Toronto Police Uniforms
 

This isn't so much for PLAYING airsoft as much as FILMING with airsoft but I thought I'd share.

http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/h...Poster1280.jpg

Yeah, we're makin' a cop show for YouTube on a shoe string budget. :)

Issues with the uniforms of course, the patches are pre-1998 design because I couldn't source repros the non 'Metropolitan'. They're done with velcrow and only a few stitches to tack the edges down, so they're easily swapped out with something better. Belts arn't leather, but I like nylon better and it was cheaper. Holsters are waaaaaaay off but Blackhawk Serpa Level 3's are a BIT out of budget at $130 each or so. Epaulette's are way wrong, that's not what they sounded like over the phone, wrong color, flag wrong size and will replace sooner than later.

Uniforms are off the shelf from Carleton Uniforms and the armor carriers are also off the shelf from Pacific Safety Products (Who gave us a 50% discount because we were film students and they rounded us up some returned units). ...We filled the carriers with cardboard instead of kevlar. :D

Assuming you are located in the GTA, there are probably a lot of people who would be willing to loan you gear for the video shoot, you just need to ask :P. Clones of real products "IE Black Hawk Serpa's" are a good budget option. Check out army surplus stores as well.

Also it would be a good idea to let local law enforcement know where and when you plan on shooting if the area is publically accessible.

I am not sure on the legaility of the TPS Patch, but without context someone can easily interpret you as impersonating a police officer (Summary Conviction btw) so another good reason to give local leo's a heads up.

Best of luck with the film, post it up when your done.

PS: One more thing, please don't make your duty belt look like below, your exterior belt should be secured to your interior belt, not like a gun slinger. You can rememdy this by using belt keeprs or a velcro interior/exterior belt. You can also try to make them secure them by friction, the outside one slightly tighter than the interior but this would be difficult for someone with a small waist.

http://mikesbloggityblog.com/wp-cont..._promo001.jpeg

Believe it or not, Ottawa. Though it's set in Toronto we're doing all our filming at Algonquin College in Ottawa. Though the school has been nice enough to let us use the police program's Impala, the paramedic program's Ambulance and the nursing program's 13 bed medical simulation ER. We'll use some crafty tricks to add the CN tower and a few things to Ottawa's own skyline to pass it off at T-Dot. That said, I'm moving on to advancing my film and TV education at Sheridan in Oakville, so I'll continue shooting this production as shorts and vignettes out of the GTA then.

We have a special constable from the Ottawa Police Service helping us out in an unoffical capacity for 'technical support' and he's the one bringing us the gas blowback sigs and M4s. We have that part covered.

It's actually not the patch. Weather it generically said police or a specific department, it's just as much a problem or NOT a problem. When filming and people only looking like police for filming, there's no issue or violation of S.130 of the criminal code. Because when you see police and cameras and lights, no one thinks you're the cops. There's no concerns about 'personating a peace officer' so long as you execute common sense that'd be used on any film shoot. Obviously the talent will take the shirts and vests off when the go to lunch though. That said, there is one tiny legal issue that's civil rather than criminal. That emblem is a trademark of the TPS and The City of Toronto. We just figure they probably won't sue us for being so small scale. (And you just can't get generic Canadian police patches. American ones are easy, with stars and eagels and stuff, not Canadian though.)

proper police/ security pants hav dual belt loops, one small one for a standard sized belt and a larger set for your gun belt

and whats the eta on getting an episode up?

We start the biggest shoot tomorrow actually. I'll include a link to the script infact, scenes 4 and 5 which take up half the story will be shot tomorrow.

I'd put it at about 4 weeks for total completion, one of our cops is having dental surgery this upcoming reading week so we can't shoot with her for another 10 days or so. We can only do one more scene without her. We'll then wrap up the two scenes with her in the week after that. Then give it a week for post-production. So, 3-4 weeks. But I can post some production photos and screenshots after this weekend if anyone is interested.

