Locations: Our Necessary Evil

Flicker Pictures

Flicker Pictures

After years of making movies, or simply trying to, my least favorite part of the process remains securing a location(s) for production. Sometimes things pan out nicely and just fall into place without too much red tape (maybe you know someone who knows someone), but most of the time it's something I really don't look forward to. And without a proper location, there is no shoot!

Anyone care to share tricks of the trade you've learned along the way? How best to approach someone about shooting on their property?
 
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I do not plan a movie with a location I will have trouble getting.
I don't even write the script to include a location I may have
trouble getting.

That's my trick.

In my opinion there is only one way to approach someone about
shooting on their property. Be respectful, be prepared to answer
every question, have your full schedule printed out and ready to
hand to the owner including exactly how many people will be there
and for exactly how long and be fully insured. Three of those four
fall into the "Duh!" category and the forth may not be possible, but
that is the best way to approach someone.
 
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Yup, have all the info ready to go, and I find it's handy to have a woman ask. I'm not sure exactly why but having a female friend ask property owners and managers has had much more success than me asking haha. Sure I'm not as cute, but still.

Have several backup locations too.
 
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ALWAYS the most annoying and most expensive element of pre-production. I am just refusing to limit myself to "easy" locations. Now I don't write in anything crazy like a complete hospital or prison, or the engine room of an alien death star or anything, but I'll write moderately difficult locations like a motel lobby knowing it's going to suck finding it.
 
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dlevanchuk said:
Gonzo, i could clearly see you weeping as you write:

INT BELLAGIO HOTEL LOBBY - DAY
Four armed and masked men run in.
Click to expand...

Ha!
I had to visit no less than 15 one step above hookers and crackheads motels with an offer of $300 for 6 hours in their lobby (at any part of the day of their choosing), PLUS the rental of three rooms before I got a taker.
 
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Gonzo_Entertainment said:
I am just refusing to limit myself to "easy" locations.
Click to expand...
A cop out?

Could it be you are just refusing to write a great script using
what you have available? Now THAT is not easy. It's easy to
write in a motel lobby - it's very difficult to write around a
motel lobby and still make it work.

I'll bet you all have more interesting locations available to you
than you think.

In filmmaking we will always face compromise. We will never
get exactly what we want and get the easily. At our level making
the very best of what we have is quite a challenge.
 
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directorik said:
A cop out?

Could it be you are just refusing to write a great script using
what you have available? Now THAT is not easy. It's easy to
write in a motel lobby - it's very difficult to write around a
motel lobby and still make it work.

I'll bet you all have more interesting locations available to you
than you think.

In filmmaking we will always face compromise. We will never
get exactly what we want and get the easily. At our level making
the very best of what we have is quite a challenge.
Click to expand...

Haha!
I just mean my level of "damn, should I write this location in or not. It's going to be a pain in the ass to get" is fairly high. Doesn't mean I go crazy "OK, this story MUST take place in a busy shopping mall!" It just means if a certain location serves the story, and it's not really unreasonable I'll go ahead and put it in knowing I'm setting myself up for some expense and misery down the road.
 
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I think the best advice I've gotten about writing is that you should write the story the way it should be, then make compromises later if you have to.

I've seen years of this, "Ok, I want this script to be cheap, so I'll write a whole movie set on a sidewalk and in my apartment"

If I watch a movie and it starts out in a small apartment, and stays there for 10 minutes, I skip ahead to 20 minutes in. If they are still in that apartment, or their car, or a sidewalk, or a parking garage, I shut it off.

Locations are part of what keeps a film moving and entertaining. If you write only for budget, you'll end up more often than not producing some fully completed film that no one will watch.

No one ever mentions scale around here either. What good does it do to save 300 bucks on a location, when you have to pay the cheapest B-actor 3 grand a day to film? By making an initial descision to cheap out on your script, you are limiting everything, not just locations. Do that, and you'll end up with something even direct to video companies will pass on.

Your one possible chance to succeed without a sane budget is "forest horror" the refuge of the lowest budgets.

My partner made a film with a good series of expensive locations, like a boxing arena, a cigar club, the vegas strip, several houses, a dinner party, etc. Production cost, 250k, top current offer, 60k. If he had shot it all in a dorm room, that offer would have been $0.

It's a pretty good film too.

If you're "planning to loose" which seems the most widely applauded strategy in indie film, you might want to consider a hobby that is not so work and time intensive for crews of people.

Everyone should stop making films where they get the crew to work free on promises of profit percentages they will never recieve. Economic crises is the wrong time to use false hope to accomplish entertaining oneself.

