5 Elements to Picking a Good Location on an Independent Film

I've been on many independent film productions and the number one difference between these productions and big budget productions is the fact that indie films do not have the luxury of being able to film on sound stages and sets, so, the majority of filming is done on actual locations. As both a producer and production manager on many indie productions I've had the task of choosing locations for various films and there are a few elements that must be observed before a good location can be obtained. If these elements are not observed the production could suffer tremendously or entire problems on the day of filming which could have been avoided if a few key things had been taken into consideration before hand. The following are five elements that I take into consideration before I sign off on any location on an indie film production.

ELEMENT# 1: Ambiance - The look and feeling of a location can mean everything to the final look of a film. If you're filming a period piece on an indie production you can't find a location in the city in which power lines, street signals, and other modern technology will be a problem (unless you have the budget to CGI them out in post). It's safer to find a location out of the city limits or film a small town to film in. This is especially important for films in which much of the filming is done outside. As a producer of indie films the ambiance is everything to the film especially when you don't have the budget to change a lot of the physical location. On the Southlan-Films production Creatures of the Night we had to travel up to Dayton, Georgia into the middle of nowhere to find a castle which had dirt roads instead of paved roads because the film took place during WWII. Location was everything on this production as most of the filming was done in and around the castle. We searched for several months to find just the perfect location for filming. On the more contemporary CenterSeat Entertainment film House of Secrets we searched high and low for a contemporary house that had to be near a lake as many scenes were at the lake house. On this film the lake house was found first before all other locations.

ELEMENT# 2: Parking - Although this may seem like a small thing it is not especially when you have a large cast. Parking can be a huge problem if there is nowhere for your cast & crew to park their car. Sometimes car pooling can be arranged but a producer must keep all of this into consideration when finding potential shooting locations. On the production Creatures of the Night parking was a problem. Getting to the castle which was on a dirt road was not very hospital to small cars or cars low to the ground so we had to ferry the cast & crew back and forth. Also, the castle itself had very little parking itself as it was a house that was actually lived in. Whenever we filmed exterior scenes it became a jigsaw puzzle just trying to get all the contemporary cars out of background shots. When filming the Cakebaby Production The Tedious Existence of Terrell B. Howell we filmed at a hotel and at a gas station which had plenty of parking and this was never a problem on the production.

ELEMENT#3: Catering - Where ever you film, always make sure that there is plenty of room for catering. You should always find a room or area at any location you go to that is dedicated 100% to catering that will not disturb filming and will not need to be moved because the catering tables are in the shot. You should never need to move the catering area (although sometimes this cannot be helped). When I was on the set of the Unique Production Between Love & A Hard Place we had numerous problems in regards to space for catering when we were on location in people's homes or place of business. The only location in which we had an area for catering was the main location/home office (which provided plenty of space for cast & crew and preparation of food). The choices in regards to on location filming and catering were not thought through thoroughly. On the set of House of Secrets we had two areas for catering. The kitchen was the main area for catering except for when we were filming in the kitchen and then catering was set up in the basement of the house. Both locations were ideal as neither interfered with filming.

ELEMENT#4: Lighting - No one really thinks about this until it's too late but been scoping out for locations on an indie film you must be aware of the location's limitations in regards to lighting and electrical requirements. Domestic locations have the biggest limitations as they were not constructed in regards to the lighting requirements of a film production. Order houses have even more electrical problems as they were built in an age when technology didn't dictate that every bedroom have their own television and DVD/game system which also includes a computer and numerous other electrical appliances. Order houses can house many problems for an indie film production with high energy requirements in regards to the electrical department. If this is the case make sure to have a power generator on hand. Other things you should know are where the electrical box is in the home/location in case a circuit is tripped or blown (this happens frequently) and know where all the 20amp services are separated (in order to avoid tripping breakers throughout filming). Having a qualified gaffer on hand with help this out. On Between Love & A Hard Place we had a very talented gaffer on hand who alleviated all of our problems in this regard. He went to all the locations prior to production moving to those questions in order to prep for all power and electrical needs. Without him on set at all times production would've been slowed tremendously. On the Interstate Films short film Mourning Road we ran into so many problems in regards to power in which some circuits worked while others didn't and the electrical box wasn't labeled because it was an order establishment that we just finally cut down on the amount of lighting to be used in order to stop running into the same problems. In the end the quality of the film suffered because of the limitations of the location and no one having scoped out the location beforehand properly.

ELEMENT#5: Sound - This is the single most important element to choosing a good location. The biggest problem facing all indie film productions (or rather all film productions filming on location) to on location sound and its limitations. There are many outside forces that can destroy the sound recording on an indie production from being near an airport to construction to sounds of nature impeding in the sound recording. These problems can sometimes force scenes to be ADR'ed in post. This is not a problem if you are planning on doing this anyways but it can be a huge problem if this was not foreseeable. On the Southlan-Films production of Bad Land which was 100% filmed on location, director Ron McLellen was well aware of the problems that we would face because we were reusing a location that we had used in his previous film Jack O'Lantern. He knew he would have to filter out all the cricket and insect sounds that plagued the location we filmed at. He was forced to ADR the epilogue scene of the film which was filmed on a crowded school campus in which we had no control over the people traffic that surrounded us on all sides. On the Beijos Production Chosen we had a huge problem at one of our location in which construction plagued us all day. None of the sound was useful from that day. We could have avoided this problem if we had properly scouted the location as the roads surrounding the location had been under construction for several weeks. Knowing this we could have found an alternate location to have avoided these problems.

These are but a small list of the main elements that should be taken into consideration when choosing a location for an indie film. Some of these elements have simple solutions such as car pooling when there is not enough parking or having a generator on hand for additional power requirements but if the location has more problems than usefulness than it may be better to find an alternate location that would better benefit the production as a whole. As an indie film producer I always strive to find the best locations that will best benefit the production and be beneficial in terms of budget and cast & crew requirements.