Quote:
Originally Posted by NaughtyVisions
Since most are filmed inside private residences, is the city going to send a representative to make sure the terms of the permit are carried out? Will a city inspector be on site during filming? Or will they review the finished film? I don't see either happening, but then I'm not in LA, so...
If they only view the finished film, you could always say you "removed the condom in editing."  |
A year or so ago the Mayor of LA put together a task force to put a stop to filming without permits in LA. Houses were getting busted and I even had to go on set once to negotiate with LAPD on this issue.
Filming without a permit is a misdemeanor in LA and the police can actually enter without a search warrant if they believe a crime is being committed and evidence may be destroyed. They can actually seize and confiscate equipment and tapes/hard drives and hold them in lockup. Usually they dont arrest anyone they just hand out tickets to appear in court later. Unless someone starts mouthing off.
They way they were enforcing it is that they had 5-8 officers that would patrol the known shoot locations (ie., those that had been permitted in the past) and if there was anything happening they would stop and check it out. They knew in advance which locations were permitted for that day so it made it easy. Sometimes they climbed fences other times they were undercover and had a female officer with them and pretended to be dropping them off for the shoot. Without question some body at the shoot location would invite them in and then they just busted the shoot.
I got to go to court on several of these misdemeanor cases. What usually happened was a no-contest plea with no jail time but a suspended sentence for the director and the home owner also got charged. They usually had to agree never to allow shoots at the house again.
But money and interest dried up quickly for this program and I havent heard about a shoot house being busted in a while. However, I can see it started up all over again.
But this time the cops will be asking to look at the footage as well to see if there's a condom in use....