whats it like working on location?

[Gavin Thomas]

hi

i would like the people who have worked on location to describe what its like, what problems you had and how you fixed them.

Many Thanks!

[Robert Knecht Schmidt]

As with any shoot, control is key. Lack of control = wasted time = wasted money.

Can't control pedestrian and vehicular traffic because you didn't get the street shut off? Takes are ruined by the noise and, potentially, unintended crossings through your shot.

Can't control the power source? You may find you have ground loop issues to solve that put 60 cycle hum in your audio through the phantom power. Or you might not be able to replace blown fuses or reset triggered circuit breakers.

Nearby noisemakers such as air conditioners and refrigerators are easy to control, given you have permission to unplug them.

Can't control the bathroom locations? Mutinously unhappy crew.

Airplanes and helicopters flying over your shot and trains rumbling by in the distance and ruining the audio you can't ever control, except by shooting way out in the country.

And the sun, you don't ever control him. (But with a large enough budget, you can fire him and replace him.)

As for what can go wrong, consult http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murphy's_law. Essential equipment, such as the camera, will have mysteriously broken en route, throwing the schedule back a half day to a week while a replacement is procured. A location owner will show up demanding additional fees for use of his property, at which point either the director cares enough to take out his checkbook, or the shoot wraps for the day. The makeup lady will call the 1st AD a bitch, the 1st AD will depart in tears, and the 2nd AD will do a much better job than the 1st AD was doing. All right, sometimes, things go right. You can't blame Murphy for trying.

[Rob Lohman]

For us indepedent movie guys? Not having the power to close
sets and rent places.

- I had a horse with carrage almost destroy my car and a couple of takes
- I had people not moving along so I can shoot
- I've lost time due to all of these things
- And my greatest thing was a building that was completely gone when we started shooting (the building was there a month earlier)

Gotta love indepedent movie making. Oh, this was all on ONE
shoot!

All of the things where solved by waiting or a different location
(which worked out better anyway since I could now shoot two
things on one location that would've been 1+ hour driving apart
otherwise).

But I recently watched a big movie production being shot and
most crew where just standing around waiting for most of the
time, or so it seemed.

[Gavin Thomas]

yikes thanks for the info!

[Rob Lohman]

Don't let the stories scare you away Gavin! Yes, it can be very
hard. BUT, it can also be VERY rewarding. Especially if you can
find a very nice landscape or piece or architecture etc. You can
have some brilliant locations that Hollywood almost has no
access too due to costs.

[Christopher C. Murphy]

Ahhhh.....yes, "Murphy's Law".

I know it well....

Murph

[Mike Rehmus]

The key is to make certain that there is a lot of PRE in the production.

One can always find good and experienced volunteers near large cities. Sometimes they are even reliable.

[Robert J. Wolff]

Most prominent problem:
#1: Weather.
#2: Weather.
#3: etc.

A couple of decks of cards helps in weather situations.

[Leon Ortiz-Gil]

Take several trips to the location at different times of the day. Find out what goes on there. If your shoot is going to be on a Friday, go on the Friday before the shoot. Not on a Saturday when there is no traffic and no people.

An example that happened to me was a parking structure. I was told by the parking attendent that is was closed on the weekend and I could use it. I showed up and the entire lot was full because of a famers market that only happens on the first Saturday of the month.