When I began scouting locations for my short film Prologue, I had no idea where to start. So I began asking my friends and familiar producers. I felt no one was of help but they did all say, “Check AirBnB.” Eventually I realized that was great advice and checked it out. I had options of anywhere, any house, searching for particulars.
For example, I wanted a wood floor. I could search for that. I wanted to be in a dryer region, so I could limit my map search to the South and West of the United States seeing homes I could rent out. AirBnB was great.
In addition, I had my own contacts. I asked friends who lived in Colorado, California, Tennessee, etc. I received about half of the houses I liked for my remote search from friends and half from AirBnB. The issue with AirBnB is if the owners allow for film shooting. But that’s ok, you just have to ask. So, I did.
I was open and honest about my script and described what the plan was in detail. I told them
How long was I shooting (4 days, 2 rehearsal days)
How many people would come (roughly 14)
The content of the show (there was an after sex scene, no nudity)
I lost only about 20% of the houses on AirBnB. Most people are excited to be part of a production, although some are wary. You want to be upfront with everyone ahead of time telling them what to expect so you don’t run into bigger problems on the day of the shoot. Tell them you need complete access, it will be loud. We will be working and offer them any credit you may want. In the end you’re offering people you don’t know business. Be honest about what your offer is.
Now the biggest problem I had with my scout is we wanted a house that was in the middle of nowhere. That’s not usually the case for most houses. We were traveling for the shoot to get this particular look along with the particular area with dry weather. Our biggest problem was getting the renters to know that we wanted a house where we couldn’t see any other houses around the house we were staying. Before you start you want to be 95% sure that you could shoot the movie at the location you’re going to scout if it costs you money to visit the site.
Our first stop was in Georgia, a spot off of AirBnB. The trip would cost about $1,000 to scout. Hopefully it would be our last. I had other options but I thought this was the most useful. We got there and the house was smack dab in the middle of a neighborhood. Not isolated at all. However they did have plant coverings of trees from seeing other houses. Apparently the owners of the place were confused at what we needed when I described it, or they were excited and tried to sell the place to us by telling white lies. We could make this spot work but it may limit our camera’s freedom in framing. So, the Cinematographer who scouted with me suggested to check out another spot. This would be expensive. The rest of the place was amazing. The owners had 4-5 houses that they would have let us shoot in. Lots of knick knacks we could use for set design.
Consider utility
Consider set-design
Consider willingness of the proprietor
House in Lookout Mountain, Georgia
It added over $2,000-$4,000 to our budget (~10% more to our budget just to scout, a costly mistake on my end). I probably could have avoided this problem by using Google Maps to check the area for other houses. I could have figured out how to limit our shooting in Georgia or check out a spot in California. I should have done more research. I was 90% happy with this location. But we continued on.
The next stop was much further from a town, this you have to consider in your budget. Logistics and travel cost a lot. The further away from larger cities means the further away you are from gear that you may need. So make sure you can transport your equipment wherever you’re going efficiently.
Our second location was nearly perfect. I had found it. Not quite as many locations to shoot, but several rooms to choose where to shoot each scene. I would later solidify with my Cinematographer on which rooms we’d shoot in. He was able to procure a grip truck and we planned to rent a van with all of our equipment to drive 6 hours from Los Angeles to this spot. The roads weren’t too bad (although we did notice it was bumpy later on).
This brings me to another point. Always get your cinematographer to scout with you. They’re thinking about light and what is going to help make your film look beautiful. If you have options, the both of you considering and bringing diversity in perspective to the decision making process will only help make the film better.
The bonus was the place in California had a ton of props, and the owner of the joint was more willing to drive us around and was so excited to show us every inch of four hundred acres of his property. He was a keeper. He actually offered his caretakers to help us out during the shoot and accommodated extra guests to stay at his house just so we would shoot at his property. We ended up using all of his extra help, had a better scenery, and still maintained gaining the extra props that he had in his storage space.
We had our spot and it was a success. Now, for a major caveat always, always make sure when you get permission to shoot somewhere, talk to the owner of the building, not anyone who is renting it. The owner must sign your release. This cost us thousands of dollars on our Abuela’s Luck shoot. Our Producer got a release from the bodega shop and business which was necessary, but never spoke to the owner of the building. When we were in the middle of shooting, the owner threatened to shut down our shoot unless we paid the fee he asked. We had no negotiating power this way. Always sort out legal matters in locations before you shoot.
Abuela's Luck on set in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, New York
Unless… you have a backup plan. In New York, there are so many locations that you can scout and shoot at that are outside in public places without contacting owners. We shot Handful of Glass in an abandoned building on Long Island but were willing to reshoot the scene in a new location if necessary. So, if that’s the case for you, just build in a bit of extra time into your schedule. I don’t recommend this, but if you’re starting out and have a limited budget this can be a good strategy. Our empty warehouse was one of many and it was just a broken down building inside, so it could have been anywhere. We also didn’t have permission to shoot in the apartment building for the last shot, but we just needed 5 minutes in a doorway of the apartment. So we shot it quickly and got out of there. The location is an East Village apartment, but it could be anyone because our shots were tight enough.
Finally if you do shoot something you love and get kicked out the film isn’t written in stone, so you can film a transition to bring the second half of a scene to another location. Be innovative! Think of the post-production process and what you need to make each shot lead into one another.
All in all remember these few tips. Take time to do your research online before visiting the location. Ask your friends and connections for ideas, and AirBnB is a great resource. Look for extras you can pull out of your location like extra props, set design, and even (only if people offer) extra help. You can save money by being sneaky and knowing you may have to reshoot a scene. Have a backup plan. Most of all think of Post-Production and stay flexible when something goes wrong.
For more information on scouting or other pre-production processes, please write us at info@fourwindfilms.com, or follow our instagram stories where we often post about our new and old scouts (@fourwindfilms).