Covert filming

[firestorm_bsf]

YEAH! SEE GUYS! It's crazy! The costs of film, actors, crews, and post already add up to a lot of money. Unless there is NO way around it --screw permits. Gorilla filming can be quite fun [img]wink.gif[/img]

[Matt Pacini]

Yeah, but I think the thing that drives me the most crazy, is how the government acts like public land is "their" land, not ours!
This is NOT what our founding fathers had in mind!
Many times, they will charge you fees for using their.... uh, I mean "our" land.
My friend who does nature photography told me that the government is now charging you if you make money on photos of things like Yosemite. As in, they own it, like it's a copyright violation issue or something.
Really pisses me off! If it's public land, that means it's "OURS". We're the public, and if we have to pay admission (fees) for everything when we want to use it, then how do they justify charging taxes for the very same thing.
I say we're getting double, triple, quadruple charged for almost everything the government does.
So I may do it without permits, but I'll be risking some park ranger coming up and kicking me off "our" land, because I didn't do it their way.

Matt Pacini

[c_77]

I hear you. Last year I tried to take some nature pictures at a forest preserve and ranger rick was all over my ass. It was like I made his day chasing me around like that. I did manage to go a little off the trail by the side of the parking lot and photograph some decrepit turn-of-the century farm equipment. Turned out cool until he caught me and started yelling at me from his truck. I understand the problem with everybody trampling over nature but this was so minor.

Here's what gets me. How in the world did 150 underage teenagers bring in several kegs of beer into a Northbrook IL forest preserve and haze without anybody noticing? I can't even take two gentle steps off the path for a photo of some dumped farm equipment but these kids can get away with that. It boggles my mind. Something was up...

I don't have many ideas how to film very covertly. I film a lot of local concerts but cameras are allowed. In this day and age it's tough to set up anything for five minutes without drawing suspicion. I wish I could be more help...

<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ June 04, 2003 06:13 PM: Message edited by: c_77 ]</font>

[firestorm_bsf]

That's insane that you have to get permits to shoot in national parks! What's up with that??

As far as the covert filming, I think I'm going to make a breifcase with a ton a lenses stuck to the outside and crazy doo-dads. Then have the camera's lens sticking out as well, then shoot away. They'll never notice! HAHAHAHA! Ben-1 MBTA-0!

<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ June 05, 2003 11:43 PM: Message edited by: BSF ]</font>

[dharmabum1949]

I can't beleive youve been hassled so much for shooting S8, I shot a short peice that i worked on from around september into febraury that included lots of subway footage. I guess the difference may be that your using a tripod and that grabs attention but i shot the entire subway interior, people waiting for trains, shots of people in the train, shots out of the window of the train, even shots of employess in philly and NYC and was never once hassled for it. I would however be afraid to conceal a camera in a suitcase because that makes you look like an extremely shady character and if you were caught I think that the reaction youd recieve would be much different than if you were shooting without such an extreme means of concealment. What film stock are you using and are you puching it? How are you getting proper exposure? I process my own stock and had to shoot Tri-x pushed to 1600, my first developer was in the tank for an hour at times, Im curious to hear how your dealing with the low light

[Actor]

To me you seem to be saying that you can't shoot in Boston without a permit and that permits are next to impossible to get.

Forget about pretending to be a tourist; what if your ARE a tourist? Isn't that the hallmark of a tourist? He's the guy with all the camera's!

If I go to Boston I WILL be a tourist. No other reason for me to go there. If I go I'll have my trusty 35mm SLR, my Hi8, MiniDV and of course my Super8. Plus my trusty tripod. Are you saying the Boston cops are going to hassle me for having all this stuff? That doesn't seem like a good way to court the tourist trade.

[Levi]

Wow! I guess I'm lucky. I live in a small town in Texas and have shot everywhere and have never gotten thrown out. Actually, New Braunfels is the home of Schlitter Bahn and is crawling with tourists, so I just act like one of them.

Corey

[firestorm_bsf]

Actor-
I hate to break it to you, but yeah, if the MBTA cops see you with a camera on a tripod, or you taking pictures with an SLR they will hassle you. I know it's lame, but they have nothing better to do. It is a stupid thing for them to do, but that doesn't stop them.

Also- for dharmabum1949,
I hadn't really thought about what stock I was going to use. I guess I'll push Tri-x, unless there's a better idea. It's not lit too poorly, and my apture open's up to f.2
So any suggestions would be cool
thanks,
Ben

[dharmabum1949]

BSF-
Im sure there are many ways to go about shooting in the subway, I wish i had means of sending you my footage.
I was really unsure whether id be able to get anything salvageable. It is a difficult situation with super8 film because it has such slow ASA's and at least when your shooting non-time lapse footage you cant use a longer exposure time to get enough light.
I found that because i was processing my own film and didnt have to pay extra for push processing that it was the best solution. I was also able to push my stuff further (4 stops) than most labs are willing to, I think 2 stops is the most ive seen. There were many advantages to doing this, the one that pleased me the most was push processing increases contrast, a 4 stop push makes a drastic difference. The lighting in the subway was dull and flat but the added contrast put my footage right where I wanted it and actually its some of the best looking stuff i shot for my film.
Ive never shot super 8 time lapse so im not exactly sure how it works. I understand that the concept is that your shooting at a very slow frame rate, does that mean that the exposure time for each frame is longer or is it still somewhere around 1/20th of a second? If you were able to make 1 second exposures of each frame lighting wouldnt really be a problem at all because the addded exposure time would more than likely ensure that youd have enough light hitting each frame and the motion blur moving figures would create would be very interesting .

[firestorm_bsf]

dharmabum1949,

To the best of my knowledge my camera has a 220 deg. shutter. I don't believe I can change the length of time the shutter is open, so I will still have to push.

<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ June 10, 2003 01:40 PM: Message edited by: BSF ]</font>