Chas.E, ROFL. The mirror thing especially.
I’m actually currently going to University to get a BFA in Film Production. I solemnly swear that I will never disturb you in that way (though I am currently located in Canada, so you don’t have to worry anyway). I will also try to do as little to disturb others as possible.
Actually I find parts of your story even more strange because of the shoots I’ve been a part of. We have to get permission from a household even if just a little of their house is in the shot. Though I’m in a city where there are only a few of multi-million dollar movies being shot this summer. Maybe the crews here still give a damn about the surrounding people.
Sorry if you think I’m scum regardless because I make films. However, I’m still one of the little guys making my own independent movies. Your post should serve as an example to all other filmmakers to be conciencious. Later all.
Ah, we have an ARTISTE here, not a mere filmmaker. I guarantee that if someone came up to you and asked you to direct “Smokey and the Bandit IV” for half a milion bucks salary, you’d agree to do it faster than you can say “sell out.”
Let me tell you a story about “artistes” and “independent films.” One Thanksgiving morning, all my family had assembled from across the country, staying overnight at my apartment in LA. As we arose, we saw not one, but THREE film crews setting up in the street. And to my astonishment, the 3 directors were having a fistfight over who got to use the street for filming! Apparently someone at the film permit office screwed up, and issued 3 permits for the same holiday weekend.
There were 3 crews preparing to film, one was from an NBC TV movie, one was filming a car commercial, and one was a student film crew from USC. The USC film had the most equipment, they had about 20 trucks full of equipment, while the pros only had 4 or 5 each. I investigated later, and found that this is a standard practice in the industry, equipment rental companies will loan equipment during slack times (like holidays) and take a huge tax writeoff. A student film crew can get all the equipment they ever wanted and more.
I listened with increasing hilarity as the argument continued. It was eventually decided that the crew with the most equipment had the most at stake, so the USC student film got to film first. The other crews had to wait (which costs a LOT of money) until they were done.
It is not filmmaking that is inherently evil, it is the people in the industry that are evil. If you really love films, I suggest you skip that BFA and avoid the whole moviemaking industry. Working in the film biz will kill your love for film. One writer perhaps said it best, he said the worst part of working in the film industry was that “you are dependent for your livelihood on people you have absolute contempt for.” Work long enough, and these contemptible SOBs will seem like normal, even admirable people. Someday you’ll look in the mirror and see one of those SOBs looking back at you. But by then, you’ll be too far gone to notice.
Chas.E, since you’re a newbie, you probably don’t know that such rants belong in the pit. I suggest you take it there.
So you had a bad experience with a film crew. So what? That doesn’t mean all crews are like that. When we make an independent (oh! look at the artistes!) film, we are very careful to clean up after ourselves. We are careful not to annoy the neighbours. (On an indie film, you often have to keep a low profile.)
I take it you don’t watch television? You never go to the cinema? You never buy products that are advertised on television or “product-placed” in films? If you do watch films or support the people who support films, then you shouldn’t complain about all of the evil film presons. By paying your money, you’re helping to make the films.
:wally
Chas E., while that may be the situation in LA, it doesn’t hold for other cities. New York has become very hardassed about film permits, and movie crews don’t have the power there that their counterparts do in LA. Ditto for Philadelphia.
Since Canada has become the low to medium budget film makers’ locale of choice, I would assume that there is some leniency with permits in the Great White North. I have read insider stories about filming in Toronto, and the producers can be a bit pushy, but not to the level Chas E. described.
Johnny L.A. already said this, but just to be official:
Chas. E, welcome to the Straight Dope message board. You may be unaware that direct insults to fellow members are prohibited in the General Questions forum, and that long “rants” are discouraged. Both of these activities are best conducted in our forum “The BBQ Pit,” which exists for that purpose. Thank you for your attention to this matter.
I am a relative newbie here, having been onboard only a month or so, but I am acquainted (vaguely) with the rules.
I guess that calling someone an “artiste” is prohibited, but calling me a “putz” isn’t. If I call filmmakers scum, and someone steps forward to take the insult personally, I can hardly be blamed.
In my own defense, what you call a “rant” was a direct response to someone else’s statments, statements that were so egregiously incorrect that I had to correct them. Other people, even filmmakers, seemed to enjoy the stories I presented.
For the record: I have my TV turned to CNN all day long. I never EVER go to the cinema. I didn’t have just ONE bad experience with a film crew, I had DOZENS of bad experiences.
Perhaps it would have been more appropriate to answer the original question in a more direct manner. For example, I could have told the story about how the movie Robocop was filmed on my block, and how the crews set up the pyrotechnics for the big explosion scene. But it would have turned into a “rant” also, as one of my neighbors was arrested for “interfering with a film crew” for playing his stereo out the window, in revenge for the noise of the explosions. The police broke his door down and arrested him while he was in the shower, and took him off to jail naked and dripping wet.
No, I prefer to answer the bigger questions. My question is not HOW do they rig a movie explosion, any tech manual can answer such simple questions. My question is WHY do they think they can get away with such a thing in residential neighborhoods?
So, if you believe that my “rant” was so off topic as to warrant moderator intervention, please provide more specific posting guidelines. I sure haven’t found any posting rules on this site, I looked everywhere.
Here’s an ironic tale of a lost movie set.
Chas. E,
Was there not a page of terms and conditions to read when you registered? There was just such a thing when I signed on back in the late nineteen hundreds.
Tymp, very cool site. I’ve seen the movie but had no idea about the mystery behind. It has one seen that still amazes me to this day: the parting of the red sea, when the water crashes back down. And that was in 1923! Later all.
Chas E.: “Artiste” is OK. Perhaps you have forgotten about this little gem: “dirty trick the scumbags of the movie industry (like YOU) use to screw the locals and get whatever they want.”
We do not refer to each other as “scumbags” in GQ. And, speaking broadly, HOW is General Questions, WHY is Great Debates. WHY YOU EVIL SCUMBAGS is the BBQ Pit. Hope this clears things up for you.
[note: I edited this post so as not to mis-quote anyone, which my first edition had inadvertently done. -manhattan]
(Me: Eyes downcast and shifting, coughing under breath, and whispering…)
Ahem… “scumbags,” manhattan, not “scumballs.” He said “scumbags”… kinda the same thing, but you don’t want to get tripped up on a technicality, right?..
Dammit! I edited my post before stuyguy got here! Really I did! No, Really! I swear!
::mumblemumble wasn’t even that bad an insult in the first place mumblemumble::
I can not tell a lie. He’s right, he DID!
Our electrons must’ve crossed on the way to the same place.
OK, those guidelines are succinct and clear enough. I never have been into the BBQ pit because I usually avoid flamewars. That’s what’s nice about this board, heated intellectual discourse, disagreement without much disputation. My apologies if I got carried away, and went off about one of my pet peeves, but if you’d seen the things I’ve seen in the film industry, you’d understand why I could get a bit hot under the collar.