anyone have tips for shooting in a hospital?

[qazthejust]

ok let me give you scenerio.
i am an amaetur director. how amaetur? i am still in high school. i am working on my first movie and we have a scene in a hospital room. so does anybody know any tips or guidelines to asking a hospital to borrow a room? and if you do but i cant do it because of me being in high school still let me know them and tell me so i can stop looking for an answer. and start working on a plan 2

 

[Luke Hill]

This is, believe it or not, the one area of indie filmmaking that always seems daunting to me - finding locations. Since I write my own stuff, I usually end up writing around locations I know I have available, but almost every time I watch someone else's 'no budget' short I think "how the hell did they get those great locations?"

I would suggest, though I haven't done it myself, actually calling around to the various hospitals in your town. Tell them who you are and what you're doing and ask them if you can shoot in a room, etc. that's not being used. It seems like a long shot, but in my experience people are often willing to go out of their way to help out an aspiring filmmaker. (Just be sure not to abuse that trust - try to stay as invisible and respectful as possible).

Good luck and let us know what happens.

 

[temerson]

I have had the experience of shooting in a hospital on two separate projects. The key to getting permission is to have somebody that can make it happen for you. On the first project, we were all in film school at the University of Kansas. Instead of trying to find one of the local hospitals to help us (never would have happened), or building a hospital set (too expensive), we went to the student health center. While it's not a full-service hospital, we went on a Saturday night when we knew most kids go home for the weekend, so it would not be full. They put us in a room at the back end of one of the hallways and we made sure to be very respectful to the health care personnel. Most of them were students and were kind of curious about what we were up to so, as assistant director, I was asked by the producer to entertain them two or three at a time: let them watch from the back, see what's going on, ask me questions. Things like that. We got in because we were students at the university and had that connection.

The second time, our contact was one of the administrative nurses at a local clinic. Again, while not a full hospital, it served our purposes. She was able to talk to her supervisor, get some times that would work for what we were doing, and give assurances to the administrators that it was okay. This is how we did it for free.

The last way you can do it is have enough money to pay the location fee that the hospital wants, giving you full access to a room or a wing. More expensive. MUCH more expensive. But it's the other way.

 

[citychik]

Does your high school might have a nurse's office with a bed? If not, look in your area for a college which offers degrees in medical professions, such as Nursing or EMT. They usually have classrooms set up like hospital rooms, for students to practice. If they have a website you can usually find the email and phone of people in charge of the department to contact about using it, maybe on weekends or when a class is not happening. If no luck there, try the administrative offices and inquire.