There will be two different versions edited. We're actually graduating Television Broadcasting students at Algonquin, I'm leading this up as I've been drooling to do something like this because, well damnit, I'm learning film and television as a school that owns a police car! Anyway, this is a 'drama' assignment that makes up 25% of our mark, it'll also be in contention to be shown on CBC Ottawa over the summer where they showcase local indie stuff in a timeslot that ensures no one ever actually watches it. One of the specs for that is a hard limit of 12mins. So it could be edited a bit shorter for that. YouTube will get a slightly longer version and also start with a flashforward to the shoot out that takes place in the middle of the plot, then flash back to the start of the story. ...Cause it's YouTube and no one's gonna watch something 15mins long unless they see gunfire in the first 30 seconds. :)

https://www.dropbox.com/s/hvlveocgja...Draft%202D.pdf

And for the record, Carleton Uniform's red stripe police pants do not come with duty belt loops, though the duty belts came with loops of their own. :P

Sounds really good... Can't wait to see the show on YouTube :-)

just finished reading the script, i like it cant wait to see the vid,

nice good to see its comming along, cant wait to see the final product :)

Carleton student here. Mind if I hang out and watch you guys film?

....shots fired at Queen Beatrix Hospital?

Would Toronto have a QBH or Ottawa?

Hang out and watch, no. You'd be a distraction. Be an extra while pretending to be either medical staff or a patient while dodging gun fire as you dive behind a hospital bed? YES. :D

If you're interested and available for a shoot from 5pm-9pm tomorrow, send me a private message or email me at hakker.ashley@synmediaproductions.com

There will be pizza and pop free to talent between shooting scenes 4 and 5, though you will be -required- to sign a waiver letting us use your apperance without payment, even though I'll be putting this up on YouTube and monitizing it. (It'd need 10 000-20 000 views on YT to even break even on costumes, props and other costs, and even that's not terribly likely)

The fake hospital was originally named when this idea was set in Ottawa. I kept the name because it was 'Canadian Sounding' but still fictional (Much like 'Hudson University' in Law & Order) though good catch picking up the reference to that particular Queen. :)


Since this is getting more response than I expected, I guess I'll show off something I did previously, a cinematically style commercial for Algonquin College's Pre-Service Fire Fighting program. No airsoft but I did get to strap a DSLR to the side of a fire truck. :D

Algonquin Pre-Service Firefighting Commercial (Extended Version) - YouTube

Excited to see how this turns out. If you do end up filming in the GTA I'm sure you can get a few of us out there as extras.

sorry but you will need a hotter pw if you want people to watch

It doesn't matter which jurisdiction you're wearing it in.
The problem with wearing these patches is that whatever you do, the public will notice it.
Whatever you do while wearing the patches will reflect on the TPS.
Have you contacted TPS about using the patch?

Edit: So what is the purpose of the movie, what is this film supposed to be about?

Sorry, I'm trying to tell stories about Canadian first responders, not create sex symbols for men to wank to. :P

What public? We're not filming a shoot out in an ER anywhere where the public could see it, that'd result in a lot of real police showing up with very non-airsoft firearms and pointing them at our heads while using very authorative voices. I find those experiences to be rather counter-productive to the film making process.

Public as in on Youtube, anyone that have access to view your video/film.
You haven't answered my question regarding to contacting the TPS about using their insignia for your film-making.
What is the purpose of this video, and what is it about?

Have you read the thread cliked the vid link and the script? Shirley are trolling?

agreed all the questions have been answered in the thread i also belive that the patches are stated to be the old not in use version of them

The issue here is that police don't use those Serpas. They use the Level III Serpa to prevent constables from getting disarmed and the Level III's are expensive and I havn't sourced out any clones. So while I could readily get a Level I clone for, like, 20bux, it'd still not be totally accurate. So then comes in the question of buying clones and then needing to replace them yet again later, or waiting till level IIIs can be afforded.

Also, I'm still borrowing airsoft guns so I'm a bit at the mercy of which models I have. For TPS Glock 19's and 23s would be 'accurate' but for this we're using Sig 226's because it's what the nice constable is loaning us along with his airsoft M4s. At least the cheap nylon holsters are flexible for now. It's a pretty passable costume effort for what we've paid into this, and we also have to pay for other costs like cameras, lighting and other gear that we also collect. Prime lenses arn't free afterall. :P

Now maybe another little tease, I have photos of the vehicles we're using. Not nearly as cool as the poster, just quickly taken on the lot with a cellphone. They should look a lot cooler at night, when lit with lighting, with the emergency lights on and through some nice Canon glass.

http://sphotos-e.ak.fbcdn.net/hphoto...82581761_n.jpg
Not even sure if this is an Impala Police Package or just a consumer Impala. Algonquin College's Police Foundations program has been nice enough to loan it to us... Once they fix the light bar in a week or so... Lacks the divider for prisoners in the back, but hey, free Impala with a light bar, right?


