The strangest place that you have filmed?

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stingman
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The strangest place that you have filmed?

Post by stingman »

I don`t really have any storys on this! I have to think of one.
I was just doing a brainstorming session and wondered what the group here had filmed that was strange or unusual?

I`m bound to think of something myself. My brains gone dead :oops: :lol:
Ian Gardner
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FILM THURSO
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Post by FILM THURSO »

One of the joys of the IAC is that little blue card that get's us into places and situations we might not otherwise be able to. It just lets folk know our intentions are genuine.
I'm not sure I've been in what might be called 'unusual' but in the context of what our local populations do then I guess I've been in lots of places people don't normally go. Mind you the IAC card hasn't been a big player in my getting in. I've been known as a film maker (among other terms of reference) for years before I joined IAC and generally I'm just not affraid to ask for permissions to go places. Knowing the right people also helps.
I think my most recent exploit- the expedition to the Breadalbane Cinema was the most unusual. I'm not unacustomed to hanging from beams and rafters in a bid to get the picture (we have no lions and elephants up here) but being in the time capsule of which the buildings users remain blissfully unaware was quite surreal. Above and below the public areas were these spaces not seen by the customers that sit quietly being part of a bygone era. Not used or seen but present none the less. What we refer to as 'Quiet History'.
We certainly go to odd places but mostly it's the time of day that is unusual. It strikes me that if people sleep through the night then there things they don't get to see unless someone stays up and films them- so here we are! :shock:
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stingman
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Post by stingman »

One of the places (if you can call it that) is on the back of my bike. Istrapped the camera onto the Pillion seat and drove off.
The result was really bad with really jerky pictures and the thought of my camera flying off! It was held on with cableties!

I should have known the result, but I wanted to see what the result was. Next time I`ll get someone to sit on the back, like in the Tour De France.

I was going to use the resultant film as a backdrop for my `Blue Screen` for my film `Amarillo!`
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billyfromConsett
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Post by billyfromConsett »

I've done a range of shots from motorbikes before I ever went to a film club. I remember showing my movie to a motorcycle training club. The credits were about a minute long for a 5 minute movie. But they were in-camera strobed footage from a motorcycle tank going through banked turns, followed by an embarressing interview (by me) about not falling off motorbikes.

No wonder the club moved when I was on holiday!
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Re: The strangest place that you have filmed?

Post by Peter »

stingman wrote:I don`t really have any storys on this! I have to think of one.
I was just doing a brainstorming session and wondered what the group here had filmed that was strange or unusual?

I`m bound to think of something myself. My brains gone dead :oops: :lol:
I did have the offer (subject to the zoo agreeing) from a tiger handler about filming inside a cage of tigers! (With him incharge - I hope). He did stroke them through the bars, and said they were very friendly! After a lot of thought I decided to give it a miss! I'm not that fond of cats anyway, and the damned things are always scratching me. Prefer dogs!
Peter
Michael Slowe
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The Strangest Place That You Have Filmed?

Post by Michael Slowe »

As I look for interesting documentary subjects I have been to some difficult places to access. I spent nine months (a few days each week) inside Arsenal Football Stadium (Highbury) having access to all parts and then a night club in London's Leicester Square at one o'clock in the morning for "Melissa" which was quite scary at first having to negotiate some very tough 'security' guards even though full arrangements had been made! Curiously I find that sometimes the IAC little 'blue card' can be a hinderance as they don't think that you are serious enough.
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Post by stingman »

I think Michael (seeing his films) has led quite a filming career! His films are certainly a mix of things.

You must have some funny or serious storys under your belt to tell.
For example, while filming your rowing boats film ... Did you fall in the water!!??

Or while filming your Bowls film... Did the old ladys chase you!?
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Post by Peter »

stingman wrote:I think Michael (seeing his films) has led quite a filming career! His films are certainly a mix of things.

You must have some funny or serious storys under your belt to tell.
For example, while filming your rowing boats film ... Did you fall in the water!!??

Or while filming your Bowls film... Did the old ladys chase you!?
Michael prefers young ladies!!
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Michael Slowe
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The Stragest Places That You Have Filmed?

Post by Michael Slowe »

Peter, you make a joke (I hope!) but recently I heard of a filmmaker getting pulled up by the Police for filming ladies (don't know if young or old) in Trafalgar Square. Apparently they accused him of 'voyeurism'. Any legal beavor amongst us who knows the law on this? They told him it was in new legislation.
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Re: The Stragest Places That You Have Filmed?

Post by Peter »

Michael Slowe wrote:Peter, you make a joke (I hope!) but recently I heard of a filmmaker getting pulled up by the Police for filming ladies (don't know if young or old) in Trafalgar Square. Apparently they accused him of 'voyeurism'. Any legal beavor amongst us who knows the law on this? They told him it was in new legislation.
Michael, you know I never joke!!

This is a worrying trend - I used to shoot kids playing or on bikes or whatever when on holiday to liven up my holiday shots, but I would now be more careful as I've also heard these stories. I know of someone in FCS who had a disagreement with a father of a small child who he though he was filming. In fact he was filming the tree in blossom behind the child (in Kew Gardens) and played back the footage to prove it.

