Looking for a coffee shop in the Los Angeles/Ventura area to shoot a student feature. Anyone have an uncle who owns a coffee shop? Or an aunt?

Thanks
Bob

Can't say that I do, but if its a micro-budget production and you wouldn't be taking up too much time, I bet your local coffee shop would be happy to allow you to film there. People like student filmmakers more than you'd expect. If this is a bigger, more complicated shoot, maybe you could make some sort of wanted ad. If you showed the name of the coffee shop, you could try to swing it as free advertising for the place that lets you do it.

Hope that helps.

yeah, I would just keep asking coffee shop owners until someone says yes. In fact, I helped an AFI student project that shot at a coffee shop in silver lake. If they paid any location fee, it was very, very small.

Actually, I find that many people hate student filmmakers, but maybe it's just me The cops have been called at least twice relating to my productions. Americans love to bother the boys in blue if there's anything outside of their narrow range of expected behavior, warranted or not.

Evan- next time, keep the little orange tips on the front of the guns, the cops are generally much nicer then. haha.
If you're looking for a funny story about filmmakers getting in trouble, find Keifer Sutherland's interview where he talks about stopping the Lonely Island guys one day. Hilarious (Off topic, too, but it's worth it, trust me.)

I'm not sure if I'm likable enough to swing it without some help. I'll pound the pavement, but I'd appreciate it if anyone out there knows someone who knows someone.

Actually, it didn't involve guns. (well, there was a fake gun present once, but that's not the reason they came out).

Story time. It was 2 AM and we were shooting in the rear parking lot of an abandoned warehouse. Some old woman drives by in a conversion van, going really slowly. We just stand there as it rolls by. Ten minutes later the cops show up.

'We had reports of graffiti being sprayed on the back of the building.'

People make up anything when they want an excuse to be pricks.

Second incident. I was shooting a scene for my 16mm WWII film in a swampy area that adjoins a block of apartments. The building is 5-6 stories tall. Some smoke was used to give a nice volumetric effect to the lighting. A car rolls slowly by when we're down in the low lying area, and it's obscured by the tall grass. I suspect that it is cop car, and secretly worry that we might get in trouble (technically, it was in the middle of a dry spell - however, I was only using the smoke material in prepared areas surrounded by water).

We keep shooting and finish about 30 minutes later. As we walk back to the car, a guy emerges from the apartment block, smelling of alcohol and cigarettes.

'Dude, I just called the cops on you dudes. What were you doin' back there?'

We quickly explained and left. Good thing the police were too lazy to step outside of their vehicle.

For one of my movies, my friend and I needed to use a restaurant that we had no intention of buying anything at so we said we'd list them in the credits. They were enthusiastic because we we're just doing our own thing and told them they could get some free advertising.

As long as it doesn't involve hazardous materials, guns, or too much equipment than I think they would let you film. If they don't, move on to another coffee shop.