Last night, me and my buddy went out around midnight to do a little filming for a project he's doing. We explore around and settle on the end of a street that marks the end of an elementary school field that of course, leads up to the elementary school the better part of a block away. All was going well, for the most part, as we were having lighting issues due to him not making sure the better camera actually had a charge in its battery before we went out. The first street we were using (it was a street that ran right and left at the end of the initial street I spoke of) had a very abnormal amount of traffic for that time. With the amount of times we had traveled that road in the early, early morning hours, this was odd to see so many cars. There were also some walking people. Total, this probably ate up about 25 minutes of filming time. We got the first six seconds of what we were going for though, and we were moving up the street the elementary school was on to get some better lighting from the street lights.
Now, around 1:20 or so, we saw a couple cop cars go up the road, having obviously noticed us. I figured they were going to turn around right then, but they continued up the road. We were a couple of teens in black dress shirts, black shirts, and jeans, filming. I'm 18, so I wasn't exceptionally worried about getting hit for curfew. My friend was not, but since he's pretty close to 18, I figured they would let that go unless they were feeling like being dicks. Regardless, they passed us on by, we got back to work.
About 10 minutes later, the cops come back up the road. At this point, we're halfway back up the block, trying to get the lighting right for the next shot, determining what we even want in the shot. Then, what I thought would happen, happened. The cops turned up the road and stopped. One cop in each car, they got out. Totally calm, me and my friend went back down the block a bit, stood there, and let them come to us. They asked us what we were doing, and so I told them exactly. They asked about the project specifically, I gave more information. Just a standard "Why the fuck are you out at 1:30am" type deal. Now, at this point is where I kind of wanted to scratch my head and wonder "lolwut?"
They told us this was the reason why they stopped and ask: "With the terrorism and all, we become suspicious when we see somebody taking pictures near an elementary school."
SERIOUSLY? We're two teen males WITH THE CAMERA AIMED AT THE STREET, going about our business. I can understand wanting to see if we were violating curfew, but honestly, the cops around here don't care about that. They took our names and addresses to fact check and all. After they left, we started cracking jokes about it all. What do they do with assemblies? Send in SWAT teams to take out all the parents with cameras? Come on. This terrorism shit is being used as an excuse way too often to attempt to justify actions anymore.
That took about 10 minutes, and in that time, the lighting changed, the shot was lost, the rest of our night of filming was gone. We ended up walking down to Walgreens, buying Doritos and Arizona tea, and going back to his house to watch Psych. Although we were able to laugh it off, it was still pretty aggravating to have things screwed over like that.
Now, around 1:20 or so, we saw a couple cop cars go up the road, having obviously noticed us. I figured they were going to turn around right then, but they continued up the road. We were a couple of teens in black dress shirts, black shirts, and jeans, filming. I'm 18, so I wasn't exceptionally worried about getting hit for curfew. My friend was not, but since he's pretty close to 18, I figured they would let that go unless they were feeling like being dicks. Regardless, they passed us on by, we got back to work.
About 10 minutes later, the cops come back up the road. At this point, we're halfway back up the block, trying to get the lighting right for the next shot, determining what we even want in the shot. Then, what I thought would happen, happened. The cops turned up the road and stopped. One cop in each car, they got out. Totally calm, me and my friend went back down the block a bit, stood there, and let them come to us. They asked us what we were doing, and so I told them exactly. They asked about the project specifically, I gave more information. Just a standard "Why the fuck are you out at 1:30am" type deal. Now, at this point is where I kind of wanted to scratch my head and wonder "lolwut?"
They told us this was the reason why they stopped and ask: "With the terrorism and all, we become suspicious when we see somebody taking pictures near an elementary school."
SERIOUSLY? We're two teen males WITH THE CAMERA AIMED AT THE STREET, going about our business. I can understand wanting to see if we were violating curfew, but honestly, the cops around here don't care about that. They took our names and addresses to fact check and all. After they left, we started cracking jokes about it all. What do they do with assemblies? Send in SWAT teams to take out all the parents with cameras? Come on. This terrorism shit is being used as an excuse way too often to attempt to justify actions anymore.
That took about 10 minutes, and in that time, the lighting changed, the shot was lost, the rest of our night of filming was gone. We ended up walking down to Walgreens, buying Doritos and Arizona tea, and going back to his house to watch Psych. Although we were able to laugh it off, it was still pretty aggravating to have things screwed over like that.
