Filming With the HMC150 in Public

Everts said:
its weird that you still dont get the question !
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I get the literal question he's asking. I just don't understand it. nah mean?

like if you're worried about feeling uncomfortable with people looking at you enough to not use the cam on our project or whatever, then the quality of your project must not be that important.

:bath:
 
ATL Media Group said:
Easy now... I remember when I visited the U.K and Isle Of Mann the local news constantly took jabs at Americans for being overweight. You don't see our news bashing the U.K. for having pale skin and rotten teeth.

We get enough beating from our friends....
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Haha.....

Our Brit friends do enjoy that....
I'm a big fan of Top Gear and they are constantly pointing out our love of eating here in the US...
 
DaFireMedic said:
I understand what he is asking.
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Yes! Thank you good sir.

Thomas Lew said:
I get the literal question he's asking. I just don't understand it. nah mean?

like if you're worried about feeling uncomfortable with people looking at you enough to not use the cam on our project or whatever, then the quality of your project must not be that important.
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You're getting warmer. It is not so much that I feel uncomfortable, it is more along the lines of:

DaFireMedic said:
I was also shooting a wedding back in March. I was getting some B-Roll shots on the outside of the hotel AFTER I had asked permission of the hotel to do so. While outside with the HMC, I was aggressively confronted by security who skidded up next to me in their hotel van. I explained the situation and they were cool with it ("No one told us..."), but such incidents never happened with the HV30.
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Also, I made note about the jvc hm100 review, where Philip Bloom went around and filmed in London, without being stopped or hassled. Take a look at some of the work Thomas Hawk has done to prevent photographers from being hassled. It is a relevant issue for us to look at.

Thus, why I ask if anyone has had issues when filming out and about with the hmc150. Thankfully it doesn't seem that there have been any major issues.
 
Cool it everyone.

Shooting with a big camera tends to let people know that you are involved with an actual production. The bigger the camera the more professional you look. gives people a sense that you are serious about what youre doing. people may come up and ask you questions, but often they are cool with what you do...


Your question is a serious one. I take it as so. i hope it helps...
 
This is a very interesting thread for me since I do a load of wedding filming and never really had any serious issues of running around in public and expensive hotels to get b-roll.

I suppose a lot has to do with people knowing a wedding is going on nearby, but I think it also has to do with your demeanor, as people have mentioned. People have a 6th sense of how "legit" you are when using a decently professional looking camcorder like the Panasonic series of handhelds (HVX, HMC, HPX170). If you're constantly looking over your shoulder, you may raise an eyebrow of the local business owners.

I just dive right in on a mission and people tend to leave me alone, unless they're tourist that happen to get in frame and smile right at the camera an wave. Then take photos of the "Los Angeles Filmmaker" or something.

The bar story in this thread does remind me of one time I was filming a groom having fun in a bar prior to his wedding when a manager came out and asked me to stop. I apologized and told him I was filming for "the groom". The manager went up to the groom and started to enforce the rules, but I can tell he realized how much of a prick he was being and changed his tune mid-sentence to allow the filming of the wedding party.

The only advice I can personally give is to think "professional" instead of "shady" when doing your business. Don't focus on people not given permission to film, and be courteous and professional when approached by anyone. You might actually turn a situation where someone is shutting you down into one where they ask for your card to shoot their commercial :-)
 
The HMC150 in public is sure to bring about some looks and interest. The 4 'beacons' (as I call them) that will draw attention are:

1) Lens hood. I've got a square clip-on hood on my GS400, it's very 'broadcast' looking to the average rube, makes your camera look super slick cool though.
2) Shotgun mic. If it's the Rode on the GS400, or my Shure on the 150, it makes the camera stand out. Good audio comes at a cosmetic price.
3) Style. It looks like an expensive camera, not something Joe Average would use.

Past camera, tripod will also be a big thing. Anything more than a $40 Optex is going to get you in trouble. I shot in Yad Vashem last year with the GS400 on a monopod, and got endless grief from the museum types. Yes, I was there on a 'gig', but I was also very self contained and left it up to my local guide to smooth things out. They thought I was TV.

Honestly, if you pimp out ANY consumer video camera, you'll stand out like a sore thumb, but probably won't get you into places. You need a bit more of a rig to do that.

And camera type matters. No one is scared of a Handycam. People understand a full sized shoulder'd broadcast camera is probably coming from a respectable TV show, but an EX3 or PD150 or HMC150 screams "Michael Moore I'm gonna expose you JackAss style". You are looked on as an independent nobody who answers to no one, probably going to Punk people and then YouTube it.

Not a perfect World.
 
WpgCameraMan said:
.....HMC150 screams "Michael Moore I'm gonna expose you JackAss style". You are looked on as an independent nobody who answers to no one, probably going to Punk people and then YouTube it.

Not a perfect World.
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and that right there is the basis of my new years resolution :happy:
 
I should make up some black Styrofoam shoulder mount camera knockoffs. Have several people walk around with those on their shoulders. That way no one noticed my HMC150.
 
Somewhere I saw pics of a modded sony (HDV or EX) that someone took apart and put inside an old ENG cam's body with the lens sticking out the front, most of the jacks working and you couldn't tell the difference. It looked pretty pro, but I can't find it anywhere.
 
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