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Queens Filmmakers Skip Box Office, Go Straight to Big House
By
Billy Parker
Published Feb 14, 2009
Modified Feb 14, 2009
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By
Billy Parker
Published Feb 14, 2009
Modified Feb 14, 2009
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Faced with a shrinking market for independent cinema, two young Queens men thought that they had a surefire treatment to make their visions of indie success into a guaranteed hit: they'd sell off all of the film equipment that they had rented. Omar Tineo and Robert Perez rented a high-end digital camera, a tripod and some lenses from Red One Camera in order to "make an independent film" and then almost immediately put them up for sale on craigslist for $17,000. Luckily for them, there were interested buyers almost immediately, meaning they wouldn't have to waste much of the $900/a day Tineo was being charged for the equipment on his credit card. Unfortunately for the pair of men in their early twenties, the potential customers they went to meet on the Lower East Side were undercover cops who arrested them on charges of grand larceny and possession of stolen property. The Post calls the incident "a live remake of Dumb and Dumber" and talks to someone related to the case who calls the pair, "Complete morons. They tried a get-rich-quick scheme and it backfired." There was no word on the status of the film.
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Billy Parker
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