This page attempts to explain the process of filming on location from the point of view of someone with little or no experience of film crews.
Please refer to the glossary at the foot of this page for any expressions that are unclear. If there is anything that isn’t covered below then please get in touch.
What is a location manager?
It is the location manager’s job to find and manage all locations appearing in a production. For dramas and films, dozens of locations will have to be found, agreed with the director and production designer and administered before filming can begin. He will be working to a set budget.
Location scouting
You may have seen this commercial ....
Whether the location being sought is in the desert or in suburbia, the first person from a production that a location owner will meet is a location scout. This will usually be the location manager, if not it will be someone working for him. He ought to be carrying a business card or some other sort of verifiable identification.
Residential locations are often found by responses to a letterdrop (flyer) or the location manager may try knocking on doors and talking to people. Alternatively, the location will be found via a location library - where this is the case, location managers will be known to that library. Even so, before sending him to one of ‘their’ properties to take photographs, library staff will have checked that the project is genuine. If filming is agreed, a location owner will pay a percentage of their filming fee to the library.
To discuss getting onto a location library’s database, please telephone me on 07970 144790 or get in touch by email on locationhunt@me.com.
The location manager’s first step will be to photograph the location thoroughly inside and out. These will be to show to the director, production designer and art department only (these photos are not for wider publication). Where a location is interesting, however, a location manager may well keep photos back for future reference - there could easily be another project for which that property may prove suitable.
The location manager will go through photographs of the options found with the director and production designer and together they will agree which properties are worth a second look, or ‘recce’.
If you are in one of these properties you will quickly discover that each time the location manager returns, he tends to bring more people ...
Preliminary recces
A location manager will usually show the director and designer photographs of several options, so if your property is photographed this is no guarantee that it will be used. Of course if it isn’t used then this doesn’t mean that your property is in any way unattractive - just unsuitable for the story that the production has in mind. If, however, the process is to continue, the location manager will contact you to make an appointment for a second visit - or ‘recce’ - this time with the director, production designer and art director. The decision as to which location to use will ultimately be the director’s but the designer is responsible for the overall look of the production and has a say in the final decision.
At this point the director and designer will want to be free to wander all over the property, imagining how to shoot the scenes in question. Sometimes a director will make a decision on the spot, but there will usually be two or three other locations to look at before he or she comes to a final decision. Once the director and designer have made this decision then the designer and the location manager can start to plan what set dressing is required.
Once a location is approved, the art department will often produce detailed scale plans of each location so props can be ordered or made, scenery pieces built where necessary and so that the director can plan his filming in detail. Members of the art department (led by the art director) will therefore often require a separate visit to measure up and to photograph miscellaneous detail, such as doors or windows that (for example) might have to be matched on a built studio set. If the property is an important location or requires lots of work then this visit will be soon after the director’s recce.
The location manager’s role at this point
The location manager will have a close eye on the production’s dressing requirements - that is, changes that the art department want to make and the time required both to make them and to reinstate after filming. He and his assistants will also be addressing other practicalities such as lorry parking, traffic control and council permissions as well as contacting the neighbours and the police. Soon he will be able to write a letter of intent to a location owner outlining the current schedule of dates and times for preparation, filming and reinstatement (or “prep, shoot and strike”) and this will normally include mention of what set dressing that has been agreed - as well as the fee.
Scheduling: a note
While a typical shoot is in preparation, the schedule can (and usually does) change. As locations start to fall into place, for example, it may turn out that some are only available on certain days. The script might well need redrafting, in which case scenes will be extended, shortened or even cut altogether – also affecting the schedule. Similarly, an actor might only be available for a few days which might also force a change. It is the first assistant director’s job to draft the schedule - a potentially tricky task as any small change can bring a filming schedule down like a house of cards. Changes to the schedule are regrettable but they are an unfortunate reality so flexiblity on dates is always very helpful.
The technical recce (or “tech recce”)
If a film crew were to arrive on set without having ever seen it they would waste much of the morning working out how to go about their day. The technical recce (“tech recce” or “camera recce”) allows the crew to plan in advance.
Typically, around 20 people come on a tech recce to discuss camera positions, lighting requirements and any special requirements or effects on location. Of particular interest to the location manager will be how the lighting crew (or “sparks”) intend to light what will be the set. Just like a theatre stage, a film set needs to be lit. Some lights are small and run off a 13 amp domestic power supply. Others, however, are so big that they take two men to lift them and have to be rigged to a crane or scaffolding tower. Where such rigs are required, the location manager might well need to secure permission to set up on neighbouring properties. He will also have to think about where the production’s equipment and vehicles can be left so that they are well out of shot.
Within a day or so of the tech recce, a filming schedule can be issued and the location manager will be able to complete final negotiations with location owners and issue filming agreements. There might be dozens of locations to administer so, the further down the schedule a location is, the longer it will take for paperwork to arrive.
Contracts
For filming to proceed there will need to be a legally binding filming agreement between the production and the location owner. It is in both parties’ mutual interests that this is signed.
