I know the filmmaking section is coming, but I had to get this down soon because I thought it was funny. My University buddies and myself decided to film a few exterior shots in the woods outside of my city, we left around 7ish to get some dusk shots for that was a significant time for the movie. We were lugging around a bunch of equipment so we threw it all into the back of my Suburban and took off. We were going down a gravel road after some time and saw this "road closed" sign that was pertaining to a different path... It looked really rustic and was basically completely broken (it was a metal sign being suspended by two wooden posts, which were screwed up) so we shot some scenes around it (Our project was to film something without a script), so we began filming a couple of things and then carried on.
We packed up the equipment and such and kept driving; about five minutes later I hear sirens. I'm like "Sirens? Around here" and sure enough it's a police car behind me... pulling me over. I do so and give the officer my license. I know I wasn't speeding so I assume he's pulling me over for a broken tail light or something. I even asked "Is my taillight out or something?" He gave me this serious look and then asked, "You know anything about destruction of city property?" I was immediately stunned by how random the question was. I was even speechless as I stumbled with my words "I... uh... no?" Well I have a witness saying she saw this vehicle nearby a road closed sign that was damaged. My eyes widen as I responded with "No, Officer that sign was broken when I got there, I even filmed us driving towards it and it's already busted up" I reach behind my seat to grab the camera and monitor, which was a bad mood considering all my equipment is in unmarked black bags, cases, etc... It could've have easily been a gun... kinda like the one the cop pulled out.
"Freeze! Bring your hands into sight, slowly" The cop wasn't messing around. I was scared shitless and so was my friends, after about an hour and a half of interrogating and searching my vehicle, the cop got a call from another officer who apparently found the "troublemakers" who messed with sign. I remember the officer saying troublemakers specifically because that's a very weak term connotatively... Troublemaker isn't as harsh as criminal or vandal, it's lighter... and the cop assumed I was the same troublemaker, one who had commited a crime with little significance yet he still pulled out his GUN!
Anyways my equipment was all opened up, and in the process one of my filters got scratched, the sun had set and I had to get home. The only thing we got was a few shots of the same damn sign that started the whole mess... So when we finished shooting a few weeks later I edited out the sign
The postscript to this story is that I filed a complaint on that officer and apparently I wasn't the first... He was suspended
