Better be careful
 

Thought this would be of interest

Film Scene Mistaken For Armed Robbery - Boston News Story - WCVB Boston

Very interesting. I honestly cannot imagine shooting something of this nature at any location without first informing the authorities!

I don't remember the exact details but I have a friend who, while in film school, was on a shoot with a scene involving a gun. Director swore up and down it wasn't real, everything was cool, somehow, cops got involved, gun WAS real, friend now has felony on his record. Or something. . .as I said, don't recall the exact details. The gist is right even if the specifics aren't.

At a film high school I taught at a few years ago, I was in LA at the time and received a call that a couple of students of mine were shooting segments of an assignment. They decided to spice it up a bit and use a rubber handgun I had as a prop in my office. The bank adjacent to our building saw two "college age" guys in shirts and ties running around waving a gun. Buildings all around went into lock down, the SWAT was called and the local PD even sent over their helicopter. Two officers who were closest to the side of the building the students were on were ready to draw their firearms when they recognized the two young men as students. Both of these officers had been used in a number of student films over the couple of years the school had been opened. Had they NOT recognized the students, bad things may have happened.

It's a story these two young men will tell their entire lives. Moral of the story... Permits and let the cops AND adjacent businesses if any know you're going to be playing with prop guns.

cheno

Don't need a firearm to get into trouble...
 

I remember many years ago, we were on a photo shoot on the campus of a well known Glasgow university which is next to the police station head quarters.

We were doing a multiple exposure shoot on 5x4 sheet film (no photoshop in those days) - we had positioned the very obvious rail camera for its first daylight exposure. We then went about setting up 5k, 2k & 1k lights. When dusk fell, all the lights were switched on illuminating the very large building front and large areas of campus, trees and so on.

As we waited for just the right moment to record the second exposure, these rather ruff looking chaps (you can tell I was born in Edinburgh and not Glasgow) came charging out of nowhere screaming things like ... don't move! ... and things like that.

After an awkward few minutes, there was an air of confusion about the scene - I realised that these were plain clothes or CID, while they looked apprehensively at the lights and the camera, and by now a rather startled art director and university security staff.

One of the old bill pointed at one of the crew up on the roof and said "what's he doing?" I replied - "He is positioning a lighting unit" - he then looked at the camera and said "what's that?", I replied "a camera, don't touch it please" - he said "ooh"

Now that the penny had dropped - one of them said... "we got a phone call from someone in the flats across the road saying there was a break-in in commencement.

Of course we smiled politely and nodded....

Stu
www.studioscotland.com