one location films

S

slacker

Hey there,

I live in Australia and am really interested in making my own film... like i have a fair few ideas rattling around in my brain and am thinking of doing something real low budget... some of my mates are quite good actors on the up n up and i wanna put them in a project.

Anyway i was thinking of something with one or two primary locations and maybe a bit of shooting on the street guerrilla-style. So i was sitting here thinking of films i loved with just one or two or even three locations and i realised i need to see some more. Anybody know of some films with few locations... besides the obviuos... Clerks, Resevoir Dogs etc.
 
I've been thinking about this all day, and I can only come up with two flicks.

Hitchcock's "Lifeboat", and the new "Open Water" :pop:

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Mostly I've been distracted, thinking about tv sitcoms. They tend to have single location setups for the entire duration... with fast banter, laughs (in theory) and many guests to keep people from fixating on the fact that they never really go to special locations.
 
slacker said:
Hey there,
So i was sitting here thinking of films i loved with just one or two or even three locations and i realised i need to see some more. Anybody know of some films with few locations... besides the obviuos... Clerks, Resevoir Dogs etc.
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Dog Day Afternoon :yes:
The Breakfast Club
Signs
Panic Room
The Birds
Rear Window
 
hey good stuff, i've seen all of those films. Dog Day Afternoon is one of my all time faves. Can anybody think of some really low budget ones. Like Clerks, except not.

Hitchcock was the master of films based in a room. He was truly brilliant.

But really one or two locations is all a film needs, I just saw Bourne Supremacy and it jumps across like eight countries and three continents in the first 10 minutes.
 
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Ethan Hawke made Chelsea Walls, a digital production, with one main location, Hotel Chelsea in NYC. I read that it cost $150,000, which if true, is pretty unbelievable! :eek:
 
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I was gonna say Melvin Goes to Dinner but it has a lot of flashbacks that take place outside the restaurant. In fact a lot of the films here have small scenes that take place outside the main location. I can't think of any films that have only one location period. (is a "period." redundant?) I can think of a lot that have one main location with a few smaller locations sprinkled in.

Poke
 
Isnt Dawn of the Dead all one location too? Maybe with the exception of like, 1 or 2 scenes i guess. It's been a while since i've seen it though.
 
lol, your all taking my title way too seriously. Films with one main location and a few others here and there will do. Like Night of the Living Dead used one location fantastically... actually reminds me of another... Dog Soldiers, all of the filming done outside of the house was filmed in the woods.

See the reason i ask is to write a film that i can afford to make first i plan to access the recources i have, eg. places i have access to, equipment etc.

So i know that i have access to maybe a handful of locations, i just needed the name of some films to see how they take advantage of that. So far you've all been really helpful.
 
Wasn't "Shallow Grave" done in a big rundown house, and a bit in the woods? Brit-flick from the '80s.

Also, the hit classic "1958" was filmed in one location. One room, technically. :yes:
 
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isn't that 1958 a short on this forum... lol, i just saw your VOTE 1958 signature, it's yours isn't it. i'm a little slow. I'll go check it out. BTW, Shallow Grave is another of my favourite films.
 
slacker said:
Films with one main location and a few others here and there will do.
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If that's the case, all that are listed here are very good examples.

Also see Evil Dead (1 and 2).

Zensteve said:
Also, the hit classic "1958" was filmed in one location. One room, technically. :yes:
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And don't forget the even hittier classicer Magnamameous Bark and Gigante Chupycabras. We filmed all the scenes outside of my parent's house, except the final scene ... we flew to New Zealand to shoot that one.

Poke
 
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cool, i'll check that out too, it's been trying, checkin out all the shorts on this forum with my dial up connection.

I've seen the Evil Dead films, love them, I think people don't really mind if horror films only have one location, cause there are a lot of trapped in a room, trapped in a house etc, horror films that have been very popular.
 
I can think of one more: Bound by Wachowski brothers - a Masterpiece! And everything is happening in two rooms. Great characters and a story is all you need.
 
Wheels said:
I can think of one more: Bound by Wachowski brothers - a Masterpiece! And everything is happening in two rooms. Great characters and a story is all you need.
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I remember Bound taking place in several locations. But it has been a very long time since I saw it, and I only saw it the one time.

Poke
 
Poke said:
I remember Bound taking place in several locations. But it has been a very long time since I saw it, and I only saw it the one time.

Poke
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Hm, it's been a long time since I saw it too... Yes, but 95% of film is based on one location: two rooms (one next to another) in same building.
 
Technically, any film can be shot in one location. Greenscreen!

Seriously, though, I just got back from working at a week-long course at a film school, and one of the best movies of the week was set in a coffee shop. Granted, these are shorts, but a good script and characters can carry a story regardless of location.
 
Kevin Smith

You mentioned Clerks, and I'd like to mention that Mallrats was shot mostly in a mall, and also Drawing Flies which Kevin Smith Produced was done in a woodland location in Canada, and an apartment.
 
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