Thanks to the reader who tipped us to this unannounced roadblock: A commercial shoot for the Chevrolet Trax has Harbor blocked intermittently at Duwamish Head (we have been stopped for 10 mins westbound, and eastbound is stopped too). It will be over by noon, the officer told us. But if you are going to the Alki Art Fair before then – approach from the west.
http://www.seattle.gov/filmandmusic/film/film-permits The city does, they get paid. If you take a photo while on city property with your cell phone and sell it , you too are supposed to get a permit. They won’t waste time coming after you for it, but commercial photography and filming is heavily regulated. WSB can take all the photos they wish as it’s non-commercial.
Mike, I’m not quite sure what you’re trying to say but we are a business so certainly we’re commercial. And anyone, whether commercial or not, can take photos on city property without permission. What the permits would be for in this case is for exclusive use of public property – street, parking space, whatever. And certainly the city has the right to grant such permits, as they did for the West Seattle Parade yesterday, the farmers’ market on Sundays, etc. As I noted, what was different to us (and the person who texted us in the first place) is that the road – a road with no outlets in that area (water on one side, hillside and residences on the other) – was being blocked for significant amounts of time (this was longer than oh, say, a flagger situation near construction) for this. The car(s) were apparently being driven along that extremely scenic stretch. More often, we’ve seen that kind of activity at Don Armeni, where you also get the downtown skyline as a backdrop. On many city streets, shooting on a Sunday would be the least impactful time you could choose, but for the main waterfront boulevard here, kind of different. I don’t know how much longer the stoppage we were caught in lasted; when we realized it was going to be a while, Patrick got out, walked up the block to talk to the officer to find out what was going on, and then eventually after he returned, the car in front of ours managed to U-turn, and we followed suit … TR
WSB falls into the Editorial licensing rights category of photography / videography, which does not require a license by the city. Commercial does on Seattle city property. Each city has their own laws about this. Things are even more restricted in federal forest lands here in the USA. If WSB is not providing journalism, or editorial content and used the photos shot by WSB entities for the purpose of advertising or other commercial use, then the use of those photos can be deemed worthy of adhering to city laws of commercial shoots. I take it that WSB is fully shooting under editorial though.
For those that want more details about photography licensing rights and what laws will look at when determining which type is being captured, look here:
https://asmp.org/tutorials/licensing-guide.html#.V5V8eJMrLdQ
This is wrong. Unless the City (we taxpayers) are being paid a hefty sum for exclusive use of our roadway, this should not be allowed. And I don’t just mean reimbursement for police and SDOT costs, but full value for the roadway, and loss of use to residents.
I don’t know the permit cost but will be following up. My main concern was that there was no notice. Saw a no-parking sign nearby but that doesn’t equate to ‘road closure.’ And if they notified nearby residents – that doesn’t cover other users of the street on a busy weekend morning – we would have published an alert if we’d known.
If they want to make it more realistic commercial, have the driver stare at their phone while weaving all over the road, sit at green lights while they play on their phone, ignore your turn signals and drive 25 mph because 30 is too scary.
This is interesting. Pick a weekend day in the summer (one of the busiest days for Alki). And unfortunate there wasn’t a warning…
There should at least be forewarning by the city, when they enter into a financial agreement with a business to close down any arterial. A lot of people were inconvenienced, as they were heading to the Art Fair.
Well, Hipster, because we plebs don’t deserve notification….We shouldn’t even be driving cars…let alone buying one…
Just keep paying your taxes, voting for MORE taxes and move along….nothing to see here…
Sorry, comment time is over.
| 13 COMMENTS