Location Suggestions

DDK

DDK

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?
 
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What things determine a good location versus a bad location other than just scenery?
Click to expand...

Sound (inside and outside the venue)
Access
Control-ability
Parking
Space required (you'll need way more than your shooting space to do any reasonably professional shoot)
Light
Access to Electricity
Cost
Ceiling height
Flooring
Ability to turn air conditioning on and off.
Sound proofing
Safety
Air traffic noise
Color of floor, walls and ceiling.
Windows.
Location
Travel time

The list goes on and on.

There are many variables that you need to think about. On top of that, some shoots have some specific need that will alter that list and add extra variables.
 
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Sweetie said:
Sound (inside and outside the venue)
Access
Control-ability
Parking
Space required (you'll need way more than your shooting space to do any reasonably professional shoot)
Light
Access to Electricity
Cost
Ceiling height
Flooring
Ability to turn air conditioning on and off.
Sound proofing
Safety
Air traffic noise
Color of floor, walls and ceiling.
Windows.
Location
Travel time

The list goes on and on.

There are many variables that you need to think about. On top of that, some shoots have some specific need that will alter that list and add extra variables.
Click to expand...
That's a damn good list. I didn't even consider ceiling height for the boom, let alone room colour.
 
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DDK said:
That's a damn good list. I didn't even consider ceiling height for the boom, let alone room colour.
Click to expand...

Ceiling height for heat too. When you use non-led lights, the room can heat up fair quick. A high ceiling can help with keeping the room temp lower for longer. It can also give your gaffer different options if the ceiling isn't too low. A low ceiling sometimes eliminates the ability to use a crane, or reduces the what you can do with a jib etc.

That was just a list off the top of my head. You've also got other things like the solidity of the walls/ceiling. For instance, those office ceilings that have a foam feeling ceiling are better than concrete for sound and even letting you use the crawlspace if you really find the need.

Room color can change the options you have to light, unless you have extra gear to compensate. It can even change the color of bounced light.

Something you also should pay attention to is the rest room and the garbage situation.

As I said, the list goes on and on. Flight paths, traffic paths, schools, buss routes, trains, availability to and cost of transport. You'll learn more with experience doing location managing.
 
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Locations are one of those areas of film making which actually gets harder! As you get better at making films you will want to start incorporating sound design into your film making but sound design needs something to work with and that means setting your films in locations which are sonically interesting. In other words, a location which is naturally quiet enough to allow for recording great production sound is likely to be the least good and most boring from a sound design point of view. There are a few film making tricks which can help in this regard but this basic sound dichotomy is one of the main reasons why commercial films usually require relatively large amounts of ADR.

I briefly discussed this problem and some tricks for getting around it in the Principles of Sound Design thread, in many cases though there maybe no solution as at the lo/no budget level you want to avoid ADR at almost any cost.

G
 
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Gonna dig up an ancient thread here... mind if I ask what library in your area Morris? We just wrote a short about a crazy vindictive librarian and we need a library (or substitute) in the Boston area.
 
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