Lets break the monotony of questions about which camera to use and weather or not we should go to film school for a moment. Share your filmmaking horror stories. When things go wrong, really wrong. Tell about bad crew members, pre-madonna first-time actors, horrible actors, bad or improvised equipment, etc. Here, I'll get us started.
On my last shoot, there was a scene were a character was on a rooftop with a rifle. It was a very cheap plastic rifle but it looked good on screen. Anyway, someone saw the actor, thought it was real, and called the police. We managed to finish the scene and break down the equipment by the time the cops got there... and they came with avengence. Six cops surrounded us in a flash. I was ordered to slowly lower the object (my tripod) and put my hands behind my head. Luckily I informed the policeman in the building we'd be up there beforehand and he called the rest of the cities finest off.
"Try not. Do, or do not. There is no try." - Yoda
"Try not. Do, or do not. There is no try." - Yoda
I had location trouble for a short a while back. I found an abandoned section of a hospital that was perfect. I got in and started shooting but only got half of what I needed. The very next day the area was being used for storage. Now I have to find a new location and start over. I still haven't finished.
The absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence.
The absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence.
I shot for six days with an actor who was in a reality show airing soon. Then his reality show producer drove by while we were filming and said 'you do know you're contractually forbidden from being in any projects, yada, yada, yada.' After a few months of allowing him to work things out the actor suggested he could sue his way out of the contract. I decided that wasn't the route into HOllywood I was looking for so I recast and redid the scenes.
RJSchwarz
San Diego, CA
RJSchwarz
Ouch.
www.tristanluke.com
http://tristanluke.blogspot.com
www.tristanluke.com
www.tristanluke.com/wordpress/
i was working on a movie for six months. I was one week away from finishing the entire project. Long story short-my hard drive crashed and i lost it all.
I had a 15 person crew and was working on a movie in Wisconsin last summer and we all got arrested for disturbing the peace and some other bullshit thing about "resisting arrest", carrying unauthorized weapons, and impersonating public officials.
It was ridiculous, we got cited, hauled in, thrown in the cooler, then let out an hour and a half later when the chief was brought in to talk
to us. I had cleared it all with him before the shoot, he just "forgot to post the memo"
Talk about a major kink in schedule. And it didn't help that one of our actors was in a clown suit, armed with a frying pan and chasing after a conscripted old lady, who they would simply not believe was part of the crew. That and you throw in our fake police officers and we had quite the hefty medley. I wanted to crawl away and die.
The dangers of guerilla filmmaking.
I really love this topic. This forum usually moves with the speed of a still born snail, but this should invigorate it a bit.
Though I think a general talk forum would be nice as well, where we could just go and shoot the shit, liedidiedidie, that sort of thing.
That's it! You people have stood in my way long enough! I'm going to clown college!
That's it! You people have stood in my way long enough! I'm going to clown college!
Damn that is one of the funniest things i've heard in a long time sword. You guys getting arrested in that situation deserves to be a movie in itself. Hilarious.
I'll see if I can't find the tapes, the arrest is on there, its kind of funny. The camera man kept the tape running up until they slammed him against the car and he dropped it. Its pretty chaotic. Its like something you'd see on COPS. You had us all lined up, a damn clown, two cops and this little old lady screaming that she was indeed in the movie and we weren't harassing her.
We thought maybe we could get her to post bail if things went really rotten, but we didn't have too.
That's it! You people have stood in my way long enough! I'm going to clown college!
That's it! You people have stood in my way long enough! I'm going to clown college!
Ok, here's my latest. Last weekend I tried to shoot my latest short. I set up everything perfectly. Location, props, lighting, sound, (even let the police know not to come shoot me this time.) Got all my actors together almost a month and a half in advance. Then, on the day of the shoot, all but one actor show up... the star. The one person needed for 90% of the movie didn't show. He didn't answer his phone the whole day then he calls the next day to tell me he was sick. Now all I have for this movie is a shot of a woodpecker that just happened to be on a nearby tree.
"Try not. Do, or do not. There is no try." - Yoda
"Try not. Do, or do not. There is no try." - Yoda
I made a movie last weekend that needed an outdoor night shot in a park. I thought since all the scenes were being shot around the park lights, that would be enough. Later when I started editing, ALL the footage was too dark. Now I have to reshoot and figue out how to light it. Maybe I'll shoot just as the sun is going down, when the street lights come on but the sky isn't totally black.
The absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence.
The absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence.
You might try adjusting the aperature on your camera to let more light in. I had the reverse problem shooting during the day. I was generally able to correct it in post, but a simple flip of one switch solved the problem.
RJSchwarz
San Diego, CA
RJSchwarz
Adjust the gain as well. Between the two of them you can make dark shots a hell of a lot lighter and vice versa.
** If its worth making, it's worth making properly. damn it!**
** If its worth making, it's worth making properly. damn it!**
I was shooting today and had a situation come up that definitely would classify as a Horror story. We were shooting a short, (there were about 9 of us) that takes place at an abandoned warehouse. We found an amazing location, a warehouse that homeless people lived in. This was there home so we decided that we would buy them food in return for taking there space. About 5 of them decided to stick around and be extras because they had nothing else to do.
Cut to three hours later. Homeless meth addicts are congregating around us all wanting to be extras. For the scene we needed alot of extras so things were going great, until the cases of beer arrived. Within an hour most of them are drunk, disorderly, and worst of all trying to tell me how to direct the film. Several small fights break out but they don't really get in the way and give us some good footage. We thought we were going to escape relatively incident free, until two of the homeless guys got into a fight (about who would get to stand next to one of the homeless girls in the shot) and one of them whipped out a switchblade and slashed the other one.
all the homeless people started fighting each other. One man was wielding a brick and hit my DoP in the back of the head. My crew packed up pronto and we arent sure how it was resolved or if anyone was seriously hurt. Best of all we are going back tomorrow because we need to pick up a few shots. Hopefully no homeless brawl this time
Did you get them to sign release forms?
RJSchwarz
San Diego, CA
RJSchwarz
quote:
Originally posted by mg440
I was shooting today and had a situation come up that definitely would classify as a Horror story. We were shooting a short, (there were about 9 of us) that takes place at an abandoned warehouse. We found an amazing location, a warehouse that homeless people lived in. This was there home so we decided that we would buy them food in return for taking there space. About 5 of them decided to stick around and be extras because they had nothing else to do.Cut to three hours later. Homeless meth addicts are congregating around us all wanting to be extras. For the scene we needed alot of extras so things were going great, until the cases of beer arrived. Within an hour most of them are drunk, disorderly, and worst of all trying to tell me how to direct the film. Several small fights break out but they don't really get in the way and give us some good footage. We thought we were going to escape relatively incident free, until two of the homeless guys got into a fight (about who would get to stand next to one of the homeless girls in the shot) and one of them whipped out a switchblade and slashed the other one.
all the homeless people started fighting each other. One man was wielding a brick and hit my DoP in the back of the head. My crew packed up pronto and we arent sure how it was resolved or if anyone was seriously hurt. Best of all we are going back tomorrow because we need to pick up a few shots. Hopefully no homeless brawl this time
ha! you must be here in the south somewhere!
