Location Scouting - Top Tips

Here are my Top Tips to help you with your Location Scouting.

A great location can really make your video or film stand out.

Location scouting

There is only so much you can do with your camera and lighting.

Choosing the right locations for your videos can make or break them.

Today we're going to go through some key tips to help you on your next location scout.

Bring a camera.

First things first, and this may be obvious, but bring a camera! or at least your phone. Having a good selection of stills to look back on is always a plus!

A regular DSLR or Mirrorless will also do the trick.

If you're using your phone, I'd recommend using an app such as Cadrage.

This is a fantastic Directors Viewfinder App that I've reviewed before on the channel, you can take a look at that here if you're interested. It's a great tool to help you frame up shots and angles on a location scout as you can dial in the exact camera and lens setup you'll be using for the shoot without actually having to have it with you. You can use it to shoot video clips as well if needed as well as being able to export a PDF with all of your shots for reference later.

And as a bonus tip, you could even take a 360 camera if you have one to get a more immersive look of your scout.

Lighting

One of the main things to consider when on a location scout is of course lighting!

Take note of where the natural ambient light is coming from. I'd recommend if you can, visiting the location you're scouting at roughly the same time of day you think you might be shooting in. It doesn't have to be exact but generally in the morning, afternoon, evening to give you a more accurate sense of what the light will be doing.

You will most likely be doing the scout long before the actual shoot (maybe not!), so the light will of course change over the year. This is where apps such as Sun Seeker or Helios come into play. You'll be able to see where the sun will be positioned on a specific day at your location. You can use the top-down view to get a general overview or the augmented reality to get more accurate if you need to work out when the sun will be hitting a specific window for example.

This is a great help with planning the shooting schedule.

Audio

Audio is perhaps something not a lot of people consider when it comes to a location scout but it's arguably as important, if not more so than the lighting.

Some things to consider are what sounds do you have control over in the location and what sounds can you do nothing about.

Ambient sounds like air conditioning, refrigerators or built-in light fixtures can be turned off if they are too noisy and will interfere.

Things like traffic, planes, busy streets, you won't have as much control over.

It's things like this that are worth considering, especially if you have a lot of dialogue in a narrative scene or you are doing an interview for a documentary.

Power

Unfortunately, lights need power.

While we can get away with using batteries for smaller light fixtures, if you need a lot of powerful lights, you are going to need a decent power source.

On your location scout take note of where all the usable power supplies are and what is the maximum safe output you can get out of the location.

This will be bought up again in the tech scout if you aren't doing it at the same time but it's always worth checking out the situation on the location scout as well.

It may be that your location requires an external power supply so this is a good time to work out where the generator might go.

Accesibilty/ Saftey

While knowing where the actual filming at a location will be taking place is important, knowing where you can set up your basecamp to dump all your equipment is also key.

Are there additional rooms you can use?

Will you need some sort of tent/ marquee if you are outside?

Where are the toilets? do they even have them or will you need to hire them?

Is it going to be a full day shoot, will there be a place for catering?

These are all good things to find out and consider.

There is also the red tape to think about.

Do you have clearance to shoot at that location?

Will you need property releases?

What insurance will you need?

Now if you are working as the director or photography or cinematographer, you probably won't have to be dealing with these on bigger shoots, but if you are just working as a small team or on a personal project, it's worth bringing things like this up with the property manager or owner.

Google maps/ street view

One last thing I thought was worth mentioning is that, if you are unable to physically get to a location for the scout, you can use tools such as Google maps and Street view to get a rough idea of the location.

While it's not the same as actually being there, using these tools is a great option as you can scout a lot of locations quickly and perhaps even find spots you may not have found if you were looking in person.

You can also use these in combination with apps like sun-seeker to help show you where the light will be coming from.