Last week a friend of mine asked if I would shoot a piece of video for his independent film. He needed a simple shot of a grim reaper looking out over the city. He is on a tight budget and wanted to just go grab a shot on the hills near where we live without a permit. I told him I would shoot it for him if he got a permit and I could shoot some stock at the same time.
Well the permit was very expensive and he was willing to pay for it with the last few dollars he had. I felt bad for him and told him I would shoot the shot without a permit. After all who would notice a group of 4 on a hill side at night overlooking a large city with a 1K on a 10 foot stand. I doubt anyone would even see us up there.
Well that was not the case. We had shot for about 2 hours and I was shooting a few stills after the HD Video was finished when we saw a helicopter sweeping the hills across the valley. At first I figured they were looking for who knows what, but as the light got closer and closer it became apparent that they were looking for us. We packed our stuff as fast as we could and headed down the mountain.
We had a dolly with a generator, light stands and art department. We were hawling down the fire road as fast as we could go. We would go and hide under the trees as the helicopter swept the area with its light. Then we would run to the next spot. As we got to the bottom there was a security guard at the fire road gate. He was cool and told us to get loaded and be gone before the police came.
We were just finished loading when the police pulled up. We finished loading while the security guard was chatting it up with the police. I was not sure whether to jump into our car and go or not. I could see it turning into a high speed chase through the streets of Glendale. We just stood there looking like deer in the head lights when the police came on the speaker and told us to get out of there.
That was all I needed to hear and we were gone.
Never again. It was a dumb thing to do. Friend or not, never again.
