Quote:
Originally Posted by Michael Brennan
Is this treatment rare or common place?
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It's not just London. It's everywhere.
I recently filmed two bits of Maidenhead architecture for a corporate shoot: the client's offices and the client's billboard.
For the office shoot, I could have filmed from the pavement opposite, but if I moved back behind the pedestrian barrier and into the car park beyond, I'd get some nice 'dangleberries' - leafy boughs of a handy tree to fill in sky area. IMHO, a safer shot as I'd not be clogging up the pavement near a pedestrian crossing with a tripod. Whatever.
Right behind me was the clients' billboard, with a particular bit of 'added value' which was what they wanted to see. It was immediately in front of a British Rail station. Ideally, I'd like a tripod shot with a transition from BCU of detail to pull back to wide shot as a train arrives in background. That will require hanging around for at least 20 mins.
It's not going to happen.
I squeezed off the dangleberry shot, couldn't get a good angle of the billboard. Spent all of 4 minutes setting up, getting shots - would love to have got a timelapse of clouds in building's mirror windows with logo dominant in screen, but was not 'safe' (as in, not safe to hang around with a camera on a tripod) to do so.
So upped sticks, and started shooting wide-angle shots from company's 'turf'.
While doing so, a police officer turned up and wanted to know if I'd got permission - I flashed him my visitor's badge (logo on badge = logo on building). It was fine, but he let slip that he'd been tipped off by British Rail station CCTV camera operator that - get this - I wasn't on their (BR's) property, but I was on somebody else's.
British Rail's operative saw me filming my Client's building on somebody else's turf, and called the police.
Let's just let that thought hang there for a moment. I'll wait.
But then again, I've been moved on when filming on South Bank in London. A colleague was read the riot act because he was filming in the direction of the houses of parliament. We're talking Z1s and HVX200s, not big digibetas. Single operators, not film crews. We have £10 million insurance liability policies, we do risk assessments. We do this sort of thing for a living.
The trouble is that the wrong sort of people are attracted to security work these days. The poor wages and awful hours are offset against the ability to make other people's lives a misery and to act in a quasi-officious way hiding behind fake security laws. The police, when presented with paperwork, contacts or professional explanations are usually pretty cool about the whole thing. (but don't get me started about our current state of affairs about 'protests')
On the other hand, security 'officers' take things to the limit of threatening physical violence because they don't know the law but they do know what they like: Saying 'no, because I say so'.
I regularly film in London with my own kit and often alone or with an AP. But... I'm no longer doing 'spec' filming in London or doing vox pops without paperwork, and I won't start without permissions, risk assessment and minder. I hate that, it's an instand blood-boil subject, but right now that's how it has to be. Others can take the risk, but that's the honourable stage of learning. Right now I'm earning, can't afford the consequences.
'Harumph!' - the Nurse says I must rest now...