[LRflex] Re: The Green Line. :-)
- From: "Dave Saalsaa" <dsaalsaa@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <leicareflex@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 20 Jul 2006 18:11:44 -0500
great story, Ted. It made me smile as I remembered an occurrence while I
was covering the Syttende Mai parade in Stoughton WI. for our local
newspaper. I had forgotten to take my press pass to the parade and while
looking for a great location to stand, I noticed some folks standing up on
top of a three story building across the street. I watched as some others
went in a side door and then appeared on top of the building . Aha, I had
found the point of entry. I ambled across the street and up the three
flights of stairs to a door ramping up through an open window to the roof.
There were about a dozen people standing along side the roof edge to the
best vantage point I could imagine. I spent about 20 minutes shooting and
then left to go back down to street level. As I wandered down the stairs I
saw a table of food laid out on the second floor of what looked like a
antique furniture warehouse. I didn't see anyone else there so I went over
to the table and grabbed a few hor's deorves. I was about to leave when a
man said "who the hell are you "? I quickly turned around and I snapped
back and who are you? He said I own this building. I said, great, I am
doing a story on the parade for Aften Posten newspaper in Norway and would
like to photograph you and get a story line from you if that is ok. He
looked at me with some question but obliged and I took a couple of pictures
of him and then got the hell out of there. I had crashed his private party
and he had caught me red handed. . I did get some very nice pictures of
the parade though. ;-)
Dave
----- Original Message -----
From: "Ted Grant" <tedgrant@xxxxxxx>
To: <leicareflex@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Thursday, July 20, 2006 1:22 PM
Subject: [LRflex] The Green Line. :-)
> The Green Line
>
> Munich, Germany.1972 Summer Olympics:
>
>
>
> The security guard had Graham Bezant's accreditation card in one hand and
> a
> colour ID code book in the
>
> other. He was yelling in German and Graham was yelling back in his
> Australian-accented English, neither understanding the other.
>
>
>
> It scared the hell out of me as I knew what was going on. Although several
>
> positions back in the security line I figured they'd have me next. Graham,
> a
> staff
>
> photographer for the Toronto Star, had just been caught witha forged
> "Green
> Line"
>
> on his Media accreditation card .
>
>
>
> I had initiated the forging, in fact the card hanging around my
>
> neck was also a faked photographer's pass. It wasn't that we didn't have
>
> accreditation, we did, but it was for the sport reporter seats, but didn't
>
> allow access to the photo positions. The difference was a thin
>
> "Green Line" diagonally across the face of the card indicating you were a
>
> photographer.
>
>
>
> After a few days frustration attempting to shoot the Games with Reporter
> Accreditation
>
> I wondered if I could fake a photo accreditation? After all it was only a
> thin Green line.
>
>
>
> I examined a couple of photographer passes very carefully then hit on the
> idea of using a felt tip
>
> marker to draw a "Green Line" on my pass. Searching all over Munich fora
> pen of the right colour,
>
> just any green wouldn't work, the security staff had colour ID code books
>
> with official colour keys. They rarely used them in any event. Until?
>
>
>
> After a few days searching I found one right under my nose in the Main
> Press
> Center boutique,
>
> exactly the perfect colour match.
>
>
>
> Do you remember the war movie "The Great Escape" when documents were
>
> forged to get out? We now started our plan "The Great Entry" to get in.
>
>
>
> Very carefully a single strip of scotch tape was placed diagonally across
>
> the card. The "Green Line" drawn on it rather than on the actual
>
> card surface, in the event of possible discovery it could be peeled
>
> off leaving a legitimate reporter's card. Two more strips placed on the
>
> first to give the correct width to the line, these were peeled off after
>
> the marker was used leaving clean edges to appear actually printed.
>
>
>
> Now for the colour, with one quick stroke of the marker it was done.
>
> Peeling off the two extra strips of tape I found myself holding a
>
> "Photographers Accreditation". I checked it against several legal cards,
> it matched beautifully.
>
> But it had yet to pass the big test, getting past the guards 20/20 vision.
>
>
>
> Here we were entering the Main Stadium with a couple of photographers as
> some
>
> cover and Graham ahead of us in a shouting match with a security guy!
> Damn!
>
> My first re-action was to peel off the plastic strip with the green line.
>
> However, what the hell give it a try, live dangerously!
>
>
>
> I passed the guards, my accreditation boldly hanging on a chain around
>
> my neck, I was in. It was so easy I couldn't believe it.
>
>
>
> Graham on the other hand was caught! As in "The Great Escape" if you were
> caught
>
> you were on your own. I just walked on by without a glance.
>
>
>
> Some time you just gotta do what you gotta do to get your pictures.
>
>
>
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