A couple of years ago I took digital stills at our local summer street party and it occured to me that as I was also taking shots of kids, that someone might object. In fact everyone wanted copies as they liked the shots, and the organiser had suggested I might take some photos anyway. I think we could easily become paranoid about this, except that for me I never shoot video these days.

It's strange because just about everyone in the street or park now are shooting stills and video on cameras and mobile phones, and I bet they are mostly unaware. It's also hard for people to know who you are actually shooting, if you are at a distance, and using a zoom or tele lens.

It's sad that the days of innocence have gone and children have to be a subject that one is cautious about just for one's own protection. It's a mad world.
Peter
Brian Saberton
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Post by Brian Saberton »

There has been considerable debate about this in the Amateur Photographer magazine over the past couple of years with many horror stories of over zealous officials and police officers attempting to prevent legitimate photographers from going about their normal business. If you look at my article in Scottish Scene in the May/June FVM (page 30) you will see what happened to an amateur photographer taking pictures of street entertainers at the Edinburgh Festival.

In the october edition of Photography magazine which I have in front of me someone has written in with a query (page 157) regarding a candid photograph that the magazine published last month. It would take too long to quote the editor's reply in full but they do confirm that "in the UK, photographers are free to take photographs of people in a public place including for personal gain" albeit with some obvious caveats such as you can't misrepresent or libel the person.

If everyone avoids filming or photographing events where there are children around there is going to be a terrible paucity of archive footage to show future generations how we lived our lives. When you look at old films in most archives it is the gala days, processions etc that are the most interesting in showing how people dressed and behaved. We do indeed live in very sad times.
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Post by ned c »

We were shocked to see in The Little Knight that the film maker was arrested in Malta for filming the US Embassy.

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Michael Slowe
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The Strangest Places That You Have Filmed?

Post by Michael Slowe »

I have just remembered that I was 'arrested' by police way back in about 1965 on Wormwood Scrubs at night! I wanted a shot of the perimiter wall and lights for a film about a fraudster going to prison and escaping and it was just after the real life escape of the spy Blake. I protested that I had recently been an RAF officer and would do nothing against the law and they replied "so was Blake". They were quite nice about it and after radio conversations let me go.

No one remarked on my story about filming women in Trafalgar Square. It wasn't children which may be understandably sensitive but just women.
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Post by Dave Watterson »

We were shocked to see in The Little Knight that the film maker was arrested in Malta for filming the US Embassy.
Jan and I spent a couple of days in Regensburg with that film maker, Oskar Siebert. He is a great host and took a lot of trouble to show us round that lovely city.

I asked him about what happened in Malta. He explained that he was there on his own. He has Czech and German languages only - and Malta speaks Maltese and English. He was collecting an award from the Golden Knight Festival for his movie "Mother".

He was taking tourist photos all over the place and was suddenly picked up by local police. The language problem made that pretty terrifying for him, though he made light of it in the movie. The police said they had had a complaint from the US Embassy that he was photographing the building. He had indeed done so - from the street with a normal lens, just as one might photograph any interesting building.

Because he was shooting digitally he was able to show them his innocent images and was eventually allowed to go. He said the Maltese seemed rather embarrassed but had to do what the USA asked.

Strangely enough if you do visit Malta one place they might not want you to shoot is the dockyards ... but the open-top tour bus goes right past and you get a great view over the wall ...


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Post by Dave Watterson »

On topic? Seldom! Our threads here seem to develop an interesting life of their own.

Much of the fuss about photographing children arose from red-top media encouraging fears about molestation. That in turn led to fears by education authorities that they might be thought irresponsible if they allowed pictures to be taken in schools ... and that's where a lot of confusion arose.

When you go onto anyone's property with their permission (i.e. not trespassing) you can generally take photographs unless they ask you not to do so. Most concert halls, theatres, National Trust houses and so on make that a condition of entry. So schools can do it too.

The daft thing is that it stopped parents recording their own children in school nativity plays or at sports days.

I helped to put up a web version of a school magazine - and on that we had to remove the family names of the pupils. Thus you might have a poem by Pamela, a photo of the sprint champion Pamela, a debating team led by Pamela ... all actually different people. Talking to the pupils of this girls secondary school I found they themselves were not at all concerned about being named. "Perverts," they said, "we see them all the time hanging around the gates - we all know who they are. We make fun of them. They don't need to buy the school magazine to identify us."

It was like a breath of fresh air a year or so ago when I was judging a competition at Surrey Borders and one of the entries showed the film maker's young grand-daughter taking part in a gymnastics competition. His pride in her achievement shone through and we could all share that. That aspect of film making had been absent for several years because of this nonsense.

Yes it can be a shock to find that someone has used an innocent image for perverted purposes. Googling for stills from a French movie about childhood on the web I found a couple of them on a porn site ... they showed a six-year old girl with her knickers on display. The film is totally innocent and seeing the pics on that website was disturbing. But anything can be misused.

It seems to me a great shame if we allow ourselves, the innocent vast majority of people, to be restricted in what we do by rules intended to stop the bad guys.

Dave
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