The production company will want to ensure that they won’t be turned away on the morning of the shoot (it has been known to happen!) and that all rights to what is filmed will be theirs. The householder will get commitments on fees, dates and times as well as assurance that the property will be fully reinstated after filming. The contract will also make it clear that in the (rare) incidence of any damage that it is put right.
A location manager will nearly always ask for a signed copy of the contract before any payments are made. To view a typical location contract click here: Sample location contract.doc.
Fees
There is no such thing as a ‘normal’ or ‘standard’ location fee as there are so many variables; productions will have all kinds of different budgets and requirements - or levels of disruption to a location - and its occupants will vary enormously. For example, a location manager might only pay a token amount for the use of someone’s front door for an hour on a children’s TV show yet may pay tens of thousands to shoot in a stately home for a fortnight on a Hollywood feature film! Happily, most location owners find that film crews pay very well. All fees are agreed in advance of work and payment is typically by BACS transfer in advance on receipt of signed location contracts and an invoice.
Preparation: dressing , painting, prelighting, prerigging
A location manager will rarely find somewhere that is suitable down to the last detail for the script in question so usually the art department will need to ‘dress’ a location in advance, just as a theatre company would need to dress a stage.
In an extreme case this might mean the removal of all furniture, fixtures and fittings to storage while filming is in process but this is expensive - so the production will usually ask to use the location owner’s furniture, taking care to remove photos and items personal to them. The prospect of having workmen in the house handling furniture and ornaments can understandably make householders nervous. Such work is done with great care by experienced industry professionals and everything is photographed in situ so that the art department know exactly where they are to be returned. They are then carefully wrapped and boxed. In most cases, the items will be stored elsewhere in the house, but if there isn’t much space then they will be put in secure storage elsewhere.
While location occupants always have the location manager as their first point of contact, at this stage they will be taken care of by the propmaster and his team. Propmasters are used to working on other people’s property and tend to be a personable bunch! He will discuss any concerns that a householder might have with the process of dressing and will make certain that these are addressed. If he can’t help, he will pass the matter on to the location manager.
Alterations might not be restricted to a property’s contents. A production might want to come in advance to install false walls, doors or windows or even change the exterior of the house (although this is rare). They might also ask to come and paint walls / rooms another colour: plain white or very pale walls, although fashionable, seldom work well on a film set and cameramen prefer to work with more saturated colours. All such work is agreed with a location owner in advance and productions are always contract bound to reinstate the property to the owner’s satisfaction.
Lighting issues might need addressing in advance. If so, the electrical department will send qualified electricians (or “sparks”) to install lights in advance of a filming day (or to “prelight”). A rigger may also be needed; lighting setups may require small towers or scaffolds to be erected and made safe before filming can commence. This is known as “prerigging”.
This and all of the other above work will generally be done during the day or days proceeding the filming, depending on how much work needs to be done.
Parking
Film crews nearly always bring lots of people, equipment and vehicles and take up plenty of room so, to avoid causing obstruction or disruption, space needs to reserved in advance of their arrival.
Where applicable, the assistant location manager will arrange with the local authority to have parking restrictions suspended in the production’s favour. Whether there are restrictions in place or not (and to be sure of space for trucks on the morning of the shoot) he will also usually have a “coneman” to come and place traffic cones on the street as spaces become free. The crew can then be certain that they will not be causing an obstruction as they arrive. Parking in towns being scarce, such actions can seem quite invasive to local residents or businesses, so the location manager will have a letter of intent dropped round the street in advance, giving them the chance to have their say.
The location manager and the assistant location manager will also have liaised with the local council and police, informing all interested parties of the filming well in advance.
The Filming Day
A typical filming day is 11 hours long. Crew will usually work from 8am to 7pm, or for 5 hours to either side of an hour’s lunch break. However access is nearly always required before and after those hours. An hour or so before filming starts, the art department usually require access to allow the production designer to approve the set and, where necessary, make any last-minute changes. The location manager’s team will also arrive to oversee the parking of vehicles and to lay floor protection, sometimes all round the house.
Most of the crew will arrive within ten minutes or so of one another and this can feel hectic as strangers and their equipment start to take over. Usually at least twenty people need to get into and around a location. Remember, they and their equipment take up lots of room and space will always need to be found for many of them in other rooms - i.e. away from where filming is to take place. The hosts of a film crew will ideally be prepared for crew and equipment to make their way into most corners of the house. If an occupant wants to keep areas private then that of course can be done but the more access a crew has around a building the less crowded it will be - so the less chance there will be of accidental damage. Crew are prohibited from eating, drinking or smoking indoors on a film location or set.
The location manager and assistant location manager will see the crew in at the start of the day. They will ensure that the property will be treated as it should be, but once the crew have settled in both will usually leave the set. The set will then be in the care of the unit manager who will have SIA registered security guards on set to assist him. Between them they will ensure that the property is kept safe and secure throughout.
Can I watch filming in progress?
Locations’ occupants are always welcome to watch filming but, to an outsider, it will seem like slow going to say the least; remember that it can easily take all day to film only a few minutes of dialogue! Also, film crews demand silence so it’s impossible to use a property as normal - there can be no children or pets in the house, neither the bathroom or kitchen can be used, the telephone must be unplugged and mobile phones, stereos and televisions switched off.
