Isn't it funny when you call action!

well, for my thesis film in grad school, I had to shoot right next to a busy street. But, to get a permit to shoot there I was told by the city I needed to hire 2 off duty police officers for traffic assistance. Cost me like $600 for 8 hours!!

But every time I was ready to shoot, I just picked up the radio and called out "hold traffic" and magicaly traffic stopped- and I had my "desolate" road.

Worth every f**king penny :) :) :) :)
 
Wow! That must be nice! I need to go out and make friends with every police officer I meet. Who knows.... maybe make a friend or two who will work cheaper. LOL

Insurance is the thorn that hits me from time to time. For some reason people are very scared of allowing you to shoot on location without insurance, though you have legal contracts that negate their liability in case of injury on location. Don't know about you, but the cost of insurance for locations can break some productions.
 
thartley said:
Seems like it was Clint Eastwood or Ron Howard who never say "Action"...they just say "Whenever you're ready..." :)
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Really? I had no idea, but I've always said those exact words. Weird.
 
I used to say "Action" until I started as an assembly line editor and one of our producers says "Ready... SPEED... Action" before every shot and he's SHOOTING VIDEO. Hilarious and makes me ill so now I just say "Go." ;)
 
I have a tendency to say "ready...... Action". Which means I am ready (the camera is rolling) and then action. Sometimes the actors start on ready... even the ones that know I do this. LOL
I have since let go of ready...... now it's "action" or "when you're ready".
 
epplegacks said:
I used to say "Action" until I started as an assembly line editor and one of our producers says "Ready... SPEED... Action" before every shot and he's SHOOTING VIDEO. Hilarious and makes me ill so now I just say "Go." ;)
Click to expand...

I do this. I say speed, rolling, action. I say speed, and the camera op hits the button, rolling to note that we are indeed rolling and when I get the nod, then action. This has been working pretty well.

-Nate
 
I shoot double system so the AD calls roll camera for the operator to start the roll. Then calls roll sound for the audio guy to start the recording and he calls speed as soon as he sees the TC synched to the camera. The AD calls picture up and I call "aaaaaannnnnnd ACTION!".

However...It will depend on the scene. Some people will tense up on action so in those instances I call some kind of "whenever you're ready" type of thing.
 
I've said any number of unprofessional things, "Do somethin'," being a favorite.

I shot a hip-hop video with my buddy Doug that was ghetto as hell. We had two guys with some blingin' rides show up ("Clean" in the words of one of the guys) but one of them broke down and couldn't be driven up to the top of the parking garage we were shooting at. I was using the cheapo Home Depot worklight package and I wasn't able to get ahold of a dolly so I rigged a telescope tripod to a home-made skateboard from the 70's. Of course the cops noticed our playback and lights and came up to visit. Things got slightly tense when one of them noticed an underage member of the rapper's posse drinking a mildly alcoholic energy beverage...Doug showed them some printouts of an e-mail conversation between him and the owner of the location giving us permission. We also got shut down at the club we were shooting at the night before that due to a technicality in the contract. I hate producing.
 
Even with all the electronics, I still call "Roll Camera, Roll Sound, Slate It", (wait for slate info to be viewed, spoken and clapper to fall) and then I call "ACTION".
 
Yeah, you have to be careful with alcohol on set. I was shooting a party scene once and we had a couple of people think it was ok to sneak real beer on set. I always tell my cast and extras that no alcohol or drugs are allowed on set (along with personal weapons and ammunition). Not trying to be a jerk, but you can't jeapordize your project. So we are shooting a party scene with labeless beer bottles. Some of the extras get the bright idea to make a beer run and take the labels off the bottles. We caught them and put an end to it. You break the rules you leave. I hate to be that way, but many of the extras were under age and I'm NOT going to have someone die drunk driving home from one of my shoots. Not on my watch. Some people might not like rules, but they are in the best interest of the production and the safety of the cast and crew. Thankfully no one has been hurt thus far....
 
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