That time the United States Department of the Interior denied my filming request
Added 2025-08-20 01:02:08 +0000 UTCI came across this while working on some upcoming stuff, and thought you guys would get a laugh out of it. I told this story before, but I was trying to film a Zorro short film way back in 2017 with my buddy Gus. We wanted to film at Fort Pickens in Pensacola, which is this 19th century Civil War Fort with the aesthetic of the mid 1800's, which is the time frame our Zorro short was supposed to take place.
At this point in my filmmaking life, I would normally just try to get away with filming stuff discreetly. Sort of ask forgiveness, not permission type of thing. This was the first time I was like "alright, alright, I'm getting older, I want to be a REAL filmmaker, so let me do this the right way." So I went through the channels to get permission and reiterated that I would not be disrupting the day-to-day, and what we needed to film was very minimal and would be respectful. This letter was the response.
Needless to say, we went back to the drawing board.
Comments
Just a couple small dialogue scenes. π Keep in mind, this is 2017 before I had any youtube following and was working a near minimum wage job, so I couldn't really negotiate. But super basic, non-intrusive stuff. I even asked if we could come during their slow days or hours to insure that. They just didn't like my script π
Holden Hardman
2025-08-20 13:28:33 +0000 UTCGoddamn, what were you planning on filming there? Lmao
Kevin Zhang
2025-08-20 05:01:28 +0000 UTCWow, such a fancy rejection! π
Nismo
2025-08-20 04:34:30 +0000 UTC
