Scouting Filming Locations

Choosing a Filming Spot

Before settling on a location, my film crew and I discussed the options we had outside down to the point of light the area would receive and potential background distractors the setting could have. I was immediately drawn to a bench table with lots of shade created from nearby trees because as director, I am in charge of the storyline we created to stay consistent, and a big part of that is its presentation. If we chose a very open area, the weather could completely change our film. The location being surrounded by trees created a shade that could prevent drastic changes in lighting that may occur between filming days.

This location sparked an immediate interest for us to use as the sole location in our film.

Possible Complications

After spending some time at that location, we witnessed many bystanders in the background passing by in the garden section behind the fence. It was also apparent that a branch hangs quite low by the bench our actors will sit at, potentially taking away the point of interest from them onto the greens of the shrubs and trees. This caused us to consider our other options, which led us to an area with a white wall and benches facing toward it. 

A location we pondered switching to use.

My film crew and I admired the area because of its lack of possible bystanders in the background. There was little to no activity near it and had the potential to be the setting for the film for this reason. We discussed moving the benches to face one another and bringing in a table for the 'opponents' to play chess on, but the first location was still distinct in our minds and was also an easier spot for filming because the table was already present.

Reviewing and Making Changes

After some consideration, I decided to review our storyline with my group. The setting should connect with our film's content and have a meaningful impact on it in some way, so questions were asked such as, "If we were to position the camera facing each opponent, does their background contrast one another?" At the beginning of creating characters, what we wanted to emphasize was the difference between each stereotyped comedic character in our film; a know-it-all and an average, laid-back character. I wanted to pull elements of this contrast to light with our setting, which brought me back to our first pick because of the lack of background color variety in the second option. The greens of the trees contrast with the frontal view of the table and could easily be eliminated with a shallow focus shot or the Mis en scène of our actor's clothing, by using bright colors to cancel it out. The relation of this contrast to our characters allowed my group and I to make a decision on our film location; the first bench table option — with some creative revisions!