From: David Tetzlaff (email suppressed)
Date: Sun Oct 28 2007 - 23:19:33 PDT
I think Jim makes contradictory points below. I'm more taken by his second
observation, that regardless of the stated 'rules' in the book, it all
comes down to how the police act -- which is a good general description of
life in industrialized society. But this claim makes his first point moot.
Whether the law says you can park a grip truck in traffic and block a
sidewalk for 30 minutes, or it says you can't, if your actual ability to
do those things will depend on how the police view the activity, it doesn
't matter what the rules are or are not. Legislation does not equal power.
(humor attempt follows)
I wonder if, in certain parts of NYC at least, if one has a camera rig
blocking a sidewalk or a grip truck blocking a street for 30 minutes, the
question is not whether one has a permit from the city, but whether one
has the permission of the local Waste Management company and/or gang
lords, who might be able to see that a truck is left undisturbed for more
than 30 minutes. You know, not insurance, but 'insurance'. Lacking such
'insurance' might result in the loss of said truck or camera, and if
anyone gets shot in the foot, they had BETTER say they did it to
themselves, if you know what I'm saying.
Seriously, producers for fly-low, no-permit indie shoots don't need to
know the law so much as they need to know the territory.
> I think it's great NYC made the permits free and loosened the insurance
>requirement, but why did they drop the freebie 30 minute time period
for >groups? That makes no sense-- they've actually made the rules more
>restrictive. If there's any kind of obstruction, the permits might be
>free, but they're going to require insurance-- no matter the time
period.
> The economic waiver will last until the first injury and lawsuit...and
>cops will still be able to harass if that's their choice---they'll
shut >down shoots by claiming they should have gotten free police
assistance >ahead of time, etc.-- or will claim that the free permit
without >insurance isn't adequate for the extent of the filming.
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For info on FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov at <email suppressed>.