filming liscenses

[LAmind]

I hear you have to have a filming liscence. Howmuch are they and where can you get them in Los Angeles?

[Greg Crawford]

On most small Super 8 productions if you shoot guerilla style. Your better off. You still could find someone from the police department stopping by.

The more lights, reflectors, trucks, cast and crew you use the more your chances are of getting stopped.

After 9-1-1 I would not want to make a film, like my first Super 8 flick about a mad bomber. Shooting in downtown Los Angeles, with a
guy running around with C-4 ( Play - doe ) strapped to his chest!

Also consider the companies around Souther California know what location rates go for, and are usually willing to cut you a deal.

On the other hand.....permits are expensive,
The L. A . film office requires film Production insurances and you may need to hire an off duty police officers for your shoot.

I understand that Pasadena even has a law outlawing tripods, without a permit!

If you are a film school student you may get a brake, and have the school cover the insurance. It might even be worth it
( find out first) then take a course .

Good Luck,

[Alex]

I was in Pasadena shooting video last week and the building owners walked up to our camera and said "WHAT ARE YOU DOING".

Well, we were filming a video for the hair salon located inside their building.

"Irrelevant" or words to that affect. The hair salon only has jurisdiction INSIDE their own rented space. The outside of the building is not fair game.

It's getting scary out there. You could be violating building owners rights if you have their building in the background of your shot.

I could see if you were filming a staged drug deal for your movie and the Los Angeles Lakers/Staples Center was in the background that the building owner might be upset, but to have rules that don't allow filming the exterior of their building under any circumstance is really appalling.

In my situation, they were upset that they weren't notified and that they needed a one-million dollar liability insurance policy that named them as "loss payee".

I carry a policy like that, so did the producer I was working with, so our situation was resolvable. In general, the liability policy will help you, but you may have owners insisting they be named as loss payee, which is the job of your insurance company to handle in terms of the paperwork.

I have been planning on doing a time-lapse sequence of Downtown Los Angeles, and I'm feeling discouraged by the namby pamby rules and regs being set up all over the place.

<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ August 25, 2002 01:07 PM: Message edited by: Alex ]</font>

[daveduck]

L.A. in its self-described mindset as the film center of the universe is definitely the toughest on permits.

On the other hand, San Francisco talks a tough game through their film commission, but in practice the police don't care. A few months back we shot our feature there--medium sized crew, reflectors, boom mic, large camera (including a 35mm Arri for a few scenes), pro tripods, make-up motorhome on a couple of occasions--and never had a problem. We shot at several common tourist destinations. Only at Coit Tower were we told that we couldn't take a pro camera to the top, but no one tried to stop us shooting from below. I point-blank asked a couple of cops what they would do if they noticed a film crew somewhere, and their responses were the same: As long as traffic or pedestrians aren't impeded, they have better things to do than cite low-budget filmmakers.

All the same, we had a $2 million liability policy in place, and made sure that all privately owned shooting locations were named as additional insureds.

We were also careful to pay for a permit on US Park Service land over in the Marin Headlands, since word is that the Park Police are rabid enforcers. Sure enough, the first day of shooting they showed up, convinced that we didn't have a permit since they hadn't been informed of the shoot. We showed it to them and they grumbled and went away. Good thing, as the scene involved mobsters carrying Uzis and things no doubt could have gotten unpleasant...

Anyway, head north for a happier shoot.

DD

<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ August 31, 2002 04:59 PM: Message edited by: Daveduck ]</font>