That time when I accidentally social engineered myself to a film set

I once was leaving my work studio space in north Brooklyn and there was a pretty large shoot happening a block away. I had my headphones on and was going to a bodega on the corner before heading home, not really paying attention to the shoot itself because you sort of get desensitized to it living in NYC.<p>As I&#x27;m walking all of a sudden I notice that J Lo was a few feet from me with cameras on her, clearly in the middle of a scene they were actively filming. I play it cool and walk into the bodega, where the film monitors were setup and people were watching the live feed. Some guy -- I read him as the DP -- goes &quot;hey nice work, you&#x27;re background?&quot; to which I respond &quot;oh, no man, I&#x27;m just buying something&quot;. They shut the whole scene down, because clearly I had no contract and ruined the shot, and as I walk out of the bodega J Lo is just looking at me smiling.<p>Some PA totally got fired that day.

If you&#x27;re thinking about doing like this guy did, please don&#x27;t.<p>Film crews are incredibly overworked, underpaid and work in absolutely terrible conditions. Film production is an intricate machine that requires everything to be perfectly in place in order to get a shot and things very frequently go wrong even without random people walking on set and gumming up the works.<p>Distracting people or touching &#x2F; moving things can absolutely hold up a shot and bring the entire set to a halt. The result of that is you&#x27;ll end up keep a very tired crew out for much longer than they need to be. It can also easily cost a production assistant their job.<p>Film production isn&#x27;t a secret. You can watch a documentary on it, read about it in forums or even get permission to observe a film shoot where they&#x27;ll place you safely out of the way. There are much better ways to satisfy this curiosity than just walking onto a set.

I also have a funny story about a film set. When I lived in New York they were filming an episode of Blue Bloods. I had a 12-year-old French bulldog. When the guy with the walkie-talkie told the crowd it was okay to walk down the block, we started walking. 5 minutes later everyone else was gone and the scene was clear except for me and Elvis. Security started hassling me to make him walk faster and I told them that they were idiots. And then Tom Selleck stuck his head out of his trailer and said what&#x27;s the holdup. I yelled they&#x27;re trying to make me rush my elderly dog. And he yelled guys leave that old dog alone we can film in another 2 minutes and went back into his trailer.<p>So I have it on pretty good authority that you can social engineer any situation with an elderly dog.

I love that the comments on this story range from &quot;film sets are sacred, please don&#x27;t direct your eyes at a crew member or a production assistant will be viciously fired&quot; to &quot;film crews can burn in hell forever and if they tell you not to walk on a sidewalk tell them to go fuck themselves&quot;

I&#x27;ll one up this one.<p>Years ago I worked IT at a film lab that also did onsite digital capture. There was a photo shoot going on and I needed to go onsite to troubleshoot a computer. The onsite Tech told me the stage number and streets. I said I know where that is and drove off. The location of the studio they were shooting at was across the street from Paramount Studios in Hollywood. I pulled up to the gate and explained to the guard that there was a shoot going on and I needed to get there ASAP to fix a issue that was holding up the shoot. The guard did not question much and let me through. I parked and made my way to sound stage 2 and found the set empty (giant hanger style set). I quickly realized something was off and called the on site Tech where he told me no their location was at a studio across the street. When I finally got to my location I fixed the issue then I got to sit next to the former Miss Israel. I was surprised how easy it was for me to get onto the Paramount Set and how much potential access I would have had.

In the UK they put up distinctive colored direction signs for the cast and crew to follow to get to location (e.g. <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.google.com&#x2F;search?q=filming+location+signs+uk&amp;tbm=isch&amp;ved=2ahUKEwi2yMmEwJz5AhV2g84BHdbDAO0Q2-cCegQIABAB&amp;oq=filming+location+signs+uk&amp;gs_lcp=ChJtb2JpbGUtZ3dzLXdpei1pbWcQAzIFCAAQogQyBQgAEKIEOgUIABCABDoECAAQHlCYB1jnDGCpD2gAcAB4AIABVogBpQKSAQE0mAEAoAEBwAEB&amp;sclient=mobile-gws-wiz-img&amp;ei=7PviYraiMvaGur4P1oeD6A4" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.google.com&#x2F;search?q=filming+location+signs+uk&amp;tb...</a>) They are always cryptically labelled so that they don&#x27;t attract fans etc I guess.<p>These signs appear frequently around where I live in London. Occasionally when I am out for a run along one of my usual routes and I see a new set of signs I follow them and end up at the set. I don&#x27;t make conversation or even actually stop running - I sometimes look over to try to see if there is someone famous I recognise but otherwise I&#x27;m not interested in what it is.<p>I did a bit of background artist&#x2F;extra work many years ago and know that really the process is deadly dull, but it is nice to add a bit of variety and distraction to my running route.

