Brazil- John T. Bone writes on www.johntbone.com: I hear another webmaster/shooter is on his way over here for a couple of months shooting and I suppose he thinks it is going to be fun and games just like shooting in the valley.
“Hey it’s legal to shoot in Brazil, right?”
Sure it is if you happen to be Brazilian and only then if you have a production company that pays taxes and your signature is registered with the government as a person licensed to pay wages to Brazilian people.
“What?”
In an effort to stop people from cheating Brazilians out of money payed for their labor you must be registered with the government as an employer so that if you bounce a check on somebody the police know where you live and will come and collect the money from you.
“But my friend has a company”
OK that’s is fine, as long as you sit in your hotel room and never visit the shooting location and he declares all of the money you give him and pays the taxes! Taxes by the way are due when you receive money not April 15th so “I was going to pay” doesn’t cut it here!
“Ah well, that’s not my problem!”
Really! Let me explain just what your problems are.
First they have three different police forces:
1. The Federal Police, these guys are like our FBI, they govern the airports and most things to do with foreigners.
2. The Civil Police, these guys deal with all of the local stuff, traffic, domestic disputes same as our local police.
3. The Military Police, similar to our swat they go into the most dangerous places and kill people.
All of these guys see Americans as ‘fair game’ and paying off one does not protect you from another. You may have problems understanding this but trust me, Americans are the most hated people in the world, if you can’t get that fact straight in your head you are really fucked!
Over the last few years there has been an explosion in the numbers of Americans shooting porn in Brazil, this has not gone unnoticed by the average cop on the beat. It is common knowledge that in Rio many of the girls work with the police, turning in American shooters and sharing in the money that the police extort from us. Last year one webmaster paid $20,000 to Federal police.
“$20,000″
The amounts of money that the police have been asking for have continually escalated as they are unaware of our financial standings and each encounter seems to increase the accepted limit of ‘fine’. The average policeman makes about $700 a month, they want our money and will go to any length to take it from us.
“If they come here they won’t find anything!”
Irrelevant! if you fall into their hands it is because you have been turned in by somebody who works for you, maybe for money, maybe because they have a drugs charge pending or maybe just because you didn’t pay for a second pizza on the shoot and they went home hungry. When the police arrive they are not there to arrest you, they want your money, they are not looking for evidence they are looking for things of value. The laptop you have conveniently wiped clean of all evidence is a laptop they can sell on the black market for more than you paid for it.
Here are some points you might want to remember:
You have no rights.
They are going to take your money and they already know how much you are going to pay.
Going to the police station is not a good move the price will go up as more policemen become involved.
They will recommend a lawyer who will come immediatly to your location, this lawyer is part of the extortion and they are there to convince you that you have no choice but to pay.
“But it is a simple visa violation, wouldn’t I be better off going to court?”
That is not an option, the police are there for your money, if they have a warrant then a judge is already in on the scam, do you really think you stand a chance in his court room?
You are going to loose all of your equipment and a lot of money, do not expect any help from your Brazilian contacts, they know better.
“But it’s not fair”
Yeah right, you want fair? Shoot in LA
“How do you know all this shit?”
My first run in with the authorities here was three years ago, I was here to spend Christmas with my then girlfriend, now my wife, I was not here to work and had no equipment just my computer and a new computer I had bought Jessica for Christmas. A local madam/porn agent had gotten into trouble with the Feds and instead of paying them off she gave them me. I was sitting in my hotel room when the feds came in with a search warrant, they of course found nothing, there was nothing to find.
Long story short, they took both computers, all of my cash, took me to an ATM to get more cash and impounded my passport until I came up with a total of $10,000, but that was three years ago.
Still want to shoot here?
I have been shooting here for five years, I am married to a Brazilian girl and I have taken care to comply with all of the laws governing production here. Last week a policeman who works part time for my friend was feeling a financial pinch and behind my friends back he extorted $2,000 from me, then he told his friends on the police force what he had done and they have been terrorizing my wife for a week to find out where I am, so they can extort money from me too.
Traveling around the world shooting porn used to be an extremely profitable way of life and lots of fun, today things are different. Most third world countries know who we are and see us as cash cows. Chances are you will get tagged at the airport, if you think they don’t know who you are, you are new to shooting porn. When you hand your passport to the receptionist in the hotel they are entering your name into the police data base. Every time you use your ATM card they know, every transaction you make with Money Gram or Western Union is reported and if you brought huge wads of cash with you, hahahahah!
You can buy your way out of almost anything but the price may be more than you can afford, so if you can’t come up with $20,000 or $30,000 in a matter of days stay home or sit here in prison, the choice is yours, and don’t say I didn’t warn you!
