I'd love to hear some stories about some guerrilla filmmaking you've done. Were you almost caught? Did it cause you problems after release? What was the energy like? How did what you were filming come out? Do you avoid it at all costs because legality, permits, right thing to do, etc? What were some of the best guerrilla moments you recall seeing in your favorite movies?
Filmmaking / Directing : Goin' Guerilla by Cheryl Allen
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Plan ahead and always assume you're going to get shut down. If you're going guerrilla to be able to get a nice looking location, make sure to get the wide shots first since that's what you're there for. But don't be too risky to injure yourself, crew or civilians.
Read up on the camerawoman killed by the train a couple of years ago.
It would be great to always have the budget to do everything legal and legit, but sometimes you have to go renegade. Even the big shots admit to it sometimes like James Cameron and Michael Bay. Specifically, The Terminator and Armageddon have admitted guerrilla footage.
Living in Los Angeles, I've discovered it's the hardest place to film legit because technically you're supposed to even have a permit when shooting in your friend's house with their permission. One thing I miss about growing up in Indiana is we could film anywhere and no one cared. If anything they enjoyed seeing it.
I was shut down once by the police here in CA. I knew it would eventually happen that day since we were off of a side road that's well traveled. The cop asked for a permit and we said don't have one. He said get lost. It might have helped we had an extremely small crew. Myself, camera, producer and two actors. It was for the location, so like I mentioned earlier, we got the wide shots first of the car at the location. Then when we returned home we filmed missing close ups inside of the vehicle.
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Not worth it.
Shooting in a small NYC park where the Producer claimed he had permission as he was an SVU student The Park Ranger asked to see a student id., he had none, three police cars arrived within seconds, Producer arguing with the cops gave me enough time to load my equipment.
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Another NYC story: near NYU, many street lamp maintenance doors are pried open and wired with plugs for access to electricity for production lights. Not only incredibly illegal but dangerous. ZAP!
Re: Gueriilla - go for it. You'll probably just get kicked out. See "Escape From Tomorrow."
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We shot some insert shots for a music video on the grounds of an empty Malibu cliff mansion for sale.
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I shot a short film called "Buds" in a real Marijuana dispensary in Van Nuys. We had the place from 8pm to 5am. But to shoot there, the owner had to lock up all the real product and we had to bring in and stock all our fake product. We had permission to use the store and half the parking lot behind it. We staged all our fake product on tables in the parking lot for a quick load in as soon as the store was ours. An angry business owner in the complex who controlled the other half of the parking lot saw us and thought we were throwing some kind of rave/drug party. At 7:30 he pulled his BMW across the only entrance to the lot, blocking it so we couldn't "escape." As he and my DP were yelling at each other, LA Vice descended on us in force. It was awesome. They all looked like variations of Dog the Bounty Hunter. I talked to the officers who luckily stopped at the BMW blocking the alley out of sight of our mounds of fake product which would have led to many more questions than we had time for. At 8PM the back door to the dispensary opened and our props and set dressing were thrown inside by every able bodied crew member. By the time the cops made it to the back of the store all that was left were our film trucks and camera gear. LA Vice realized we were just a film crew on private property and the angry store owner got cited for blocking the fire lane in the alley with his BMW. Good times.
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I think a lot of it depends on where you're located. I'm out here in a dinky little town and because it's so small, I know the Mayor, the Police Chief and the City Manager is my next door neighbor - so I get to shoot almost any time/any where. We got miles & miles of forest roads that wander through the mountains, along the beaches and the State Parks are free to filmmakers. Now if only I had a crew.
"Another NYC story: near NYU, many street lamp maintenance doors are pried open and wired with plugs....", yeah, that is a story all right. The socket was wired in when streetlight was installed and not by some NYU student.
Shot a music video in front of Jack in the Box, and we had a "Jack" outfit, bubble-head and all. They didn't ask us to leave, prolly thought we were from corporate. We should've walked in and asked for food.
BS, JD. I've seen it happen. Electrician? NY DPW worker? The City does not use clamps.
Agree with Brian at the top of responses. Read up on Randall Miller's guerilla nightmare.
So much is at risk in production, why take a chance? Professional relationships... reputation... legal liability. Especially when there are places without permit fees (Tucson for instance). Arizona opened up roads and parks for film production after losing ONLY THE BRAVE to New Mexico (the story about the Arizona fire fighters killed battling a wildfire). There are options. Why risk it all? That's rhetorical. I know many shoot guerilla as a choice, but there's the ingrained rules and regs part of my consciousness (seven years in the military) that makes it hard to understand.
