6 AM. Key Bridge. We set the shot and waited for the sun to rise on this beautiful spring morning. Except it was not spring as drawn in our storyboards. It was February. And it was bitterly cold. As our Key Grip unloaded gear, he posed a simple question: “You have your film permit with you, right?” Well, of course, I did. I’m a producer extraordinaire. Who would risk shooting on a DC bridge with no permit? Really!!???
And then it hit me. Producer Laura Riddle had the golden permit issued by the District of Columbia’s Office of Motion Picture and Television Development [http://film.dc.gov], which we had previously arranged, in her warm room back at the hotel. Panic set in. To hear Laura tell it, she tried to madly signal a taxi and when that failed she somehow commandeered a private car service to drive her to the bridge. All I know is that a black SUV with tinted windows slowed on the bridge, pausing a long line of angry traffic, and Laura sounding semi-crazed at this point furiously waved the permit out the window. We grabbed it, and she was off as quickly as she arrived.
When the bridge running shot ended five minutes later, and I was nearly back to the production van, I thought about the cost of the permit and the stress Laura just went through to get it to us. What a waste, right?
Police sirens. From my view down the street, it appeared to be a presidential motorcade. And then, something struck me. And call it producer intuition, but I knew they were coming for us! I started sprinting across the street and back up the Key Bridge. The police cars were faster. Two. Three. Four. Five. Police Cars. They slammed on their brakes and jumped out of their cruisers yelling at our startled crew. “We have a report of a sharp shooter on the bridge,” one cop yelled. Before the intensity could build even more, I waved the permit wildly and repeated over and over again.
“We have a permit! We’re a film crew! Permit! Permit! Permit!”
And as quick as the DC metro cops arrived, our permit—that beautiful, magical, life-saving piece of “worth every penny” paper—chased them away in search of a sharp shooter that didn’t exist. (Unless of course, our director Tim Travitz and his camera can do more than shoot a video image.)
Luckily, once we passed this major hurdle, the rest of our production went rather smoothly. But that was due in large part to a team of producers who aimed to dot every “i” and cross every “t” in advance of the film production.
In an effort to spare our production colleagues any heartache, here’s what we learned about permits, locations and fees in DC:
The early bird gets the worm (most of the time).
You should always plan to submit permits far in advance of any production date. Due to the size of our production several of our permits required a 30-day notice, while others required only a few days. And those are business days excluding weekend and holidays. Any mislabeled errors may cause a delay in processing and prohibit the production from taking place at all. We got our permits in early and on time and navigated through a few labeling errors that required resubmission to the DC Metro and Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. Additionally, we were required to increase our insurance liability to film in the DC Metro from $1,000,000 per incident to $2,000,000. [Yet another expense. Cha-Ching!]
No filming beyond this point.
The National Parks Service oversees mall memorials owned by the US Government, including the Jefferson Memorial, Lincoln Memorial and National Mall. Filming is prohibited within certain areas. Yet (and the irony of this is stunning) millions of tourists visit these sites every year freely snapping photos and shooting video inside the very areas, we (who had paid the permit fee) were restricted from shooting in! Go figure!
All crews are required to keep approved permits on his or her person at all times. Even though we checked in with the Park Ranger on duty, we were still approached by U.S. Park Police as well as monument security guards. Permit, please.
How many clowns can you fit in a car?
It would probably depend on the size of the car. Often the cost of securing a location depends on the size of the production crew. At the Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport fees for a production film crew increase from $1000 to $5000 if the crew exceeds five people. We had to break it down to the bare minimum in order to keep production costs at bay. (It also gave the rest of our “undercover” airport crew, the chance to shop and snack while the chosen five actually got the shot.)
Left turn ahead.
You might be able to rely on a GPS to tell you your exact location on the planet, but don’t rely on one to tell you who owns Pennsylvania Avenue. Surprisingly, it’s actually part of the National Parks Service. That’s what we learned when we applied for a permit from the DC Office of Motion Picture and Television Development. If you plan to film anywhere in the city , they’re the first people you’ll need to contact or else you may get caught at a dead end unable to make a left or right turn. In other words, no permit–no shot.
Location. Location. Location. $$$$+
Washington, DC is one of the most expensive places to live, work and produce a 30-second commercial. Location fees can range from a couple of hundred dollars to thousands of dollars per hour. We needed particular shots but due to tight government restrictions on filming (For example, the Capitol Rotunda cannot be filmed for commercial purposes.), we were forced to seek privately owned monuments that resembled publicly owned spaces. And those spaces were available at premium. One shot cost us a cool $1,500. No negotiation (despite our very best efforts)!
For every “No,” you’re one step closer to a “Yes.”
If you take “no” for an answer, you’ll never get anywhere – particularly not on the rooftop of a prestigious office building on Pennsylvania Avenue. Sometimes the word “No,” in producer talk, means you just have to find another way in. On our location scouting trip, we found the ideal location to get a spectacular shot of the Capital and the Old Post Office clock. No other building offered this view and vantage point. We had to have it. But when our Director approached the on-site security guard , he said, “Nobody gets on the rooftop. Ever.” Case closed. Please go home. That sounded like a challenge to us, so we set about creatively finding a solution.
We staged a Google attack to find out who managed the building as well as find out the names of companies renting space floor by floor. Phone call after phone call brought rejection until we finally found a connection that made a difference. The owner of the building had a close team member who had lost a spouse to heart disease recently. In honor of that loss (and because this shot was going into a cardiac commercial) the owner agreed to let us film on the rooftop, albeit for a fee. But without that personal connection, we may never have gotten past the security guard’s refusal. We touched this company’s heart with our purpose, making them feel good about letting us use the space, while getting what we needed in the process.
Lessons Learned.
The pathway to a successful production, whether you’re working in the nation’s capitol or in your local area, is clear:
- Careful research of local film rules and regulations.
- Include ample funds to cover permits, locations and fees into production budget
- Apply early for permits.
- A dogged determination when invariably told “No.” [And you will be told “No.]
- Respect for the space you’re filming in.
- Set a high standard. Leave the space on time and cleaner than when you found it.
- Say “Thank You.” [Basic kindness promotes good will. Pay it forward to benefit the next production crew seeking to rent the same location.]
View the 2013 GW Hospital commercials that we shot in the DC metro area here: Branding, Vision, Time, Destination.