Youth Challenged during filming

The youth and young adults involved in Wordical’s production of “Try’na Make A Change” were challenged in their emotions and attitudes during their filming this past week. The scene called for some violent action and the use of a weapon, all being done outdoors at night – our location was on Market Street. All around us was lighting, the camera was up, the boom mic was lifted high, it was done in a fenced private property area, and all was permitted. One of San Diego’s finest, a police officer drove up and sat in his car parked at the street watching us so I approached to see if there was something he needed. As I did so, he began to speak rudely, angrily, and in a very unprofessional manner. This continued even after I tried to explain who we were and what we were doing, even suggesting for him to look us up on his website. He then came out of his car and began yelling at me with the same disrepect he did while I was looking through his window. I told him we did not want any trouble and we will adjust and move the scene inside. He did not stop yelling and all the kids just stared at him in disbelief that this was a man of law. Even in my anger I stayed controlled because it would not look good for the kids to see their director being hauled away in a cop car. I asked if he was done with me and he said yes and went back in his car and sat there. I told everyone to pick up everything and move inside – we did. Then the officer approached our door and pointed to one of our young male actor (who was inside the building by now) and told him to come outside. I decided to go with them to the street. When we got there, the officer began to tell our actor that he saw him “mad-dogging” him. I thank God this young man was polite as he spoke back. It seemed that this caused the officer to become more angry and demanded our licenses . . . we complied. The attraction on the street drew 3 more police cars and when another officer approached us, our original police man changed his whole attitude! What the heck!!! He became very gentle and kind . . . I have to say that I am really blessed to be working with a group of youth and young adults that know how to handle themselves much better than the way this man acted toward us.  Maybe he should join Wordical and learn something from these incredible talented people!