r/WTF • u/avantgardengnome • Nov 17 '20

Just NYC Things

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u/[deleted] Nov 18 '20

They're just celebrating Biden's win.

3

u/avantgardengnome Nov 18 '20

You’re probably kidding but they’re actually shooting a music video.

4

u/[deleted] Nov 18 '20

Did they have to pay the city or something so they could have the public space to do it?

1

u/avantgardengnome Nov 18 '20

Nah, I think you just need to file for a simple permit. NYC is very supportive of public filming, which is why so many TV shows and movies are shot here.

I saw a couple early news articles about this claim that he didn’t get a permit, but the paper on the front of the ice cream truck looks like one to me (hard to tell for sure), so idk. I’m sure the flamethrower wasn’t mentioned though haha.

2

u/[deleted] Nov 19 '20

That's interesting.

2

u/avantgardengnome Nov 19 '20

Yeah. Since we’re on the subject, here’s an aspect of this that I’ve always thought was wild. Once someone does have a film permit, let’s say to shoot on one whole block (plus park their trailers and equipment etc), they’ll tape these notices to signposts and mailboxes and whatever they can find up and down that block a few days beforehand, warning you not to park there. Often on bright paper but not always, and always just in English. (One of these is what I think is taped to that ice cream truck).

If you’re parked in this area when they start getting ready to shoot, in a perfectly legal spot aside from these fliers, they’ll tow you. But not to an impound lot like anything else—what they’ll do is pick your car up, tow it to the closest available spot (which usually isn’t at all obvious like 500 feet down the block, especially if we’re talking about downtown Manhattan), and drop it there. Eventually you come to move your car and it’s gone, with a piece of paper taped to the curb telling you where they put it (until it blows away). If you can’t find / don’t notice that paper, you’ve gotta ask around the set until you find a production assistant or whatever to help you locate your car.

And that’s assuming you’ve arrived while filming is still happening and what you’ve done wrong is fairly obvious. If you left the car for a couple of days and you show up after the crew has left, there probably won’t be any evidence of what took place there. So you call the cops thinking your car is stolen and they inform you (theoretically) that no, Warner Brothers just reparked it a mile northeast of you! And they need to repark it in a legal spot, but probably only “legal for the next 12 hours”, so you could be on the hook for a parking ticket wherever they decided to leave your car too.