Filming My Next Video While Getting Spotted by the Cops

I stumbled upon this very well done video; White with Red- based on a creepypasta post.

Which led me to this video; 2AM- A short film based on 'The Smiling Man' by Blue Tidal

There is a community, creeppasta, that posts horror stories and various groups create videos from the stories.

I knew I had to make a video with a smiling man after watching 2AM.  I wanted to make mine more of a roller coaster ride, start slow, begin the climb, hit the peak, then down you go to what you think is safety and then have the bottom drop out.

While horror is not my favorite genre to watch, it very well might be my favorite genre to shoot. It's part trying to set up and execute a scare, and the fact logic can be skirted.  I couldn't get together a 'mob' so I had to composite a mob.  In a horror movie multiples of the same person works for the scare, in other movies, it wouldn't make sense.

I hate to harass people to be in my films.  I've got a couple people that are ready to help at the drop of a hat, but I needed a big group for this. So I messaged in many different mediums and couldn't get a good group together. It really would have taken the video to a higher production level, alas.

I had decided I could pull of my video with 3 or 4 actors total and fake the mob scene. And I did the best I could with what I had.

Didn't I mention cops? Yes. Filming started at 11pm.  About an hour later, as we proceed to the next street, we see multiple cop cars headed in our direction. We stop and wait, which wasn't long. They apparently were in a hurry.  So a police officer asks us what we are doing. I reply that we are making a video.

Whenever I say that, I always get the same response. Why?

I always answer, it's for fun; I want to.

We were then asked where we had been filming. I divulge the information, and the police officer informs us that someone had called them reporting a break-in at our general location.  The tip had stated two people were the culprits. They were four of us, one of us in a suit, and I had a bag and camera.

I'm sure that and the fact we weren't holding any merchandise indicated we had not participated in any illegal activities.

We told the officer that we had been on the street of the alleged break-in and quite close to the alleged location.  We didn't see or hear anything.

This is where I learned a good lesson. The officer said in the future I need to call dispatch to inform them of my activities.  Due to a number of recent burglaries in the area, the cops were on high alert. All in all, it's a fun little anecdote. The cops kept an eye on us for half an hour after, and we kept filming. In the future I will be calling dispatch.

Three hours of filming later and I have quite a bit to edit.

A big thanks to everyone who contributed. You are giants among men.