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baaz

Member
Hello,

I'm a filmmaker and plan to shoot more remote places.
When I travel I usually have a very light setup: a Sony A7RII and 3-4 lenses with ND filters, rarely a tripod and that's it. I then can "run and gun" and ninja shoot quite easily.
I was thinking about pushing up production and travelling with more gear, like a shoulder rig and follow focus, a cage with external microphone and battery, maybe a gimbal and I was wondering if any has experiences of travelling like this regarding to the people's reactions ?
If you're at least two people you look like a production team, but travelling by myself, would people feel weird to see a single guy randomly walking with a reasonable amount of gear ?

If anyone has feedback on experiences like that I would be glad to hear it.

Thanx !
 
There are big advantages to looking like a tourist. Like shooting any video in public, most people are polite and will try to ignore you, away from tourist views more randoms will ask what you're doing sometimes defensively, respond positively, convince them you're either harmless or on their side, it's often a good opportunity to ask a local for an interview. If you look pro, don't have some sort of permit, and are approached by authorities I don't think it would be good.
 
baaz said:
Hello,

I'm a filmmaker and plan to shoot more remote places.
When I travel I usually have a very light setup: a Sony A7RII and 3-4 lenses with ND filters, rarely a tripod and that's it. I then can "run and gun" and ninja shoot quite easily.
I was thinking about pushing up production and travelling with more gear, like a shoulder rig and follow focus, a cage with external microphone and battery, maybe a gimbal and I was wondering if any has experiences of travelling like this regarding to the people's reactions ?
If you're at least two people you look like a production team, but travelling by myself, would people feel weird to see a single guy randomly walking with a reasonable amount of gear ?

If anyone has feedback on experiences like that I would be glad to hear it.

Thanx !
Click to expand...

People feeling weird - is this important? More equipment will make you stand out more and can be tougher to avoid being asked for money etc. Also, if you have to place a rig or other equipment onto the ground vs being able to hold a tiny set up, this can make certain tasks much more difficult or slower - like buying food, paying for a bus ticket...
 
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My own experiences match up with what the others have replied. I think a line is crossed with some people if they suspect you are profiting from your activity of filming them, whereas if they think you're just a tourist, they don't care so much. I have noticed there is also a similar reaction by security people or police, if using a tripod, they ask me to stop shooting, but if handheld, I am not bothered. Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand all react this way for me. In Japan it seems they are used to seeing lots of pro-looking equipment in the hands of amateurs and either don't care or conceal their disapproval. I don't think I've ever been stopped from shooting in Japan and actually lots of them like to be recorded. Now in the Philippines, the locals are mostly okay with being recorded but if you're on public property or some shopping center property, they will often ask you what you're doing and if you look pro (big camera and set up with a tripod) they will ask you to get a permit and stop recording. Sometimes they just want to get a payoff, and my driver has done that a few times with very good results. Got into a factory one time and the supervisor told everyone to take a break and said I could walk all around and shoot whatever I wanted and he'd sign a release if I had one. Another time I got onto the roof of a high building so I could film the entire street scene below with just a small payoff to the security guard. I think he said something like, "Okay, you can have 20 minutes on the roof."

In Thailand I got stopped one time when making a nice tilt-shift video of a constructions site from a vantage point in a shopping center's parking garage. After about 20 minutes someone tapped me on the shoulder and said I couldn't record the work site because it was the new British Embassy. Went over to the other side of the parking garage and found another contstruction site and they had no problems with that.

In Singapore I was testing some new filters and didn't realize I was still on the Mall's property when mall police came and told me to stop. I pointed out all the tourist with their cameras running and the guy said I needed a permit for what I was doing. Next thing they had a change of heart and told me if I wasn't a pro that I could stay as long as I wanted.

With the gear that you're contemplating using, you can expect to be identified as a pro and then would have to decide how to deal with the police or disapproving looks of the general public. I think I'm more inclined to push my luck with law enforcement than to offend the citizens. In places like Hong Kong where you just cannot set up a tripod and big lens camera on the sidewalk without being right in the faces of the pedestrians, I have taken to renting out the hourly-rate "love hotels" where I can get some candid street shots without being a nuisance.

Mark
 
baaz said:
but travelling by myself, would people feel weird to see a single guy randomly walking with a reasonable amount of gear ?
Click to expand...

That depends where you walk, how you conduct yourself and what you are going to use the footage for. In remote places, no one cares, but in cities there are often rules and regs to be followed the more 'pro' your set-up.
 
You need to be able to run with ALL your kit. May be not literally but if you can't you have too much.
If you can't work with *ALL* of it about your person you will loose it... either accidentally or by some one else's design.

The best way of testing this is take your travelling kit to a dubious part of your town and try it out. IF you have problems think how you will handle it in a foreign country where they don't speak your language and they have very different local customs. BTW a "foreign country" might be different part of your won country. :-)

Bentley Motors shot a commercial using an iPhone and edited it on a iPad. http://nofilmschool.com/2014/05/new-ad-for-bentley-shot-on-iphone-5s
Learn from this. Use modern technology and you brain: use smaller lighter kit with imagination. I use a RodeGrip+ (with the additional lenses) and a video me Mic mini shotgun which could give results similar to the Bentley advert but in a very small "tourist" package (BTW use filmic -pro http://www.filmicpro.com not the standard Apple video program) and iMovie.

Though I normally use Panasonic AC90's, Manfroto video heads and tripods with large shotgun mics and a rolling Pele case.... not exactly "tourist" :-)

The camera you have looks tourist/amateur enough to get away with. Having done a lot of street, urban and visual-jopurnalist work being unobtrusive helps. Also not appearing to be "official" also helps a lot. Though some times being official can get you out of trouble but I assume you are not looking to shoot in war zones and disaster areas?
 
Many thanks to all for your replies !
It's goes into the way I was thinking, like you either have a real organized prod on some local shoot, or you better keep it light and low profile which is better in most situations.
And never had the experience yet but it's true you could get problems with authorities or officials with too much pro gear.

@Mark Watson : Thanks for the detailed feedback, never thought about the "Love Hotel" trick, maybe will try that once ^^
@Liam Hall: Wise words, and the paradox is that you could probably go with a RED to shoot documentary style in a very small remote village quite easily
@jagraphics: no, will try to avoid war zones !

Thank you to everyone :)
 
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