By Marc Beja

Rule No. 1 for student filmmakers: When shooting a sex scene in public, be sure to warn the police first, even if the action is only simulated.

Tourists in Myrtle Beach, S.C., complained this month that they had seen a woman performing oral sex on a man under a pier. When two police officers went to investigate, their report stated, they saw Taylor Hancock, an acting student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, “fellating or simulating fellatio” on a fellow student, Joseph Flanders. Six other UNC students and recent graduates were filming the scene. Although neither the police officers nor the 13 witnesses saw any nudity, all eight crew members and actors (Mr. Flanders was also the director) were arrested and charged with participation in or preparation of obscene material, a misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail.

Mr. Flanders’s lawyer, L. Morgan Martin, says the eight are innocent.
“They were making a film that was a parody of college kids going to the beach,” he says, “but there was no pornography or sexual activity.”

The filmmakers were released after posting $10,000 each for bail, but their equipment, a costume jacket embroidered with the word “Police,” and scripts of the comedy, titled Beach Week, were kept as evidence. The UNC system’s film school had no affiliation with the production.

Jordan Kerner, dean of the filmmaking school at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, says the group failed to follow professional protocols. “These particular students showed poor judgment in not obtaining a permit for this shoot, and unfortunately they have suffered the consequences,” he says. “We are hopeful that the local authorities will take this into consideration.”