Locations Advice

[Dazza]

Hey Guys

Ok I was interviewed this week and photographed for the paper that covers my area and tomorrow they are running my story and promoting my first professional film. Then another interview and pics during filming and an interview and review when the film is screened ;D

So I'm off to secure the remaining locations for my four day shoot which starts in 12 days. But I need some advice, the film will go to festival so everything needs to be planned and in place.

Firstly do I need written permission from the local council for:
-A park that features heavily in the film?
-A park bench?

Secondly there is a scene where the main character runs through the highstreet and there are shops in the background. Do i need permission from all these shops if they are just in the background?

A train station is used in the film. Do I need to apply to use the trainstation?

Is there a special generic form i can get with all the details on that i can just get people to fill in?

There is a small scene filmed on Weston beach. Do I need permission for this?

Other locations i can easily get permission these include houses, social centre, private arcade, council flats, etc.

I'm hoping Rich K sees this as he knows what's what with locations but if anyone else can help please do ;D

Thankyou

[Tom]

Technically, anything to do with the council, they're gonna sting you for insurance and all that junk for shooting in and around parks. My advice? Don't tell them.

As with the shops, don't worry about that. They won't give a damn.

The train station might want some details though - so you might want to pretend it's a student film and go nicely begging.

Apart from that, good luck.

[wiggy]

for the scenes which concern you, could you not beg or borrow a DOF adapter which will give you the shallow deph of field which will leave things in the background out of focus to an extent that people wont know where it is! unless you want the shops and stuff in shot.
i would just shoot it though

[dude]

Yes Dazza mate shoot it as the American police do shoot first worry later
likely you'll shoot it without having to much bother.

[RichK]

Ahh the perennial issues. Although I do a bit of locations work the answer to some of these questions are still somewhat elusive..

The general answer is.. it all depends. Technically, yes, you do need permission from the council to film in a park. But by that rationale, someone with a camcorder filming his mates playing football would also need permission, which doesn't make sense. If you're relatively small scale, I'd just do it, don't worry about it. If you're stopped by anyone just apologise, say you thought filming in public spaces was allowed, and tell them it's for an exam piece. Also explain that you've taken steps to make sure you filmed when it was fairly quiet so as not to get in anyone's way, and ask their advice as to where might be a better corner of the park in which to film. You just have to flatter people sometimes, and act a bit ignorant. I struggle to blag it when there's ten trucks full of gear and 50 crew trampling the place with extreme disrespect, but I have still blagged it even in those circumstances.

Running past shops, yeah no problem. No need to ask for their permission. There's specific rules on background buildings, no permission needed unless there's a direct reference to them. Eg, wide shot of actor walking downthe street, he's just been to a crack den. That's fine. Compare it to this alternative scenario... - shot of actor walking down the path of number 19 in the street, he's just been in the crack den. See the difference? Obvious really.

Train station - hmm, that's a much trickier one. They are generally quite tough to film on. If just using dv cam then maybe try to blag it as much as you can. If you're there in numbers then you might have a bit of difficulty. Pick a quiet branch line if the story allows, I've done some stuff on a North Norfolk line and that was fine, didn't need to go any higher than a regional manager. I've also done Charing Cross for an hour and going with the flow of commuters etc, and that also worked out fine, but it did cost £500. Ouch. I think The Bourne Ultimatum at Waterloo was costing £5000 an hour or something, but I've also done a bit at Waterloo for substantially less than that too. But generally speaking, tricky. I'm just about to make use of another private line for a film, and that will hopefully work out ok, but will also cost a bit.

Weston beach.. I would just blag it - beaches have various ownerships but most are controlled by the local district council. Again I'm just about to oranise filming on many beaches in Lincolnshire and have pre-secured permission from the council at no cost (although we'll actually be making a donation to the Lord Mayor's charity). The bit of beach that is exposed when the tide goes out, ie the land between high water and low water is actually owned by... the Queen!

There is a "form" of sorts - it's a standard filming location agreement - for really straightforward stuff I have a much paired down version I could send you.

Finally.. insurance. This is most definitely a grey area. Again it very much depends what you're doing and what you hope to do with the finished piece. In theory you ought to have public liability insurance but this is stupidly expensive. I had to pay £700 to insure the "making of.." documentary for "Dead Man's Shoes" even though we basically interviewed Shane with a dv cam sitting in a room, and then followed him round at Edinburgh. Groovy.

On balance I would say just shoot what you can without worrying about it. Just use common sense, maybe set out a bit of a written plan for what you would like to do. I have to do full risk assessments for every location we film at, which is tedious in the extreme - I can also send you a paired down bog standard risk assessment. Even if you're not insured the fact that you have taken risk into consideration and acted to reduce it will be favourable. Councils in particular (if you do have to speak to them) will look more favourably on you if you have done a risk assessment.

Ok another "finally" - the stuff you raise about insurance etc for this sort of no budget filming is a good point. If I were you I'd think about contacting your local regional film office and asking them what they think about it. Yours is Southwest Screen - www.swscreen.co.uk tel [phone]. I don't have the contact name to hand but I can get it for you. If you phone them and tell them you're doing some no budget filming in the region which is getting a bit more serious, thinking of doing a bit more, but were just after a bit of advice to find out if there's anything you ought to be doing, then that puts the ball firmly in their court.

I genuinely don't know the answer here as all of the stuff I work on is covered by insurance, so I'd be interested to know what the film office thinks. In fact I might raise it with a few people I know elsewhere. SW Screen's role is to foster film making talent in their region and it would be very poop indeed to think that the talent is pole-axed at the first hurdle by being unable to film anywhere due to lack of insurance. Hope this all makes sense.

Summing up - just keep shooting stuff - but using a little forethought.

[salvador]

Hey Rich,

Thats some cracking advice and a great insight.

This is why I love these forums, genuine advice from genuine people! Oh and Shane's films are alright too!

[RichK]

Right well this morning I've sent an email to Media Insurance Brokers asking them if they'd consider offering a small amount of public liability insurance only to small-scale productions.

Here's their current "student" factsheet...

www.mediainsurance.com/student_factsheet.pdf

See, what they're offering there is, relatively speaking, tons of insurance cover at a price far higher than you want to pay just to film your brother and his mate sitting on a park bench.

You don't need cast insurance, or employer's liability, or even equipment insurance yet their mimimum package compels you to have it.

In my email to them I've suggested that all such low budget films need is a little bit of public liability insurance. Paying £50 for a bit of insurance to cover your three day shoot might still be a bit pricey for some, but I reckon would be about right. This would give you the public liability insurance required by councils etc, would give you legitimacy, and wouldn't expose the insurer to too much risk. In their terms and conditions they could give a list of what is covered and what isn't - I wouldn't expect them to cover your "car crash" sequence or anything over-ambitious!

I also reckoned that with a bit of targeted marketing (a few posters in every film course office at every college and uni) they'd get absolutely shed loads of small scale projects wanting this minimal cover. It's low volume to them though, which is probably why they don't do it. My final point in the email though was that very often, these ultra-low budget productions are made by people who go on to become the mainstream producers and directors of the future - so it could be very good PR for Media Insurance to begin fostering relationships early, which would very likely endure into the future.

I'll let you know what their response is.

[Dazza]

Thanks for all the brilliant advice Rich I knew you were the man in the know about these things. Top stuff muchas gracias amigo