Theoretically, it is necessary to request permissions for location shoots. However, this process can be long and you’re not guaranteed to get the permission at the end. It is for this reason that many filmmakers who autoproduisent their works do not hesitate to do their filming on the sly.
Here are 6 cases where the filming on the sly may be the best choice :
Your film is an exercise
If, as I say in my e-book cinema, you are in the process of preparing a turning exercise, it is to my sense no need to ask for permissions for filming. You are a priori in a small team and you do not spend money in this shoot. Because of this, the risks are minimized.
Your scene is short and easy to turn
During my last short film, I planned a sequence of very short, a plan in the metro, without dialogue and with a direct sound of a noise of the metro that I could save later. So, I went with my chief operator, my first assistant camera, my assistant director and obviously my actor to shoot this scene very fast. We went there at a time low of the day, in a station of the terminus. This went on for twenty minutes, in the end, one of the most beautiful scenes of the film in my eyes.
You have virtually no chance of you being ticked off
If you turn in a place where the passage is zero, you can afford to try the experiment, especially if it is the place that you really want ! Many individuals do enquiquinent not have to ask for permissions if they know the original they do not embarrass anyone.
You have nothing to lose
If, during your filming, you do not have rental equipment and that the members of your team are friends who would be willing to return in case of trouble, then you can afford to do a shoot without permission. The only thing you might lose is time. And yet, it will be offset by the gain of time that the authorization requests you have made to lose.
You turn camera shoulder
The camera shoulder is very discrete and you might be less noticed. On the other hand, make sure not to have the pole because, in this case, you will be quickly grilled. Either you take the party to your sequence without dialogue, you equip your comedian microphone tie. Your igneous her, stashed more away, is in charge of mixing.
You don’t have the choice
If all your shooting is resolved and that you are already committed financially to the level of the rental for X number of days, review all the solutions available to you. If you no longer have a choice, it will need to be arranged to rotate the sequence by one means or another. Review the cutting, simplify if possible, and organize extremely well. Good luck !
In the end, the shooting on the sly is really possible, and some professional productions do it also. The most important is the organization who must be extremely well-rehearsed.
Your opinion interests me ! Do you have experiences of filming on the sly to tell ? Have you already made a catch in your shooting on the sly ? Usually, ask you shooting permits ? In short, you have the word ;).
Roman