Posted by J. Clarke on 06/14/06 13:06

F. Todd Wilson wrote:

> Hello,
>
> I'm interested in shooting a low-budget "commercial", 60 seconds.
> The scenes take place in an airport concourse and business-class lounge.
> Though I haven't tried, I imagine that getting permission to shoot video
> in an airport concourse and lounge would be pretty tough for a small guy
> these days.
>
> So, I've imagined trying to get permission to shoot in an upscale
> shopping mall, which in many respects looks a lot like an airport
> concourse (or vice verse) these days. I think I could also approximate
> the lounge there, too.
>
> Early discussions suggest, however, that getting permission to shoot
> there could also be complicated, since there's not just the mall's
> management, but also the management of individual stores in the
> background (even though you won't be able to tell much if anything about
> which ones they are in this shoot).
>
> Any thoughts/experiences on how tough this could be? Any suggestions
> for alternatives that look like the airport concourse/lounge, but which
> would be easier to get permission to shoot in?

Google "Airport photography authorization" and you'll get many hits on
airport security policies with regard to use of airport facilities for such
purposes--read through a few of them. Find out if your airport has such a
policy and if so, then just jump through the hoops until you're done. If
not, then you've got an idea of how other airports go about things and what
the issues are.

If there's no policy then make sure your ducks are in a row before you talk
to the manager. Know how you're going to meet every requirement listed on
the security policies you've read. Have a script and at least a rough
shooting schedule in hand, know how many people you're going to be bringing
in (don't forget the carsitter and bagsitter--you probably won't be able
to leave either unattended), and how long you're going to be using each
location and how much you're willing to pay for access. Make sure it's
clear who is responsible for traffic control and if it's likely to be an
issue crowd control. Remember that for commercial production you have to
have a release from everybody who is in each shot so you're going to
control the occupancy of the area, and somebody (you or the airport) is
going to have to provide the staffing and equipment to do that.



--
--John
to email, dial "usenet" and validate
(was jclarke at eye bee em dot net)

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