Shooting in Graveyard

K

krish

Well-known member
My next short has couple of important scenes set in a graveyard. How do I go about shooting this? I see lots of graveyards around but where do i go to get the permission? ALso how realistic it is for any for the lack of better term "graveyard management" company to give permission to shoot a film at the cost of disrespecting the departed souls?

Not sure how to go about this.


-Kris
 
Some cemeteries are privately owned and it can be very difficult to get permission to shoot there. Some are run but the city or county. Check with your local film commission. It may be the case that you can get a permit to shoot there. If this is the case be prepared to show proof of insurance. Don't be surprised if you do get permission to shoot in a cemetery if they ask you to provide proof of insurance.

There are props companies that rent "tombstones." I don't have any idea what it's like in your area but here in SoCal we have a lot of props houses.
 
I had to shoot a scene in a cemetery last year. I took a copy of a liability waiver, the scenes I needed to shoot and I dressed nice. I asked for whoever was in charge, and explained what I wanted to do. I reassured her that there were no zombies or vampires; that we would give them a look at the final scene if they needed (they declined); we would not show with any clarity the names on on the headstones (respecting privacy), that we would shoot on a day that was best for them (Sunday, as it turned out); and that we would treat the grounds with the utmost respect.

I got verbal aproval in 5 minutes and written approval in about week.

Some places won't give you time of day (I had been warned that other filmmakers had tried to shoot at this place and had been flatly denied), but if you are professional, respectful and honest you dramatically increase your odds.

I chose not to shoot gguerilla style because we had about 8 actors, 4 crew, and we shot for about 3 hours. It would suck to set all that up only to get chased out. It also makes independent filmmakers look like a bunch of troublemakers. Personally, I'd rather act like (and in turn get treated like ) a pro.
 
I was hoping to put the pressure on them- the Guerilla shooters that get us in trouble. I really have no problem with Guerilla shooters specificly, but there are some that give all videographers and Indis a bad name. I salute those that put
all of us in a good light.
 
Capt Quirk said:
I was hoping to put the pressure on them- the Guerilla shooters that get us in trouble.
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Eh... I do what I have to do to get it done, and also keep in mind the limits I go to. There's a big difference (in my opinion) of going "guerilla" and just breaking the law and making everyone look bad.

Sometime's it's just impossible for people on a low budget to jump through all the hoops that make up legitimate location shooting. Rewrite to accommodate? sure, but you can only do so much. Sometime's it has to be done.

I totallly understand what your saying, though...
 
Absolutely. The one rule I live by is to do my due diligence. The high road doesn't always work, but it should be the primary option. And if it doesn't, the key word is "respect"

We needed the cemetery. If we could not have gotten one, we would have done it on the sly. But I would have followed the same rules that I told them I would, even without their permission. I imagine you think the same way.
 
Always get permission to film in a cemetery. I made the mistake of trying to do it "guerilla style". We just had two actors, but several crew and cars. The particular cemetary looked pretty isolated. Boy was I wrong. A cop showed up in about 5 minutes.
 
Hey thanks guys,

Jim, your experience has renewed my confidence. I will try the proper way and see if that works. The Cemetery scene is pretty important and i doubt if we could pull it off guerilla style.

BTW, where did you get the liability waiver from?

Thanks again for the info.

Cheers,

-Krish
 
I made it up. I can dig around for it and send it on to you. I think that I used a template from a production form from somewhere.
 
Yeah, try to shoot in a cemetary in Los Angeles and see what happens. Think about all the productions, TV, cable, film, etc. that have characters that die. There's probably at least 1 a day. Cemetaries are ALWAYS needed. Therefore every cemetary in LA has their own agency. The owners won't even talk to you. You have to go through the agency. I believe it's $2500/day minimum. Can you believe that?

I took the rewrite route and actually ended up making the scene better. So I guess I have the money-hungry cemetaries to thank for that.
 
Jim Brennan said:
I made it up. I can dig around for it and send it on to you. I think that I used a template from a production form from somewhere.
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cool. If you do find it please send it to me.

Thanks again
 
I shot a scene in a cemetary for my last short film. All I did was look the phone number up in the phone book, called them, told them I was a student filmmaker and they said "Sure, just make sure you don't interfere with any processionals" and then the guy gave me his name incase anyone hassled me.

However, I'm in Indianapolis and not LA
 
krish,

I will find it, but it might take me a day or two. I'll PM you.

Politeness, professionalism and preparedness are the 3 P's of securing locations. There would be 4 if "checkbook" started with a "P"
 
Jim Brennan is absolutely correct. The impression you make -- the way you present yourself and the respect that you show -- is absolutely key. That said... I ran a shoot in a cemetery in Brooklyn, and we had no time to get a permit or permission, so we did it guerilla-style. But we wouldn't have even attempted that had it not been a relatively simple set-up: one camera, no sound, two actors, but only one in each shot. Here's how we did it:

--We picked an old, old cemetery with a lot of history.

--One of our crew made a set of bogus "research documents" with a complicated chart and questions about genealogy and gravesite locations and so forth, and we all carried those around on clipboards.

--We sent that crew member and the director in first to scout things out in an isolated section of the cemetery. Rule #1 amongst ourselves was to be respectful of the grounds and if any type of service or visitation were going on, we would move to another area. The only people around were a pair of groundskeepers. They showed them the documents and told them we were doing some historical and genealogical research and were documenting the results on DV. They said that would be OK.

--So then we brought in the cameraman and the two actors. While the director, cameraman and actor #1 were shooting (behind some conveniently tall grave markers), Actor #2, myself and the other crew member walked around with our bogus documents making bogus notes. Then we switched actors.

--We were quick, quiet, efficient, unobtrusive and got out of there in under an hour.

I want to stress that, as mentioned above, we all agreed we wouldn't do anything if the cemetery had any visitors. Fortunately, we were the only ones there.

And, again, I'd like to reiterate that Jim Brennan's post is absolutely the way to go. The only time I would recommend trying to fly under the radar like we did is if, as in our case, you are not mounting a huge production and you can be respectful of the grounds.
 
c.g._eads said:
I took the rewrite route and actually ended up making the scene better. So I guess I have the money-hungry cemetaries to thank for that.
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There you go. Those kind of obstacles are an opportunity to find what really matters in the narrative. Well Done.

I think Ms Manhattan raises a good point about the area of a cemetery to pick. THe older it is, the fewer visitors it gets.
 
MsManhattan said:
I want to stress that, as mentioned above, we all agreed we wouldn't do anything if the cemetery had any visitors. Fortunately, we were the only ones there.
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this is good advice. and if you do see any visitors you should leave. don't point the camera at them and say, "smile! you're on candid camera. Bob isn't really dead." because that wouldn't be very nice.
 
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