Permitted filmmaking
Writer/director James Ponsoldt, one of the fellows at this summer’s Sundance Filmmakers Lab, emailed me some information about new regulations on filming in New York City’s five boroughs. Under the proposed rules (.pdf), a city permit would be needed for:
Two people with any camera, shooting in a public location (defined as any area within 100 feet of where filming begins) for a half hour or longer, even if the camera is hand-held, including set up and breakdown.
Five people with one tripod, shooting in a public location for over 10 minutes, including set up and breakdown.
I have no doubt that the rules are well-intentioned. Anyone who’s lived in New York or Los Angeles has dealt with the inconvenience of film crews — that’s why there’s a permit process. But there’s a difference between a true film shoot, with its trucks and dollies and light stands, and two guys with a videocamera.
Would these rules really get enforced? It’s hard to say. But even rarely-used laws are a Bad Thing if they criminalize free expression. Videotaping a protest march could be deemed illegal under these rules.
Thanks to sites like YouTube, video has become the new generation’s media of choice. It’s their printing press, their pamphlet, their church-door-upon-which-to-nail-theses. Placing undue restrictions on video creation undermines the spirit of the First Amendment. The Mayor’s office needs to find a way to control the burden of filming (trucks, traffic, noise) without restricting expression.
Picture New York has more information about the proposed rules, including a petition. The New York Civil Liberties Union has further comment.
As for Los Angeles (and other cities), I can’t say exactly what the current rules are. At USC, we had to get LA film permits for our student films. That was a university policy, and made sense given their concerns about liability and guild relations. (We were able to use SAG actors under a waiver.)
This was before the age of tiny, ubiquitous videocameras. You can now shoot a film without anyone realizing you’re shooting a film. If it’s you and a buddy with a tiny camera, should you really have to register with a governmental agency? I say no. And I hope that New York’s proposed rules wouldn’t make that mandatory.
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August 2nd, 2007 at 8:45 am
The first thing that comes to mind is Improv Everywhere. These guys are out there doing hilarious stuff all over NYC - and these rules look like they were practically designed to shut them down.
NYC is a big city, so I don’t want to say that for sure. But they will be affected if the rules are enforced. And that really sucks the fun out of it - then people would know where the next mission will take place.
August 2nd, 2007 at 9:16 am
If you think these laws are strange, you should read about adult entertainment and obcenity laws. You can film a naked girl, and you can film a girl taking a dump. But you can’t film a naked girl taking a dump.
Go figure.
August 2nd, 2007 at 9:21 am
All it’s going to do is make better poachers. You get good at filming without a permit. On my last shoot I had 8 crew and three cast members on UC Irvine campus. They don’t allow filming on campus when school is in session - permit or not. Needless to say we shot all day on campus in various locations, no lights, but we did have makeup powdering everyone up and grips with bounce boards. We even had a steadicam operator running our camera, a CineAlta F900 - there is no way it looked like a home camcorder.
My DP told the crew and cast “just act like you belong here”. This is the same guy who walked int LAX one week after 9/11 and setup right there in the terminal and filmed away (on a 35mm camera no less).
You do what you have to.
August 2nd, 2007 at 10:56 am
I’m more worried about selective enforcement. Apparently one reason this policy is being written us is that a south asian man was using a video camera in the financial district and the police wanted to stop him and so told him he needed a permit. There was no written policy or permitting structure at the time, so one had to be written. Hmm. Profiling much? I worry that this policy is a license for police to harass foreign and “suspicious-looking” tourist groups and other groups.
They blatantly say that they don’t mean for it to apply to amateurs and tourists, but somehow that didn’t get written into the policy.
August 2nd, 2007 at 1:22 pm
I understand that people filming can get in the way of things. So why not have laws against getting in the way of things, rather than filming specifically?
August 2nd, 2007 at 2:27 pm
Does this mean tourists with a video camera are breaking the law?
August 2nd, 2007 at 3:00 pm
Living in New York City and next to a major soundstage (Kaufman Astoria Studios), I have never had a problem with actual crews. They’ve never screwed up my day, commute, etc. In fact, I rarely ever see them.
What I have seen are kids with cameras and some dreams. I’d hate to see them crushed. I think the proposed rules are a bit outlandish. They already will question you thoroughly if you film anywhere near a monument. So why is this needed?
Not enough people are buying insurance, probably.
August 2nd, 2007 at 3:03 pm
This is why, even with the benefits cities like LA and NYC offer for professionals, I think I would much rather be shooting an indie film in the midwest or really anywhere not on a coast. If we have laws like this on the books, they certainly aren’t enforced. Nobody acts like you’re getting in the way, and you’re never thought of as being “another damn film crew.”
I’m actually surprised to hear that college campuses would require permits to shoot, or that they would disallow shooting on campus completely. That’s the exact opposite of how things are done here, where shooting on campus is encouraged and unrestricted (except for pornography, which some students learned the hard way).
August 2nd, 2007 at 6:23 pm
Nick - We could’ve shot at USC for $1000 per day, but we would’ve needed more insurance to satisfy them than we were currently carrying, so the “run and gun” plan at UC Irvine was hatched.
Where is “here” anyway?
August 3rd, 2007 at 8:44 am
There are no permits required in Dallas unless you’re going to need to block traffic for the shoot.
The police find many other ways to harass minorities.
August 5th, 2007 at 8:36 am
Long time listener, first time writer (here). As a NYC based producer, who’s livelihood (sp?) is dependent upon production in the city, I too was shocked to learn of the Mayor’s Office’s seemingly ludacris proposals to inact the new permit regulations. Afterall, if NY is known for anything in regards to production, it’s their willingness to dole out incentives for shows to shoot in the city…i.e. - free police, free permits, etc.. That’s why it was so hard to comprehend why they’d push this initative.
Thankfully, as reported in Sat’s NY Times, (the same paper in which Mr. August’s piece ran), the Mayors Office has come to their senses and stated that they will no longer move forward with the proposed permit reg’s as they’d previously intended to…So for now, we appear to be safe and sound, with all back to normal: with the worlds best location, NYC, as our background.