A friend of mine was on holiday in Toronto and somehow walked accidentally into a film set. He and his other half wound up &quot;pretending&quot; to be extras. So now the film &quot;Kick Ass&quot; opens with a panning shot down a skyscraper to a foyer where my friend and his wife can be seen having an animated argument.

&gt; there were tens of people who walked by and asked the security people what they were filming. They got one of two answers. The first one was a name for a series that was different than the one I was told. The second answer was &quot;this is a new series with a largely unknown cast&quot;. This answer sounded very specific and very rehearsed.<p>I believe this is standard procedure on sets to keep from gathering a crowd, or leaking information about the film prior to marketing release. I’m sure there are other good reasons.

They do this kind of thing more than you&#x27;d think :) Due to my double life as an aspiring actor [0], I was an extra in a series [1] set in futuristic New York, but filmed in Madrid. They had a fake hotdog cart, a fake bus stop sign, and even a fake NY police car! You can see me for a second, somewhat blurry, having a heated argument in Italian, while Betsy Brandt [2] (best known as Marie of <i>&quot;they&#x27;re minerals, Marie!&quot;</i> fame) walked past. Very cool experience :) Photos here: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;photos.app.goo.gl&#x2F;ZmT11SFV3xWe5gft7" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;photos.app.goo.gl&#x2F;ZmT11SFV3xWe5gft7</a><p>Also in Madrid, I was an extra in The Vault [3]. Near the beginning, the main characters meet at a London pub on a rainy evening - filmed in sunny Madrid in summer! I had never seen fake rain on set. I also was within a meter of Liam Cunningham [4] whose Ser Davos was one of my favorite GoT characters :)<p>[0] <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;gabrielgambetta.biz" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;gabrielgambetta.biz</a><p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.imdb.com&#x2F;title&#x2F;tt11695350&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.imdb.com&#x2F;title&#x2F;tt11695350&#x2F;</a><p>[2] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.imdb.com&#x2F;name&#x2F;nm1336827" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.imdb.com&#x2F;name&#x2F;nm1336827</a><p>[3] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.imdb.com&#x2F;title&#x2F;tt9742794" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.imdb.com&#x2F;title&#x2F;tt9742794</a><p>[4] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.imdb.com&#x2F;name&#x2F;nm0192377&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.imdb.com&#x2F;name&#x2F;nm0192377&#x2F;</a>

A good way to get into things like that is to pitch in and help carry stuff: Don&#x27;t ask, just find the people moving things and join the line. You may have to ask &quot;where does this go?&quot; when the person in front of you drops their object.<p>You can go far by simply asking to watch and learn, too. Sneakery is only really required where there&#x27;s &quot;security&quot; that hasn&#x27;t got enough to do already.

<i>The area did not seem to be closed off so obviously I went in to take a closer look. I was probably there for around 30 minutes or so until someone finally asked me if I was part of the crew and then kindly asked me to leave which I did.</i><p>How is this &quot;social engineering&quot;? If I try to beat a yellow light and almost hit another car I wasn&#x27;t &quot;accidentally stunt driving&quot;.

Fwiw all the carts in the photo are only the Lighting and Grip departments. That doesn&#x27;t include Costume, Hair, Makeup, Special Effects, Sound, Stunts, Props, Camera, and other departments I&#x27;m probably missing that work on-set.<p>And of course it doesn&#x27;t include all the off-set work like Art Department, Production Office, Construction.<p>And that still doesn&#x27;t include all the post-production work like Sound, Editing, VFX, and more.<p>Source: I work in film.

That brought back memories for me, it was 1981 or 82, the company that I worked for at the time flew us to New Jersey for some meeting. But three of us &quot;younger engineers&quot; (I was about 22 at the time) wanted to go into New York City. Our boss let us use the rental car to drive into the city. He told us not to do anything he wouldn&#x27;t do. In that case why go? We all joked later. We got into CBGB&#x27;s on a weeknight, by the time we got out of there it was maybe 2 or 3 AM and we were pretty high and we were walking back to the garage where we parked the car when we came upon a filming in the streets. One of the security guys told us they were shooting Hill Street Blues, but who knows, we were told later they lie about that stuff to looky loos. But it was fun to watch so we stood there for a couple hours. We got back to our Hotel in Newark at around 6AM just in time to pack and head to the airport. Luckily it was a direct 5 hour flight back home. I slept like a baby.

I’m not sure what “social engineering” means in this context, i think i would just call it “talking to people” I’m not the most extrovert of people, but give me a beer or four, i start talking to people, sometimes i end up in places i don’t expect to be, but i call that being social

I happened to be in New Orleans when LBJ was filming and they were about to shoot JFK being shot, we’re lining up extras, etc. I just asked a PA if I could be an extra in the scene and she said yes, so it doesn’t always take social engineering.

