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Generally speaking when is it allowed to photograph people? When does someone have the authority to tell you not to? Does anyone have the authority to tell another person not to photograph them, or is it more that they can kick you out of the building?

I work in the film industry and (understandably) this is a huge concern. Once I was working in a casino where we had rented a lobby. When people on the upper levels tried to take pictures of famous people, a member of the crew would stop them. Since the general public never agreed not to take photos, was it legal to prevent them? Could he have kicked them out of the building or was the most he could do just ask them not to do it? Could he stand in front of their camera to block it?

If the filming is happening outside on a public street, can anyone (police officers or the crew to the film) do anything to stop a person from taking pictures? I have seen signs saying "filming is taking place in this area and if you are here you consent to having your appearance recorded". If this is legal, is some sort of the opposite true where "if you are in this area you agree not to take pictures".

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  • I'm assuming because this is tagged "canada" that the member of the crew asked very nicely for them to stop taking pictures, which is of course always legal. Privacy laws do vary by province though. There are only 10+3 so I guess a good answer could list a few, but it would help to know where you're talking about.
    – Nathan
    Commented Dec 13, 2019 at 13:34
  • To address a question that may be implied by the copyright tag, if a member of the public records actors performing a scene that ends up in the movie and is therefore protected by copyright, the member of the public has not violated the copyright.
    – phoog
    Commented Dec 13, 2019 at 19:24
  • I don't think this question has been understood. I was asking, are you agreeing not to film just by being present in an area with a sign that says "no filming allowed here"? I guess it's similar to "no smoking" signs
    – KoukNene
    Commented Nov 17, 2020 at 11:09

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Typically in 2 party consent districts, both parties need to agree to allow the filming to take place, if and only if they are in a private place or place not accessable to the public. The public streets are fair game, so a street filming may have the paparazi. The interior of the casino should be addressed by the film security team and the casino team and section off parts that could expose the set. Film studios will also have closed sets where the studio will only allow the people who need to be there to make the film are allowed, and access is set by the studio. In Hollywood, the sets may be closed and tours will be given of permanent standing sets featuring props from famous works are created for the tourists. Briefly some working studios were built with studio tours being allowed to peak in on ongoing production though these studios aren't in use today... most of these are in Orlando with Disney's Hollywood Studios Theme park having started as a working east coast Disney studio... with sets that had a "tour" catwalk of sorts behind the cameras where guests could watch their favorite shows being made... However, this lead to the set's undoing as most of the crew found the guests too distracting even behind a sound proof glass window. Disney also had an animation studio there that would allow guests to see art for in production films that was more sucessfull. Production of Mulan, Lilo and Stitch, and Brother Bear were animated here, as was work on other animated films from the period in part (on the one tour I was able to go on when it was still a working studio, we saw storyboards for the never completed film "Empire of the Sun" which was eventually reworked into "Emperor's New Groove" and loosely into "Tangled") Nickelodeon had another well known tourist studio in Orlando which produced the bulk of it's live action shows in the 1990s there and tourists were seated as the studio audience for game shows and sitcoms. The most successful tourist studio however, is the Toei Kyoto Studio Park, which is 13 acre standing set, most of which are modeled after various historical periods of japan (From the Meiji era modernization to earlier feudal periods). The park is open to the tourists with only the most minimum portions needed for filming roped off to allow the crew to do their things... typically the tourist can see the entire scene shoot from the rope line (again, I personally visited and was able to watch a take of a scene... but had no idea what was happening as I did not speak the language). The park typically plays a role in 200 productions annually and I'm aware of at least one U.S. series having had scenes shot at the park (specifically Power Rangers: Samurai, the wooden foot bridge in the opening sequence is one of the more famous landmarks in the park. The footage used was sourced from the franchises Japanese counterpart franchise "Super Sentai" which is one of Toei's many properties... you can even see a museum on "Super Sentai and it's sister series Kamen Rider/Masked Rider (two seperate American ports of this series were made, but they weren't as well known as Power rangers) at the Studio.

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    Do you have any support for the idea that filming is covered by two-party laws?
    – user6726
    Commented Dec 13, 2019 at 15:57

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