The end of the day - that’s a wrap!
When the first assistant director calls the end of the day (a “wrap”) the crew will seldom waste time in getting themselves and their equipment out of your property - they will all want to get home.
Usually, if equipment cannot be safely cleared away within an hour or so of wrap then the location manager will have agreed with the location owner that crew will return on the following day. Normally, the propmaster and his team will return the next day to reinstate furniture and possessions. Alternatively it might suit them and a location’s occupants to fully reinstate immediately after wrap – it is helpful to agree this in advance. Whatever the work, the production company will be bound by the location agreement to finish all reinstatement work to the location occupant’s satisfaction.
GLOSSARY OF FILMING TERMINOLGY
Art department
The section of the crew concerned with visual artistry of any kind. The art department works under the supervision of the designer and the art director.
Art director
The production designer’s right hand man, responsible for having the art department realise and build the designer’s vision for the project, overseeing the aesthetic and structural details of sets as they are built.
Assistant location manager
Person responsible for liaison with the neighbourhood around a location and securing the relevant permissions from the local council and police.
Call sheet
Document photocopied and issued to every crew member due on set on the eve of any given day’s filming showing the intended structure of the day ahead. Compiled by the 2nd AD (see below)
Casting
The interview / audition process by which producers and directors choose the actors most suited to the role in mind.
Coneman
Term used to describe a security guard employed by the assistant location manager to come to a street in advance of a day’s filming and to reserve on-street parking using traffic cones.
Director
Person whose responsibility it is to interpret the script by directing all departments’ efforts as well as casting and directing actors appropriately. He or she will have creative control over all elements.
DoP / Director of photography
Head of the camera and lighting departments; the DoP will make decisions on the lighting and framing of scenes in conjunction with the director.
Dressing
The practice of introducing scenery, furniture and props to a property to make it look appropriate for a particular production. This is overseen by the production designer and the propmaster.
First assistant director / 1st AD / 1st
Person responsible for communicating the director’s wishes to the crew and making certain that the shoot is completed safely and on schedule. Calls “action” and “cut” at the beginning and end of every scene, so is in charge of the crew on a filming day.
Gaffer
Head electrician. The person with overall responsibility for the lighting of a film set. The gaffer will work side by side with the director of photography to make sure that images looks right on screen.
Letterdrop
Term used to describe the distribution of a photocopied letter by a production’s location department, usually to ask willing location owners to come forward but often also to advise a neighbourhood of an approaching day’s filming.
Location fee
Fee paid to the owner of a location in return for a signed contract granting the use of property as a film set for a given length of time.
Location library
An online resource for location managers allowing them to browse locations that they know will welcome film makers. To get onto an location library’s books telephone Bill Twiston Davies on 07970 144790 or send an email on locationhunt@me.com
Location manager
Person with overall responsibility for where a film crew works and for that crew’s ability to work there undisturbed and within any restrictions. Head of the location department and chief liaison between a crew and the public.
Location scout
Person responsible for finding film locations for a production company, usually the location manager but often someone appointed by the location manager.
Period production
Film production set in the past, usually requiring locations and actors to be dressed accordingly.
Production designer
Person with overall responsibility for the physical and visual appearance of the film – set dressing, props, vehicles all taken as a unit. The production designer works very closely with the director to achieve the 'look' of the film. Head of the art department.
Propmaster / Property Master
Person responsible for the transport and care of furniture and objects required to be removed from or introduced to a property to make a film set look right, often involving the supervision of the removal and reinstatement of a location occupant’s own furniture and possessions.
Recce
A visit to a location by any member of the production team before filming.
Runner / floor runner
The most junior member of the crew - responsible for many of the more mundane tasks on set.
Schedule
Document prepared by the first assistant director for general distribution showing every calendar day of the shoot and, within each day, each scene in the order that they are to be played.
Second assistant director / 2nd AD / 2nd
Person responsible for “backstage” management such as ensuring actors are driven to work, made up and put into costume on time. Also responsible for producing call sheets (see above).
Sparks
Members of the lighting department responsible for and trained for the safe carriage, installation and use of lighting equipment.
Rigger
Person responsible for building any kind of temporary structure on set – most commonly a type of scaffold rig to support scenery or camera and/or lighting equipment.
Tech recce / camera recce
Visit by all heads of department to a location en masse. The occasion where the director has the chance to describe to the assembled crew - in detail - what he has in mind on each location. A tech recce gives these heads of department the chance to raise any specific requests for the location manager to pass on to the location owner in advance of the day’s filming.
Third assistant director / 3rd AD / 3rd
The first assistant director’s right hand man on set. Will organise crowd scenes and help communicate the director’s wishes to the crew and any extras.
Unit manager
The member of the location department responsible for the security, safety, supervision and care of a film set and all crew and vehicles thereof.
Wrap
Term used to describe the end of filming on set for the day – the cue for most crew to pack up and go home. ‘WRAP’ is actually an anacronym - from the days of old fashioned clockwork cameras; to “wrap” was to Wind, Reel And Print.