Location scouting
Location scouting is a vital process in the pre-production stage of filmmaking and commercial photography.
The completion of these steps results in "locking down" the location by ensuring that all details and existing or potential issues have been addressed.
A change of creative concept at this stage or a glitch of any kind (such as property owner cancellation) is potentially costly, and legal action is a possible consequence.
Local weather conditions can figure heavily into a location's viability and affect many areas of production scheduling, so contingencies and alternate, budgetary-efficient plans should be made well in advance of any shoot day that could be affected by weather.
The aim, in addition to attaining the correct aesthetic for the shot under acceptable and safe working conditions, is to provide greater flexibility in crew scheduling and the renting of equipment and vehicles while minimizing inconvenience to the owner, and in the event of cancellation or postponement by production due to weather, to eliminate or minimize any cancellation fees that may be part of an agreement between production and the location owner.
The methods employed are much the same as for feature film production, but the processes often differ in some ways: Turn-around times are generally shorter and decision making is shared between production, the director/photographer and the advertising agency or even the end client.
Often the decision makers are geographically dispersed, which may explain why commercial and print scouts early adopted the use of online presentations and other digital technologies.
A location manager and/or other locations-department members are often needed during actual shooting and at wrap as a general point of internal contact for matters related to the locations department, such as ensuring smooth crew movement to and from the location, answering locations-related questions, solving miscellaneous problems as they arise, coordinating crowd control, and acting as an external point of contact between production and such parties as the property owner, neighbors, local film office/government, and law enforcement personnel.
Many of these positions often "cross over" or a member of the department might be responsible for executing duties related to several of these positions: The location manager oversees the locations department and its staff, typically reporting directly to the production manager and/or assistant firector (or even director and/or executive producer).
This person's job might be to do Internet or public library research and contact resources to assess their interest in being involved in the film project, and if such interest exists, the location researcher might be responsible for setting up an appointment for a location scout to go there.
General responsibilities can include arriving first at the location to allow the set dressers into the set for preparation; maintaining the cleanliness of the location areas during filming (on larger budget projects this can include securing and supervising a contract clean-up crew or assigning such duties to a set production assistant); limiting the impact of a working production crew on the location grounds; fielding complaints from neighbors; and ultimately, at the end of the filming, managing on-set time and crew with regard to the closure of the location within contractually-permitted time constraints.
The location scout should also include visually descriptive utilitarian photography and information in his presentation, documenting much more than just what will potentially appear onscreen.
