BOUNTY ON A DEAD MAN'S HEAD - By Matt "Defcon" Harris

[Matt Harris]

Bigmagic i'm glad you mentioned that. I actually found those very sounds online, for free, last night!
i just did a little search for spaghetti western sound fx. the sfx are campy, but really sound straight out of fistful of dollars.

[Marlon Ladd]

Diggin' the poster! Forget it! You already win with that friggin' location! That's not even fair.

Seriously, that place looks great.

[Marlon Ladd]

Chris, it's true, we west coasters are at an advantage for western scenics. But i had to travel 3 hours to find this location so it's not exactly my back doorstep. The location fee is a bunch of bull. Even if you are 1 cameraman with 2 actors they charge you for all sorts of "application fees", insurance etc.

Honestly it's probably $600, but still not worth me paying for. The land is too large, there are too many caverns and crevices that I can shoot in, so I'm gonna run and gun it. Not to mention, I'm just going with a Rebel T2i and some lavs. No soundguy or crew or anything.

I saw what you did with Acceptable Losses, just create another set!

Oh, you can definitely cheat the hell out of this place. It's not like they'll have people on security detail out there.

We have a wild life preserve out here that really spacious and gorgeous and they won't even let you film and it's huge and wide open. I was gonna' use it for another story last year and if I end up doing it, I'm definitely back to cheat.

[Nemesis TS]

Nice location, great looking poster too.

[Matt Harris]

Thanks Nemesis.

Marlon, here's the thing: it's a national state park. The park rangers mostly stick to the roads to find people with drugs, but it's still risky. It's risky because I don't want be in the middle of an amazing take and then on the horizon we see a ranger driving towards us and then production halts.

if i have 5 guys dressed in cowboy outfits and i'm shooting in broad sight, I suppose I can say it's a student film. Or, since I'm shooting with a canon rebel T2i, I can just say we are snapping pictures.

[Marlon Ladd]

Thanks Nemesis.

Marlon, here's the thing: it's a national state park. The park rangers mostly stick to the roads to find people with drugs, but it's still risky. It's risky because I don't want be in the middle of an amazing take and then on the horizon we see a ranger driving towards us and then production halts.

if i have 5 guys dressed in cowboy outfits and i'm shooting in broad sight, I suppose I can say it's a student film. Or, since I'm shooting with a canon rebel T2i, I can just say we are snapping pictures.

Yep. I would say it's for a photo shoot and you guys are doing it for a student project or for an upcoming film. They won't have any idea about dslr's shooting video. I think if you stay away from the main roads then you should be good. They can't stop anybody from taking pictures out there either. For that matter, they can't stop anybody from shooting video. You're not making a "for-profit" film. It's kind of like doing it for fun, because you may never, ever see a dime from it, so it's not like you're some Hollywood production walking in there.

[Matt Harris]

I agree. But to be safe, can i PM you the location permit rules so you can read for yourself? Thanks Marlon, you've been a huge help.

[Matt Harris]

My lady made me take down the 9 foot greenscreen encompassing our living room, so I was forced to shoot The Falcone against a regular blue wall. Needless to say it didn't key well. But this was just for fun, I'll use the greenscreen on the final title sequence.

[Nemesis TS]

I don't get the whole film permit thing anyway. I've seen professional photographers show up anywhere they want and do a photo shoot of a bridal party, but moving images is different? I say go for it. The park rangers may not even care. Act like your allowed to do it and I doubt anyone will say anything.

We shot Mole at a buddies work. One day he wasn't available to escort us in and around, so we shot without him being there and when security walked by and saw us goofing around with a scissor lift we just acted like we were suppose to be there and they didn't even bat an eye at us. It was a big difference from the first day when we were walking on egg shells worried somebody would question us.

If you are confronted by the Rangers don't get nervous or act like they are trying to bust you. Imagine they are buddies of yours and be cool with them. People can get all worked up when confronted by law enforcement and usually their attitude gets them in more trouble than anything else. Tell em your just doing a photo shoot. The DSLR advantage.

[Matt Harris]

Good call Nemesis. And yeah, I meant to ask you how you shot your location for Mole. Thanks for the heads up. Mole was very cool.