After a lengthy period of pre-production, filming of The Problems About Men has begun in Glasgow.
The film now has a page on IMDb here.
I’ve been working with my camera operator, Stewart, who is also a journalist. What have we filmed so far?
Well, mainly shooting a lot of ‘B-roll.’ For those of you not familiar with film jargon, B-roll is “supplemental or alternative footage intercut with the main shot.” So, if we have an interview with a man talking about, say, having been arrested on a false allegation, we might show B-roll of a police vehicle.
On the first day, we had a Karen moment while filming inside Glasgow Central train station. We were filming general views, when a middle-aged woman walked up to us, and demanded that the shot including her wasn’t used. Out of respect, I conceded, but Karen wanted an argument.
She proceeded to lecture us that we can’t film folk without their permission. I corrected her, stating that we had permission from Network Rail to be there shooting, and also that there’s no expectation of privacy in a public place. That wasn’t enough for Karen, and she said that we needed explicit permission of everyone walking through our shot.
Sure, I’ll just go and ask hundreds of people, individually, if I have their permission. In the end, I simply told her that I didn’t have time to argue with her. She wanted an argument. Stewart told her that if she continued to harass us, we’d speak to the British Transport Police. She walked away in a huff towards the Station Manager’s office. We never heard anymore about it!
We also filmed outside Glasgow Sheriff Court and the High Court of Justiciary. Court staff and police were friendly enough.
When we were filming outside Stewart Street police station, we were interrogated by three police officers who came out, asking what the purpose of our filming was. I gave them my press ID. I didn’t have to, but I consider it professional good practice to identify yourself. They eventually left us alone, and we went on to film the fire station in Cowcaddens. We captured a nee-naw coming out on blue lights.
We ended the day interviewing a young man at a Ukraine demonstration on George Square. He spoke about his escape from Kyiv to Glasgow as a 17-year-old. He (rightly) corrected me about needing the war not being ended, but being won by Ukraine. He believed that the conscription of men aged 18-60 was the right decision. Conflicting views will be included in the film.
He was just short of his 18th birthday, when his family travelled to the UK. He was very lucky, in my opinion.
On the second day, which was International Women’s Day, we captured more B-roll, footage of a feminist march, and got a couple more interviews.
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