Are Permissions Needed To Use National Monuments or Public Buildiings In Productions?

Cole

Well-known member
I want to shoot stills/video of some of the national landmarks around DC (Washington Monument, Capitol Building, etc) for use in an educational/ promotional video. I am not too concerned about permissions to shoot (permits) since I am shooting with a GH2 and no other gear or crew. My concern is if there will be issues using these shots as b-roll in the video.

The monuments will be mentioned directly but they are not the topic of discussion. The topic is a conference being held there and the location was chosen to be symbolic.

Has anyone ever had or heard of having issues with using these places as supplemental footage?

Thanks for any input.

Cole
 
Save your time and effort. Look on stock footage sites like Pond5.com and Revostock.com. You'll find plenty of clips of those monuments that you can purchase for a tiny sum.
 
Thanks for the reply David.

I am not opposed to stock footage as plan B but I will be in downtown DC to shoot an interview at a hotel. We will be within walking distance to try and get some of these shots. It would seem if there is stock footage of these places then I shouldn't have a problem. But I thought I read here on the forums some time ago about usage of some of these buildings being iffy.

Thanks again.
 
That does not address nor affect the original question - the answer to which is "no".

I wasn't strictly trying to just answer the question. I was trying to help the OP.

Cole, it may be more challenging than it sounds. Remember there will probably be a lot of people milling about. It can be hard to get a shot of popular public places without having recognizable people in the shots. Anyway, best of luck with your shoot!
 
I was in DC recently, & needed to film some monuments. As long as you don't use sticks, or do drive-bys of the White House, you should be fine.
 
We ended up walking from the hotel to get a shot of the Capitol Building with the fountain in front. I did take sticks but we didn't have any issues. A cop drove by but kept on going. There was a crew set up when we got there waiting to shoot with camera, sticks and a light. We were small potatoes.

Thanks for all of the input, I appreciate it.
 
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