Difficult Locations - Do YOU have ideas?

[Williambradleywalsh]

Hi there,

My name is William and I am producing a senior thesis film called "The Henchman" that centers around an ordinary guy who takes a job as a security guard at a large corporation only to find out that his employers are trying to take over the world. It is an action-comedy that parodies many of the action genre cliches.

We are looking for two crucial locations to the film, keep in mind we will be filming in the Los Angeles area.

The Control Room
This is the center where the Corporation runs all of their operations. We will be able to bring in our own props but it would be ideally a place where there were TV's/Monitors. This is where the final fight scene of the film takes place. Ideally it would be a place with two levels, but we can

The Computer room/Weapons room
Any sort of larger industrial type space could potentially work for this location. In this scene a spy tries to "shut down" the computers of the Corporation. Even a concrete cube could potentially work for this location with the right production design.

If we found the right location we could even make one location work for both with set dressing etc. Our locations budget is $5000 for 6 days....

All the locations scouting services charge you a massive markup....they average around $5000 per DAY

If you guys can come up with any ideas....please share them!

Thank you

 

[indietalk]

You might be able to do something here for location one:

www.computerhistory.org/venue/

They rent the venue out and you may be able to use parts of the museum.

 

[Alcove Audio]

I'm just an audio guy, but couldn't you do the shoot in front of a green screen and CGI the "location" in post?

 

[directorik]

What school are you going to?

 

[Will Vincent]

Location scouting services aside, I highly doubt you're going to get access to a location in the Los Angeles area without a significant insurance policy, and even then I'd expect location fees to be pretty hefty as well.

That's the rub for shooting in a film town.

A creative solution might be to find a small warehouse that's been vacant for a while, and see if the realtor will give you a short term lease for a month or so at a fraction of the regular rate, and use the rest of your location budget to build a set.. Worst they can say is no, but it'd be worth asking since sitting vacant they make no money on it, and if you can offer them $1000 cash for two weeks to a month of use it might be worth their while.. especially if it's not somewhere right downtown LA, or a less than desirable neighborhood perhaps.

 

[Zensteve]

For your bunker area, try this place: Linda Vista Hospital - assuming you have production insurance, of course.

We shot in the basement there (for a bunker laboratory, actually). Lots of long underground tunnels, industrial-style rooms, and even a massive creepy boiler area that gets visted by many local urban explorers.

I think the going rate was 1k a day, though we got a significant break on that 'cos we ended up sharing the parking lot with The Shield tv show.

Lots of parking (even a second lot across the street, if needed), and decent security.

There's a film liason office on the premises. I don't have their # handy.

I have no ideas for your multi-level corporate offices.

Good luck on your shoot.

 

[Williambradleywalsh]

Thank you all for your contuining input.....

Our production IS insured for those of you unsure

The search continues....