How to avoid a parking ticket

I remembered a funny anecdote a friend told me a few years ago when he was late for an REM concert in Sheffield. When he finally reached the venue (already running late) he discovered that virtually all parking places were occupied apart from a few down one particular street. The only hitch was the traffic wardens had already had a field day and written tickets for each car, so it was inevitable what the outcome would be if he parked there.

He parked the car regardlessly, on the street in question and whipped the parking ticket off the car infront placing it on his windscreen. After a texbook performance by Michael and the lads he returned to his illegitemately parked vehicle, checked the ticket on his windscreen (it was still the ticket issued for the car infront) and drove home, leaving the ticket in a nearby bin. The car infront had since been issued with a duplicate ticket, but there would be no question of the driver having to pay the fine twice.

So this was to provide the subject matter of "How to avoid a parking ticket". We proposed to rope in a friend of mine, who'se character was late for an interview. When he finally reaches the place of the interview he realises that parking near the building will subsequently result in a parking ticket. Like the above story, he parks the car, takes the ticket off the car in front and places it on his windscreen. After a successful interview, he returns back to his car and the rest is history.

When we discussed the project we came across a number of logistical problems that endangered the prospect of completing the project on time. The first problem was getting somebody to commit to spending a dat shooting on a particular day that would be conveinient for everybody, which in reality was quite difficult because the person in question's job doesn't allow that sort of flexibility. We needed props such as a load of parking tickets to place on all the cars down the street, easy enough to do in photoshop but we'd need the owners permission to place one on each car down the street (unless we did it quickly, but that piles the pressure on). We'd need the right location - one suggestion was the college carpark, but we'd have to film on a Saturday (thats the only day my friend's available) when there's no cars (college is shut on a Saturday).

As the idea developed, it became clear to us that the sequence was more about the character and not really delivering a how to video so concluded to leave it on the shelf.