You see, back in the old days, it was uncommon to see a group of kids filming a movie on the side of the road. That generation was accustomed to movie stars only being in Hollywood.

“Clint Eastwood in Kansas? No way!!! You’re pulling my leg…”

Today, filmmakers are everywhere. We’re like a virus that you can’t get rid of. We spread and spread and now with film equipment being so accessible it isn’t uncommon to see a group of people filming in Dallas, Atlanta or even Lincoln, Nebraska.

Logically, you would think that people would not consider it a big deal seeing a group of young individuals such as ourselves filming with a camera and a large stick with a fuzzy thing on the end of it. Instead, one might think “Hey, those guys over there? They’re just making a movie…and a good one at that.”

Apparently not.

Today we were out filming a short scene on a nearby residential street. This scene was nothing more than a car stopping and two people get out to share a short disagreement then hug and make up. No big deal right? Things were going all fine and dandy for awhile. We were there about ten minutes and had gotten a good amount of our shots but then one of the neighbors came out. I think someone said the word “Hell” a little to loudly.

The neighbor lady, she was probably at least 70 or 75…comes out of her front door and thinks we’re “playing.” Clearly we weren’t playing because we had a camera, a boom pole and one character wearing a suit in 95 degree weather (who plays in a suit anyway??) We tell her we’re filming a movie and are almost done. She doesn’t really care because she heard us “swearing” and she didn’t like it. We were asked why we were playing again. She said she wanted to call the police and apparently some kids had been filming something in front of her house before but it was a fight scene and she called the police on them.

I could understand if we were making noise or had an airsoft gun but we weren’t doing anything wrong.

She wouldn’t let go of the idea that we were playing rather than working on a film so I told her it was a school project. She wonders why we aren’t filming at the school. She isn’t aware of location shooting. Knowing now we aren’t playing, she asks why a school film would let us swear. I retort by informing her we are all in college. After telling her we won’t be long she realizes she has lost her argument and makes her way back inside.

So the moral of my story is that whenever you happen to be filming in a residential neighborhood be tolerant of the neighbors in the area as some may be from the 20th century when filming was not so common.

If only we had Clint Eastwood on set…