I am curious if anyone had distribution, union or festival complications as a result of "off the grid" production.
Our last film (short) cost $30 in permit fees and we went through a long waiting process with the Department of Homeland Security. They gave us a list of do's and don'ts and the Border Patrol watched our film shoot with more interest and amusement than suspicion. There was no fee to shoot at the border fence.
As they say Y-A-H-O-O = you always have other options.
Sorry pal....it's BS, the sockets were put in when the pole was installed, not by some film student. Yes, working film set Electrician and former commercial/Industrial Electrician.
No, I'm sorry, Pally. Did the note about CLAMPS and SEEING it take place not track? Not only an EE degree, but a set electrician and journeyman who worked for an electrical contractor during college.
There are some risks on guerrilla film making:
(1) use of unwanted advertisement that will cost you most festivals- but not all;
(2) the police catching you in the act;
(3) messing things up because of minimum resources and the lack of a plan b.
So only use guerrilla tactics if you can only loose a few bucks.
From my partner in crime Jerel Damon, and based on a real story:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0on8wU08SnA
Budget: a few hundred dollars.
"Clamps", surely you mean Tricos? But a set Electrician would know that. Funny I don't see any mention of that experience on you "about" page. EE degree, kinda meaningless in the film world, but whatever....
No, I mean C-L-A-M-P-S. They're students, not set electricians who were lucky not to get dead. As you're a curious fan visiting my page, my aspiration went beyond grunt work so I could hire grunts. I moved on and don't do that anymore.
EE not worthwhile, said the person who doesn't have one.
Yeah, whatever.
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The only time I took part in Guerrilla filming .....I didn’t actually know I was doing it....My naïvety some years back was in full swing when a meet-up club D.O.P invited me to a shoot. We were out in fields and I suddenly heard the words “Bloody Run”. Adrenalin kicked in and I made myself scarce and fast. The nearest pub was no saviour as the beer was old in the tap. I must have spent thirty pounds on taxi fares back to my digs. I think unless there is some “Payoff” for all risks taken in Guerrilla filming then its a bit of a fruitless task. YES people get supposedly “Free” footage but they could also end up in a police van. The only way to take some photo of some rare place (for purposes of a FICTIONAL film I stress) is to pretend to be a stupid old lady with an out of date camera. Worst case scenario “Sorry Officer....Im only a tourist.”
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Yea commando filmmaking! Picture this: cast & crew on Hollywood Blvd filming a music video. Actor sitting on ground with beer cans, cigarettes. Writhing to the beat & drinking. Got some good footage.
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Who, in this thread, wants to share their Guerilla shooting story? I'm creating a blog post called:
Going Guerilla: The Do's & Don'ts of Guerilla Filmmaking with Stage 32 peeps.
Basically, we would want 500 words from you that cover this:
The Story
So there we were, on a busy street...
What We Did Right
Knowing what we wanted to accomplish, we....
What We Did Wrong
We didn't know it at the time, but looking back we should have...
What We Should Do Better Next Time
Now that we've had the experience....
If any of you are interested in sharing your story in a compilation post, PM me. :)
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Filmed my short Shannon guerilla style in MIami. I did the most complicated shot first which involved my friend acting like she was cannibalizing a homeless person. This was shot in an alley with no permission in front of cops who happened to be parked across the night we planned on filming. I parked my car right in front made a "Filming" makeshift sign and started. I figured I had an hour tops two. We started late after 11p but in MIami that's when everyone heads out. You can see people in the final shot staring at us like what the fuck and even a construction worker walked right through the shot like an asshole. Thankfully I got what I needed especially cause the building security guard came out and tried to kick us out but I fed him some spiel about it being a student film and even asked if he was interested in being an actor buttering him up and he gave us an extra ten minutes which allowed me to get the final shots. I took advantage of the locations I had access to and wrote them into the story and tried to keep it simple. That's the key. I also planned everything ahead, storyboards, shot schedule everything so that when got out there we didn't waste any time. It really helps to have a cast that is even though inexperienced they were willing to take direction and get the shit done. I also went days before and scoped the area at around the time to get a feel of what to expect trafficwise.
https://youtu.be/vYIGU2xl2qM
I just walked in and shot a horror short / music video in an abandoned mine. This project contains a massive amount of VFX that I am still working on, so there is as yet no story of possible consequences. Due to the lack of respect we found in the way of graffiti and party trash, I would prefer not to draw more attention to the place by revealing it's name or location.