http://sphotos-h.ak.fbcdn.net/hphoto...17026366_n.jpg
It's melting. They have two and the other one isn't even mobile anymore. They arn't even sure if the emergency lights work on it because they never use them. It's not exactly a Toronto EMS Crestline 'New Era', but it's free and the fact that it's slowly disolving into rust should be better hidden at night. We don't get to drive this one, but they'll assign us a paramedic student to drive if and babysit us for filming when we use it. So some paramedic student is getting treated to a free dinner for helping us out. :P

That's been a pet peeve of mine for ages. They have a staff advisor, the training officers wear their belts correctly, yet the main cast wears their belts like they're gunslingers... I do have to admit they did a good job on the dress uniforms in a recent episode though.

BTW, on the note of the film...

- TPS's vehicles and units are identified by a four digit number, where the first two digits would be the division number and the last two the vehicle. 5321 would be vehicle 21 from 53 division, 1519 (from Rookie Blue) would be from the fictional 15 division (Which is 51 in real life), car 19.

- An alternate to using the MTPS patch is to either go blank shoulders like the LAPD, or use a ribbon without insignia. It's cheaper and saves you the trouble of legal depictions of the TPS (Which is extremely strict about it...)

I may take that to heart and make a last moment alteration to the script. Truth be told, 'NC54' actually means 'Not Car 54' as a silent reference to 'Car 54, Where Are You?'

There's no 10 division if I understand so it'd be free. :P

It does not matter if it's the old or new, one is still using the insignia used years ago.



Here's a scenario, I'm going to play as a PC for TPS in a fictional film. I use all the gear, accurate to TPS, and play a role. I assume I play the role right, but when viewers see my role, it can be unprofessional due to lack of training. TPS then recognizes the insignia, and doesn't want the public viewers getting the wrong view on how TPS works. you get my point?

Think of Flash Point. They are "styled on the TPS ETF". Do they use TPS insignias?


I think it's better to use an original logo created, which will save your ass in the future. If not, contact TPS and see what they will say about it.

FYI, TPS isn't using Glock 19's, 23's. Where did you find that?
They use a Glock 22; a .40.

This is what I don't get, you're going for an accurate impression, but you lack majority of what is needed. Why do you need it to be TPS for your project?

Yeah, mistake, meant to say 22, I was thinking 'The .40, I know ETF uses the 19 and the rest use the .40, which one is that?'

Man, Shirley you're totally gonna shit your pants when I blow up this thing in what I plan to do after this production, arn't you? :P

http://sphotos-a.ak.fbcdn.net/hphoto...63747043_n.jpg

I work in the film Industry and I have worked on Rookie Blue (As well as Flashpoint, Nikita etc) as a matter of fact, both as a Background Performer and as Casting Rep (Wrangler). I can tell you that you will run into trouble. All I can say is be careful. I have had to send BG home because they simply stood outside smoking in their Wardrobe. A few years ago a BG stole a police Uniform and went around town getting free food and the like. He was eventually caught but since then Productions have tightened their belts.

I have talked to many PDO's (Paid Duty Officers) and they were all unanimous that the Uniforms we use on film are so accurate at times that from a distance they can't even tell. When they can tell it's usually because the BG and/or Actor doesn't carry themselves like a Police Officer. This is why I teach a course not only about this very topic, but set etiquette as well as proper gun handling etc. Can't begin to tell you how many people get booked SSE that have never handled a gun before! But that's another story.

Good luck with your project I know how hard it is (I've written and Produced my own) and it's damn tough out there. If you have any questions regarding rules and regulations I'll help you out anyway I can.


EDIT: As for the "they're old patches don't worry about it" argument. Trust me when I say it DOES matter. What the one gentleman on here said about reflecting on TPS is correct. This is what the officers that I have spoken to reiterated as well. This includes the mandatory ETF officer that must be on set if we go hot during filming. Lastly I'll assume your production is Non-Actra (Non Union) so you can get away with a bit more. But if you guys are Actra members and maybe filming TIP or Co-Op, you MUST abide by the IPA which has much stricter guidelines than non-Union. Again, if you have any questions and/or concerns don't hesitate to message me. I wouldn't want to see your production shut down because of a red tape technicality.

