I've been writing short stories and screenplays for most of my life as a hobby and have wanted to get into film-making for most of that time as well. I have a metric shit-load of material, a lot of which I had previously thought would be pretty easy to film. It wasn't until I decided to get serious about it, however, that I fully began to realise just how damn difficult it is and that pointing at something and shooting wasn't going to be enough.
The first hurdle that has me stumped is locations. My friend and I have been bantering about doing a political satire web series. At first I thought this would be fairly simple. A static location where I could set up. It wouldn't even be different locations for each short episode (a few minutes at most). And yet... something as basic as a room that could be available for several hours once a week is turning out to be quite difficult to find.
When considering such things as sound and lighting it all becomes suddenly very complex. As my friend suggested locations I kept shooting them down because of issues that I could foresee. A library, for instance, has study rooms which would otherwise be ideal but even in a library you're going to get noise you can't control and you can only book them for an hour at a time. He suggested a university which often has dozens of spare rooms that go empty for hours at a time but again, noise, curious students, permission... man, this film stuff isn't simple!
So I'm curious, not just for answers to my current dilemma but for locations in general, how do people go about sourcing them, scouting them, securing them? What do you look for? What things determine a good location versus a bad location other than just scenery? What natural conditions do you have to consider like sun direction and wind? What people-made conditions do you have to consider?
The first hurdle that has me stumped is locations. My friend and I have been bantering about doing a political satire web series. At first I thought this would be fairly simple. A static location where I could set up. It wouldn't even be different locations for each short episode (a few minutes at most). And yet... something as basic as a room that could be available for several hours once a week is turning out to be quite difficult to find.
When considering such things as sound and lighting it all becomes suddenly very complex. As my friend suggested locations I kept shooting them down because of issues that I could foresee. A library, for instance, has study rooms which would otherwise be ideal but even in a library you're going to get noise you can't control and you can only book them for an hour at a time. He suggested a university which often has dozens of spare rooms that go empty for hours at a time but again, noise, curious students, permission... man, this film stuff isn't simple!
So I'm curious, not just for answers to my current dilemma but for locations in general, how do people go about sourcing them, scouting them, securing them? What do you look for? What things determine a good location versus a bad location other than just scenery? What natural conditions do you have to consider like sun direction and wind? What people-made conditions do you have to consider?