Location Issues

I have a script written for this contest which is scheduled to start shooting Saturday.

Problem is the 3 locations I had secured all backed out. Keep in mind I based the script off this lcoation.

Now I'm left with one (maybe another) but the script is 'too much' for the location. Since it's my college they dont want guns (regardless of type) on campus and I cant use their vault or security cameras (just wanted to get a shot of my robbers coming in ala Snatch. I'm thinking of staying up all night and writing a new script based on a zombie outbreak or something. That way I could use some open fields & tree areas, etc.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks.

Dave

Use your camera as the security camera, and dude up your footage in black&white in post. This is a non-problem.

What locations did you lose? EXTs, INTs, or both? If you're deep in the planning, crewing, and casting phase, it should be possible to figure different locations and still tell the same story.

Before planning your zombie flick, consider the make-up effects, who's going to do them, and how much your materials cost will be, as well as how you'd do other effects, such as gore, gunshot wounds, exploding heads, impalements, etc. Even funky fake effects take a lot of preparation, people, and stuff.

-- Paul

Clinco,

Thanks for the reply.

I'm going to stick with my original idea of a heist film. But thanks for the idea with the security cam footage.

I lost this awesome location, which was 100% interior stuff.

for competition films i think it's usually best to use the minimum locations you can get away with, and focus on story. without knowing what your scenes/sequences are it's difficult to make specific location suggestions.

there's been a few shorts where people have done gun action using fingers (ie actor points finger and shoots - there's a muzzle flash, someone dies) - i found it actually quite shocking the first time i saw it. maybe twisting your script that way would give it an extra edge, plus allow you to shoot on campus?

or you could at a push just use green sticks and maybe track in 3D guns afterwards (although this would probably be a ridiculous amount of post work, depending on how many shots, how close the "guns" are etc) - again that way no guns on campus.

or rewrite the guns as tazers, nightsticks, future-space-weapons ....? i'm just flinging ideas at you Smile

	Quote:
	there's been a few shorts where people have done gun action using fingers (ie actor points finger and shoots - there's a muzzle flash, someone dies) - i found it actually quite shocking the first time i saw it.

Sounds like the horses in MONTY PYTHON AND THE HOLY GRAIL.

-- Paul

Thanks everyone for the feedback.

I did some filming this Saturday and decided to stick with the heist genre. The only difference will be instead of the car being parked in an underground parking garage, I had the car parked outside and this can lead the robbers moving to an all exterior location. I';m talking with my local gun club about letting me film there. That way if people are running around with guns....there isn't going to chaos.

-Dave

There may be even MORE chaos on a gun club.

I've been in shooting ranges for a good deal of the past 18 years and there are strict rules about how firearms are carried at the clubs. At a couple ranges in Vegas, each employee wears TWO sidearms to protect against possible nutcases. If I were on a range, and some tard pointed a gun at me, and there I am ready for tactical drills with a loaded HK .40, you can be sure I'm dropping him before he drops me. Then come to find out it was just NoBull running around with his new little airsoft gun.

Typically, everywhere but IN A LANE all firearms need to be carried UNLOADED, MAG OUT, and CYCLINDER, SLIDE, or BREACH OPEN. Best case scenerio, you get yelled at. Worst case, you get shot.

I'll run around in PUBLIC with an airsoft before I run around a gun club with one. BUT, if you run around in public with one, or even transport an illegally modified airsoft in your vehicle or on your person, do so with the INTENT TO GET ARRESTED. Everytime I've filmed with a toy gun in public, I did so prepared to be arrested. There's also the real possibility to get shot.

I almost guarantee you that the gun club wont go along with this. At the least it would have to be done when they're closed.

http://www.myfoxla.com/dpp/news/local/Movie_Prop_Gun_Scare_20090730

This is just an aside: This story was brought to my attention back when it happened, but I was told that the prop guys were "running around the streets firing automatic rifle props, with blanks". Turns out they were INSIDE and in a room used to test blank weapons. When I first heard the story, I though all the guys should be carted off and the prop and firearms licenses taken away. Now seeing/reading the full story, how stupid can the LAPD be, IN L.A., showing up a FILM PROP HOUSE, and "expecting a war". Please. Use your brains. There's a difference between EXPECTING a war and WANTING a war.

Gage is absolutely right. Don't have actors doing things with very realistic guns when there non-film people around -- especially armed non-film people around who might not know that moviemaking is going on. It is best to have complete, exclusive control of your location. Even Stu said, in the DVRG, that having an actor running around a Chinese parade with a green plastic gun probably wasn't the best idea he'd ever had.

When I filmed the alley murder sequence in my noir, I let the sergeant on duty know about the shoot *two weeks* before The Night. Real guns, but no firing, no blanks. Since I'd spoken with the film office, there was no problem. Then, on The Night, without permission, I put up yellow "Police Line -Do Not Cross" tape at both ends of the alley.

The cop in that area on The Night had heard nothing about it, of course. But I told him I'd been in touch with the police station (true) and with the local film office (also true), and since he could see that we had a camera, dolly, track, etc., and were making a concerted effort to be safe, he just told us to have a good time and went away. Unfortunately, he wouldn't turn on his flashing lights for one part of the scene, but it was worth asking.

I had a crew member designated as the firearm control person. He physically collected all the firearms into a locked box after every take, if the next take wasn't going to be immediate, and handed them out just before "Action."

I would certainly do this with Airsoft guns, also because they're fragile. Treat all guns like real guns.

-- Paul

Gage,

Gotcha. I actually was going to have an entire zoned off just to us. The gun range is actually pretty big and we werent going to be near the firing range. But thanks for the feedback, I'm just trying to get as many options as possible and others for 'insurance'.

Cinco,

Thanks for the advice. Hopefully I can get a locations similar....secluded, etc. Maybe I'll just move everything to INTERIOR depending on what locations I can get. As of right now I have more EXTERIOR locations.

-Dave