&gt; It is a better &quot;making of&quot; experience than any professionally produced featurette or documentary. The main reason being that it is about the actual making of instead of of millionaires lying through their teeth on how all other millionaires on set were so professional, super awesome and how the whole experience was the best thing ever because that is what they are contractually obligated to say.<p>Highly recommend _Under Pressure: Making &#x27;the Abyss&#x27;_ it does not do this. It&#x27;s definitely still rich people talking to really rich people who are now crazy rich people, but, it does not sugar coat things. Very good watch.

&gt; However the most important things you need to stage New York are actually smoke generators. Lots and lost of smoke generators. There were several big ones on the street, the garbage cans had ones, even the aforementioned ATM had its very own smoke machine. Don&#x27;t really know if that is relevant to the plot or whether ATMs in New York run on steam.<p>Steam is a utility in NYC, from co-generation. It&#x27;s used to provide heat.<p>At least when I was younger, steam was also a utility in Boston. I used to see it escape from &quot;Boston Steam&quot; manholes. Not sure if it&#x27;s still a utility there or not, though.

Not exactly the same, but years ago my brothers and I were driving around the ring road in Iceland. As we pulled into Myvatn in the afternoon a blizzard was starting. We got to our hotel without incident and after putting our stuff in our rooms we went out to the front of the hotel to watch the blizzard from under cover. While standing their we started noticing in between breaks in the storm various vehicles parked across the road. There were all these military vehicles with large Soviet&#x2F;Russian red stars on the side as well as very high end luxury vehicles. What in the world? As we are standing there a guy comes out and starts yelling into his phone about how the person on the line didn’t understand that there was a blizzard and the timeline was getting all messed up. What? Well, we go back inside and chat up some guys hanging around in the lobby. Turns out we had booked the same hotel as the Fast and the Furious film crew (no idea which movie since I’ve never seen any of them) and the actors were all staying at the hotel across the street where the luxury vehicles were parked. We talked about walking across the street to the other hotel’s lobby to see if we could see anyone famous, but we had started to notice burly security people wandering around the cars, so decided against it.

Its fairly common to have a codename for the show that you are working on.<p>For example &quot;the dark knight&quot; was Rory&#x27;s first kiss(rfk) because the director&#x27;s son had his first kiss (or so I&#x27;ve been told, I&#x27;ve not actually verified that)<p>Prince Caspian was TOASTIE (or something like that)<p>I think that casino royal was saville row, but that might have been an internal name

Not totally related, but I suffered an injury as a kid, the &quot;we have the technology&quot; fix employed wound up in medical journals and textbooks, and I&#x27;ve found at least one video where an x-ray of my insides is shown.

I walked past a film set in my city and I happened to be wearing mostly black and a black ball cap and I was asked where a piece of equipment was when I was just walking by.<p>Film crews are large, typically not one continuous unit, ie there’s always new people on set so seeing a new face isn’t uncommon. They’re also extremely busy and overworked so it doesn’t take much at all to blend in. Even if you just happen to be walking by with no intentions of trying to work your way onto a set.

He did what? Stood around?

I am still waiting where he social engineered?

We had a movie (<i>In and Out</i>) filmed in the town I lived in, at the time.<p>It was a North Shore Long Island town, but the movie was supposed to take place in Indiana (I think). When I watched the movie (somewhat forgettable, IMO), I kept looking for seagulls.<p>They actually made a façade on most of the buildings downtown. Lotta work.

Spielberg liked to tell a story about doing this. It was made up and constantly evolving, but still entertaining.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.snopes.com&#x2F;fact-check&#x2F;spielberg-universal&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.snopes.com&#x2F;fact-check&#x2F;spielberg-universal&#x2F;</a>

Perhaps there really was a part of the script that it had just rained. Oftentimes, they will wet the street in production because you get better light off the street. Once you know this fact, you will see wet streets everywhere in TV&#x2F;Film&#x2F;Commercials.

Film crews are truly the scum of the earth.They only pay a couple hundred dollars for a filming permit (at least in NYC) and then proceed to attempt to monopolize entire blocks as if they&#x27;re doing some &quot;official&quot; important business, attempting to block people from passing, as if anyone at all cares what shitty movie they&#x27;re filming. They leave trash everywhere, not just accidentally, but they literally just throw empty water bottles and such on the street and leave piles of food on the street for rats.

Just curious: what law allows the movie crews to close off public property like streets and sidewalks?

This has absolutely nothing to do with social engineering.

TLDR: This guy doesn&#x27;t know what social engineering is. Guy probably thinks the bartender winking at him also is hitting on him.