Super low budget? Shoot a reality TV pilot. You'll end up with more money than if you actually tried!
 
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I have found it useful to find what I call "generic" locations: places that can be made to look like a LOT of other things.

The back of my music store is a plain white concrete block building with a loading dock surrounded by a white brick wall and parking lot. This has stood in for the Hertz lot at Detroit Metro Airport, the back of a seedy bar, a Vegas wedding chapel and next summer it will be a lumberyard.

That one's easy for me, though, since I don't need to ask for permission. But if you could find a strip mall owner or someone like that and get in good once with him, it would be easier to secure this generic location for future use.

As for interesting interiors, I got nothing...my best advice is work closely with a producer who is better at securing locations than me (read: he isn't scared to talk to people like I am). This way I can write what I want. If the locations can't be secured by my producer, then we revise.
 
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Nate North said:
I think the best advice I've gotten about writing is that you should write the story the way it should be, then make compromises later if you have to.
Click to expand...
Excellent advice if you are writing for someone else. Or if you want
to feel good about yourself as a creative person.

The reality is a working writer and a low budget filmmaker does not
have the luxury of this advice.

All writing and filmmaking is compromise. I write a lot of TV. I have
sever restrictions. I cannot write the story the way it should be - I
must write what they can and will shoot.

As a low budget filmmaker I must write what I can shoot.


Nate North said:
I've seen years of this, "Ok, I want this script to be cheap, so I'll write a whole movie set on a sidewalk and in my apartment"

If I watch a movie and it starts out in a small apartment, and stays there for 10 minutes, I skip ahead to 20 minutes in. If they are still in that apartment, or their car, or a sidewalk, or a parking garage, I shut it off.
Click to expand...
Unless it is truly excellent. If the story fits the limited location,
the actors are excellent, the photography inspired, the editing
sharp, the production design perfect you will continue to watch.
And if you do just skip and then shut off a truly excellent movie
only because of it's limited locations you are, perhaps, missing
out on something interesting.

I am not suggesting in any way to NOT look for great locations.
I even answered the question on best to approach someone about
shooting on their property. I'm saying there is nothing wrong with
using what you have.
 
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Nate North said:
If you're "planning to loose" which seems the most widely applauded strategy in indie film, you might want to consider a hobby that is not so work and time intensive for crews of people.

Everyone should stop making films where they get the crew to work free on promises of profit percentages they will never recieve. Economic crises is the wrong time to use false hope to accomplish entertaining oneself.

Super low budget? Shoot a reality TV pilot. You'll end up with more money than if you actually tried!
Click to expand...

:clap::clap:

big vision = harder struggle = more effort = exponentially more rewarding
 
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This is one of the cinematography versus story battles that I love and hate. My heart and soul are the images seen by the viewer and my degree program is digital cinematography, but the heart of a picture is the story and it always will be.

If the story is good enough, the audience will be very forgiving of locations if people taking images make it as good as it can possibly be. You should be able to make an outhouse grand.

I took the long way around, but a good story can weather most location changes.
 
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I see no reason why humble locations should stop a filmmaker from telling a compelling story. Off the top of my head, "Memento" is the first thing that comes to mind. Aside from the impressive B-list cast, that's a movie that most of us here could feasibly shoot.
 
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CamVader said:
If the story is good enough, the audience will be very forgiving of locations if people taking images make it as good as it can possibly be. You should be able to make an outhouse grand.

I took the long way around, but a good story can weather most location changes.
Click to expand...

Agreed.

Also, if you have a lot of films being made in your area, you might find a locations scout / manager who can not only relieve you of the task, but also may have some dynamite ideas on modifying or condensing locations that will work for your story and ultimately save you time and money. (Don't forget to make sure they can do negotiating/paperwork/agreements properly and professionally.)

Great topic.
 
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Look at some of the great plays of the last 100 years.

A stage play by its very existence is confined to very humble
locations. I know, I know, a movie is very different. Except
that story and character still matters. Not every movie made
can - or should - fit in a humble or limited location.

But some can.
 
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Momento is a good example, but I think it's rare to see a script that strong. Guy Pierce is a better actor than people give him credit for.

Sling Blade was a brilliant example of minimal locations used to maximum effect.

I'm not saying a limited budget film has to shoot exclusively in Casinos and on the international space station. I think Antihero did fine with the whole "neighborhood robberies thing", so I agree that when it's organic to your plotline, great.

I'm just saying that maybe low budget horror films should try to include a fourth location (counting all forest shots as one location) That's all I'm saying.

I'm seeing people out there trying to get me to watch a 90 minute film with woods and a car.
 
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