films like Matrix and all that get filmed here). I guess cause it is cheap.

The police are pritty much none existent here - i noticed since i started driving that so many people just fuck up and drive however they want, with all the drugs and crime that goes on as if the police give a dam about stuff like that, filming guerilla-style is the only way to film!

The Mardi Gras scene in Easy Rider was done without a permit…and the acid was really strong!

[quote=“Thousand Eyes”]
The police are pritty much none existent here - i noticed since i started driving that so many people just fuck up and drive however they want, with all the drugs and crime that goes on as if the police give a dam about stuff like that, filming guerilla-style is the only way to film!
[/quote]

Lol, yeah our police force is grossly understaffed. I get the feeling they don’t give a fuck. Why would they stop someone filming without a permit when they can’t even stop nightly bashings in the street…



Oh here’s a video I found, I don’t particularly think it is that good, but it just shows what you can get away without a permit if you are good at it:



http://youtube.com/watch?v=h5YrGbw-72Q

Because they can’t make any money by stopping violence…the violence is their job security. Thier job is to put the human scum behind bars…It’s not their job to fuck with us all of the time about silly shit like permits or turn signals

[quote=“Angel”]
http://youtube.com/watch?v=h5YrGbw-72Q
[/quote]

awesome stuff. that guy has made more, check it out: http://youtube.com/profile?user=ricepower

Funnily enough, he has a film coming out as well (or maybe it already came out) called Andre the Butcher starring Ron Jeremy of all people.

i would have never considered this at all. i plan on shooting a shot with most scenes outdoors