That's someone elses arguement, my arguement is 'Tiny student indie YouTube production, won't get noticed, if somehow goes big enough to get noticed, will just have to deal with a C&D and will have enough money for custom embroidedered 'Torontoish' patches for additional productions'. :P

Custom embroidered patches are just not affordable at this point.

My promo was a tiny internet release as well and I was contacted quickly regarding copyright issues. Just giving you guys a heads up. You'd be surprised how something small can spread.

As for the patches I'll talk to the head Wardobe a see if she can ask the PD where he gets his. Like I said, I'm here to help. I'm always willing to help a fellow film maker. ;) here's my old promo by the way just so you ca see why I was approached. lol

http://youtu.be/xrvdGoS9jcI

When you say shoe-string, I say zero. lol But we're trying to secure funding. Problem is, Annapurna Films is being difficult. :P

No Budget dude.
Starving artists.
Full Time Student.

Hey smart guy, :o
you should learn to read.

You know the costume RPG dude come in and one told me about using a printer to duplicate a simple cloth badge.
http://canada.odmp.org/patch.php?id=53&s=150
Take something like this, alter it and print it.
Its good enough for stage cosplay and Film.

Seems the attention garnered will be passed on to other interested parties.
So just change the spelling to Toronlo
No one here pronounces the secont T anyway.
Or for this patch make it POUCE

TORONTO POUTINE?

I like it.

id go with Tdot PoPo, keep it trendy lol, long as there isnt any close ups of the patch i doubt most folks would notice

Spell it like everyone pronounces '' Tron-ah"!

Ya guys realize that TPS would claim trademark on the crest in the center of the patch too, right? :P

Nah, something originally but very 'Canadian/Torontoy' looking would be done if I put out the cast for custom ones. The existing material doesn't concern me, like I said, small project, it's not like I have 10 000 watchers on YouTube and generate thousands of dollars off my channel. ...Yet. :)

So the repros bought from the US stay for now since they were $3.50 each. :P Even those expressing displeasure, I appreciate the interest. I flat out don't have the money to go 'all out' but $1000 while weaseling every piece of free hardware I can out of my program, plus a special constable who's bringing enough airsoft gear to make a sequel to the North Hollywood Shootout will yeild a pretty reasonable result for what we're paying in.

It's easy to nit pick about gear and such but the project as a whole is pretty involved. Lighting, cameras, costumes, script, talent, and not to mention this pretty expensive facility we're filming in.

http://sphotos-b.ak.fbcdn.net/hphoto...07014725_n.jpg

http://sphotos-f.ak.fbcdn.net/hphoto...44907288_n.jpg

(Who wants to play an airsoft match in there? :P)

Filming which I need to go get gear for in an hour, so I'm gonna finish printing the latest version off the scripts and get ready. I'll post some production photos tomorrow evening probably. :)

We can be heroes~ In just one day~

http://sphotos-h.ak.fbcdn.net/hphoto...55682567_o.jpg

http://sphotos-f.ak.fbcdn.net/hphoto...44591550_o.jpg

http://sphotos-d.ak.fbcdn.net/hphoto...05408652_o.jpg

If you're going for realism, TPS don't use ACOGs on their carbines. Looks good for a cinematic apoeal though.

Kudo's for being the first person to post up pics with in 24 hours of an event! ;)
Nice hope all worked out well and what didn't can get edited.
Stand by for "Constructive Critisizm"

Maybe I should respond to that criticism followed by an invoice for how much it would cost to fix it followed with my paypal address so they can pay for it. :P

Teasing of course, but while our acting won't exactly be awesome, the rest should be pretty decent. Since I'd like to do more like this, it should allow me to attract other more experienced talent and resources to come in and donate their time and, if by some freaky happenstance it takes off, get paid for it. :P

More experienced? Maybe not... but if you need a Russian criminal, let me know :)

would love to see the vid:p

Oh I'll post it, but I need to finish shooting it. It'll be another 3 weeks or so till it's done. We shot the two biggest scenes and the only ones using airsoft, but there are ones with emergency vehicles still to be shot.

