Gun Play

Film-makers arrested in fake gun drama

07:32 AEST Thu Nov 6 2008


Four Melbourne [...pronounced 'Mehlbin' for the Americans...] filmmakers have been charged on summons after a passer-by mistook their theatrical gunplay for a real-life drama.

Police were called to a block of flats in inner suburban Carlton about 10.40pm (AEDT) on Wednesday, when a member of the public reported seeing a person threatening another with a firearm.

"A person came into Carlton police station pretty distressed, saying they had seen a guy with a gun. All they said was that they saw the gun being held to someone's head," a police spokesman said.

Police and a critical incident response team sealed off the area and arrested the four people at the scene.

Film equipment and an imitation firearm were allegedly found.

"It looks like they were making a film and they were the only ones that knew about it," the spokesman said.

The four men in their 20s face charges of possessing a firearm - which includes imitation weapons - and causing a public nuisance.

Senior Sergeant Stephen Cooper said the filmmakers' actions were extremely dangerous.

"They hadn't notified any persons what they were doing down here today, there were no permits, they hadn't had the courtesy to notify even the security within the premises here," Snr Sgt Cooper told the Nine Network from the scene Wednesday night.
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See, about 8 years ago our government offered filming subsidies in the form of tax breaks to the
large American film studios. We now have Warner Brothers and Fox Studios based in Australia. They make wonderful films (some of the time) and predominantly use Australian crews. It created a climate where the people at the top of their careers could work on high budget films, and the people who are up and coming in the industry could work on the lower budget Australian productions.

It was great. Until, of course, the local governments raised their council filming rates to gouge the US productions of their cash. This had two effects. The Americans could film elsewhere in the world for less money and the Australian filmmakers could no longer afford to pay the council rates for their low budget independent films.

The fact here is not that these filmmakers did the wrong thing, it's that filmmakers everywhere in the world will try to produce their art in any way possible despite harsh economic conditions. The Americans don't really make films here much any more. As someone who has 'shut down' numerous Sydney streets to film (without Council or Police approval) I believe it's about time the Councils in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane take the gun away from filmmakers heads and lower their rates and remove the red tape for local producers once again. It is too hard for small producers, such as myself, to get the permissions we need. At a price we can afford.

The last thing the industry needs is to go back to the dark ages of the 1970s and 80s when we were only making 5 or 6 serious films a year.



PS. I'm not what most people would call a liberal, but well done to those Americans who voted on making a much needed change to your countries political climate.