Part 3 in a series of posts I’m doing on on producing a micro budget short film is about locations and the specifics of dealing with that on a low budget. Depending on your script of course, locations can be a big or small task in your pre-production. What is certain, is that the locations will have a lot of effect on the production process as a whole. This is why it is very important to get your locations early, because a lot of things depend on them to be able to proceed.
Some examples are:
– Schedule: When can you have access to the location, and where is it located? You might find a perfect living room on one end of town, but the bathroom is really small so you find another one in the other end of town. But there is a nice garden that works for one scene close to the first place. Before you know these things you can’t schedule your shoot.
– Art department: In an ideal world, you get locations that look exactly like the vision and the script requires. But lots of times you need the art department to bridge the gap between what you got and what you need. But before they know what the locations look like to begin with, they can’t start their work. And they probably won’t know what it costs either!
– Cinematography: You can do tests and figure out the look and feel of the image without the locations, but before you know them you can’t finalize your plans. A good DP will want to see the locations well in advance. If he doesn’t ask to do that – be worried! What external light needs to be blocked out? How much lighting gear is necessary to work with the particular location? How do you need to work with the space, the depth or the lack of depth, the texture, the mood, etc. to make it work.
– Directing: You can do storyboards and work on your blocking, choreography etc without the locations – but you can’t finalize anything before you get the locations. Because chances are there will be something in the characteristics of the location that will force you to be flexible about how you direct and shoot the scene. Also, do not rule out that the location will bring fresh ideas and elements to your film. Minuscule preparations are good – but if you set stuff in stone and then try to find locations that work with you ideas, you might end up with problems. So find the locations early and make them a part of the development process.
Cinematographer Christopher Doyle explains the relationship between making the shots and the locations here:
“We’ll make the shots, and they’ll build the sets to the shots. I was quite stunned by that”
Doyle puts the different attitude towards the location as an Asian v.s. Western thing, which I think is a bit simplistic, but the point for me is that if you don’t have the resources to mold reality to your vision – you need to develop your vision in an organic relationship with that exterior reality you have. And who knows – it might actually turn more interesting.
The less budget you have – the more resourceful people need to be to make it work. And don’t underestimate the power of cinema to make something look like something it is not. You really can take a crap location and make it do wonderful things to your story, and you can take a great location and photograph it or dress it so it dies.
But to do that you need skill and resourcefulness – and above all: Time. So get your locations early so that you can start moving on with the rest of the pre-production.
A few other things you need to keep in mind while selecting locations:
– Sound: You need to be mindful of the sound qualities. The place might be quiet when you scouted it, but is there a bar next door that starts playing music in the evening? Also, is there a lot of echo? Ideally you need the sound guy to approve a location, especially if you don’t know a lot about sound.
– Logistics: Are there 5 floors to climb with the equipment and no elevator? Do the buses/trains run there at the time you are shooting, or will everyone have to come in car? If so, is there parking outside?
– Other facilities: People that are not needed on set ideally need a place to chill so they are not in the way of the lighting crew between setups. Also, the actors need somewhere to rest where make-up and costume can do their thing (green room). When you break for lunch, where will you set up – on the set between all the gear? What about bathrooms? Legendary producer Simon Channing Williams once said producing is about three T’s – Tea, Transportations and Toilets.
Negotiating with the owners of the locations
Here’s a fun fact: Most people involved with filmmaking would never open up their own apartment to a film crew. This is a testament to the fact that the fat presence of a film shoot – the crew, the equipment, and above all the art department, and all that this moving about and setting up things 500 per day in a small space entails – can cause small or big accidents. So please, please, please, don’t ruin it for everyone else and be mindful of the location someone lent out to you.
The communication with the locations owner is crucial. First of all, of course, you must convince him to allow you to film on the private property they own or are responsible for. You might call someone who knows nothing about filmmaking, and they might imagine everything from 2 people with a small camera to a massive Hollywood blockbuster with helicopters and such. But in general most people don’t realize how much time and effort a small piece of film takes to make, and you need to make them aware of that so that they don’t arrive to their location in the middle of a shoot and get shocked.
Obviously, most people are helpful and if they are convinced you won’t cause them any hassle then they might help you. This is of course a social/psychological thing – in big metropolitan places people usually assume you are a terrorist or a thief unless proven otherwise, and you need to build up a trust in some way – identify you with something they trust or some mutual connection. In smaller communities, where people tend to trust each other, especially if you have a social access to that community (speak with the right accent, have a similar past or network as the people) things are much easier. Often you are balancing the image you project of yourself as being a really cool and important filmmaker to impress them and make them excited about the project to a poor, struggling artist that can’t pay anything and needs to be helped. These are two faces you interchange depending on the situation.
In these articles, I’m assuming you don’t have a lot of money and so you’re probably trying to get all the locations for free. But if the location is really, really important, you might actually WANT to pay something because it makes it harder morally for the owner to back out or betray you after they’ve taken some money. In any case, you need to be sure that the “yes” that you get is definite , that it is in writing, and that all the small bits like who is opening up for you and at what time, and when you need to be out is sorted and in writing. Keeping the documents where someone in charged allowed you to film on you in the shoot is also a good idea – in case someone arrived who thinks they can stop you and delays your process.
Often, a location where you have a more flexible access to, i.e. you can decide when you shoot and for how long and you can arrive there often in the pre-production process to plan, and you have more flexibility in what you can do to it, is more desirable than a location where you have a narrow window to work in, even if the latter is closer to your vision.
Shooting in public places and places such as streets and national parks, has it’s own set of rules depending on your geographic location. In some cases you need to get permits, or notify the police or some authority. You need to have the right tactic as well in dealing with policemen or security guards – irrespective of the rules. You don’t want them to delay you even if they don’t have the right to stop you. This is socially specific – some places are really bad and paranoid, others not. If you are young, or foreign, or from the wrong part of town, you need to be extra good at this. Having everything in writing, identifying you with some authority or namedropping people in charge who said OK is usually the way to go.
Also, if it’s an exterior location, what will you do if it rains? You need a plan B in case weather is bad, such as an alternative location or a flexibility in your schedule to shoot in an interior while the weather gets better.