UK Filming law?

R

richblend

Active member
Hi, does anyone know where I can find out about UK filming law? This is my situation:

- I'll be shooting a music video for a band - NON PROFIT (just a small band)
- We want it on a public beach in Brighton (very isolated area)
- Just the band playing their instruments on the beach and miming.


What are the laws here? We already found a location we love, contacted the council and they gave us a WHOLE barrell of crap, red tape, and want loads of money (It was used in the Harry Potter films so I guess they're used to massive budgets. Our budget is £0). So we're considering doing a run-and-gun approach a few miles down the beach... What laws are we breaking, If me and some friends want to play instruments on the beach and film it?

I tried googling for UK film law - I couldnt find much, and most of it was geared towards high budget products, i.e., For profit. Ours is just for fun..

Thanks,
Rich
 
richblend said:
Hi, does anyone know where I can find out about UK filming law? This is my situation:

- I'll be shooting a music video for a band - NON PROFIT (just a small band)
- We want it on a public beach in Brighton (very isolated area)
- Just the band playing their instruments on the beach and miming.


What are the laws here? We already found a location we love, contacted the council and they gave us a WHOLE barrell of crap, red tape, and want loads of money (It was used in the Harry Potter films so I guess they're used to massive budgets. Our budget is £0). So we're considering doing a run-and-gun approach a few miles down the beach... What laws are we breaking, If me and some friends want to play instruments on the beach and film it?

I tried googling for UK film law - I couldnt find much, and most of it was geared towards high budget products, i.e., For profit. Ours is just for fun..

Thanks,
Rich
Click to expand...

I live in the US, so obviously there will be differences... I also live in Southern California... so the communities and governments are pretty 'aware' of movie making...

In many jurisdictions there are local regulations about 'shooting movies'. They usually exclude personal/private activities such as your children's birthday parties, weddings, etc.

However, in many cases, especially on 'public lands', such as city parks, public beaches ether city government or state government regulations come into play.

The regulations usually require a permit for filmmaking (even if it is on private property...), and if the shoot is on public lands/buildings, the governmental agency requires a insurance 'rider' be put on your insurance policy which protects the city or state from suits arising from any unfortunate event that your production may incure. In addition if you want to use say city streets or the shoot blocks traffic, you have to pay for a police officer or officers to control traffic in the area, as well as be limited to shooting in 'off hours', etc.

Now, there are guerilla style methods of shooting, get out to the beach with everyone all ready to just play, close up shop and unless you're pretty roudy, you can get your shots be for an officer comes around and ask embarrasing questions about permits...

In your case, perhaps having a 'beach party', and oh, gosh... look at that camera rolling... oh, my... and if anyone comes around, just say your having a beach party, and your band friends are providing the entertainment... so what if their miming the music... ok, give them enough amplification to make it plausible... there may be noise abatement regulations, or permits for 'events'... but heck, you're probably young, so go for it... most empolyers can turn a blind eye to certain types of crimes commited in one's youth... as long as there's no drugs involved, roudy behavior in party activities, often gets a wink. Ok, if blood is shed... well, all bets are off...
 
Did you speak to the Events planning dept.

I've dealt with Brighton council myself, as I recently sought permission to film in Portslade subway tunnel. (Check the film here)

http://www.vimeo.com/1053489

They were really helpful for me, and they said as I was a student I wouldn't need to pay anything. - It turned out that the subway Tunnel was Station property so I had to get permission from the station master but anyway.
They may be expecting lighting crews, catering etc. If it's just you and a handy cam, tell them, and just play it down.

If they still don't go for it - just do it anyway preferably in a week day, when it's quieter.
http://www.brighton-hove.gov.uk/index.cfm?request=c1120521
 
Speak to your local council and police. Im assuming the beach is council land, they will be able to help. If its privatly owned, just find who owns it and ask them.

Make sure you dont get sand in the equipment, we hired a camera from the media vault in Birmingham, and as usual with the media vault, the camera was broken. It was full of sand, as they had been filmong on a beach the previous day. We learnt two lessons, dont ever film on a beach, and dont ever use the media vault in Birmingham.
 
It was when we spoke to the council that it got really complicated. They wanted at least 2 weks notice (Which is impossible, we need to shoot on a sunny day, and we cant get an accurate 2 week weather forecast). Plus they want loads of money, and will only allow it on certain days. Perhaps they didn't get the gist of the level of this project...
 
hoarp001 said:
Speak to your local council and police. Im assuming the beach is council land, they will be able to help. If its privatly owned, just find who owns it and ask them.

Make sure you dont get sand in the equipment, we hired a camera from the media vault in Birmingham, and as usual with the media vault, the camera was broken. It was full of sand, as they had been filmong on a beach the previous day. We learnt two lessons, dont ever film on a beach, and dont ever use the media vault in Birmingham.
Click to expand...


Saranwrap (plastic film wrap, if that's not a UK known item...) is your friend... That and Dust-off (canned air)...

I shoot my DVX100 in some rather hostile environments, the main thing is to not open it up to change the tape outside. Get inside something like you car, close the doors, wait a few minutes for the 'dust' to settle, blow off the camera with the canned air, blow off the inside tape mechanism as the tape is ejecting, replace tape as fast as possible, blow off internals as tape is being taken in...

As for rentals, definitely find a place where you can rely on them to clean their equipment...
 
Find an ally with a private beach. We shot a short on a public beach here in the US and it took us two months to get it through the city council. We also had to ask for five days when shooting would only take three, because we were concerned about weather.
 
Like this
800px-Brighton_beach_2004.jpg

and this - (sorry couldn't resist)
8C2LCGY0.jpg
 
Oh yeah. I remember, I drove past all the beaches (and probably that bloke) on the way to Wayne n Glenn at shoot35 once or twice...
 
Yeah its pebbles around there so I'm not too worried about that, and also we arent renting (using my HV20 + SG pro).

I think the current plan is just to run and gun it, see what happens. I dont think we're breaking any laws, as long as we keep it quiet. It will look pretty suspicious though, because its not the kind of band that has a couple of acoustic guitars - we're talking big amps and drumkits...
 
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