The Frontline Code Silver 30s Teaser

Short 30s teaser of the project in progress. Shooting action scenes put a few suprises infront of us and it's forced us to do some reshooting while while pushed back about 3 weeks from where we'd like to be, it's progressing and what we have in the teaser I think shows that we're onto something. :)

awesome, now i realy want to see the finished project. i would have had the bullet hit the screen then fade to black.... but thats just me

Looks great cant wait to see the complete video.
You made the airsoft guns seem verry real and thats cool what you did at the end there when the m4 fires. Finaly i see that effect dont with just the projectile flyin not the whole bullet including the shell casing lol

If you look closely, you can see the shell ejecting before it goes out of focus. :P

When is this planned to be done by?? looks like an interesting watch.

She said this on the 16th so a week or so we are all waiting to see the final product looks like it should be good

No, it won't be a week. We hit some real production snags, we shot scene 4 and 5 two weeks ago, learned a lot but also have had to accept that we need to reshoot with what we learned. We're not even doing ONE of the reshoots for 4 and 5 till the 15th of March and another needs to follow. Our program has also made scheduling a nightmare. That said, we are working on in and actually got scene 1 completed last night... And it doesn't need to be reshot at all.

First, we had to dig our stationary ambulance out of a snowbank which cost an hour of time and then we set up our lights around it, including the green screen.
http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/h...bulanceBTS.png


And here's what it largely looks like after post-production:
http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/h...eforeAfter.png

What you see out the window of the ambulance is not final, it's some crappy temporary footage we have that loops for like 5 seconds. We'll be getting on an urban freeway and shoot video out of the left and right side of a moving vehicle to fill the green screened windows for the final result. But this temp footage in the window lets me set up the keying so I just need to swap it out once that's shot.

Sorry for the slow productions, but we are working on it. :)

Filming in that ambulance buried in the snow bank was aweful, so I wrangled us a training lab with what was left of a Crown Victoria Police Interceptor in it. There was paint and simunition shells EVERYWHERE!

http://sphotos-e.ak.fbcdn.net/hphoto...23030550_o.jpg

hold ups happen all the time thats for sure, i was to play an undercover cop in my buddys music video and after three days of screw ups (spread over a cpl weeks) we finally got it together, with all the shooting involved for a three minut video i could only imagine the work involved in something like what you are doing.
looks like things are comming along tho, cant wait to see it when its all finnished. keep up the hard work and im sure itll pay off:)

Yeah, this puts scene 2 as filmed. :) So 2 down, even if they're short ones, 3 to go.

3 out of 6 shoots completed and finalized. Fourth one is this Friday where we'll finally get to break out the airsoft guns again and drop somebody. :)

http://sphotos-b.ak.fbcdn.net/hphoto...98307980_o.jpg

Good stuff. Half way to the finnish line now. (well not counting the editing and such lol)

There's also some odds and ends, like getting out on the road with a GoPro on other side of a car, so I have footage to fill the windows of the green screened vehicles. Establishing shots as well, basically just exterior shots of our hospital. But that's easy stuff that doesn't need an entire crew and cast to accomplish.

4 shoots down, 2 to go. :) This one was part of our reshooting, totally worth it.

http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/h...eWallpaper.png

If they use Glocks, why aren't you using Glocks? I'm sure there would be many airsofters willing to let you borrow them, and its not like they're rare.

We had difficulty sourcing anyone with Glocks who'd donate them to the cause. In addition to this, the person who offered us P226's and M4 is a member of the Ottawa Police Service. When it comes to walking across a college campus with handguns and a military assault weapon, I find that it's advantageous to have the police present and supplying them.

So I'll most likely be releasing this later today. It's not as complete as we'd like, for anyone who read the script, scene 3 at the curb wasn't shot because... Well, while the school promised us an Impala and ambulance... They broke. Actually the Impala was always broke an they promised repairs but instead shipped the school's lead mechanic off to Saudi Arabia for something and the ambulance was left out in the snow all winter, they can't get it to start and no one's getting around to looking at it. So that scene is missing but it more or less works without it.

I'll admit that acting is the weakest point but I'd like to do more like this once I move to the GTA in 3 weeks. And by 'more' I mean more like '2-3min shorts that experiment with certain techniques and special effects, rather than trying to tell a complete story'. It'll make things more bite sized, easier to approach and it's a lot easier to just write a pointless North Hollywood Shootout style gunfight than a story. :D

I did finish it up and posted it up in a dedicated thread over here: http://www.airsoftcanada.com/showthread.php?t=153015

Thanks for the input so far guys. :)

Watching it right now; you did a great job on this.
(I couldn't provide an image of my screen.)
p.s: sorry for the bump.