It shouldn’t be a huge undertaking to land the perfect scene location for your film. In the case of indie film making, most production teams make the mistake of writing a script and then start looking for places to fill the scenes. When locations become the focus of a scenes success, they’re labeled as burdens of choice when the right place either can’t be found or the perfect place just couldn’t be confirmed prior to production. When a writer begins putting together a script, he should consider what locations, materials, wardrobe, running water and most importantly, power sources that are around for the planned project.
A few months ago, one of our Quantum Storm .357 [QSE .357] E-Magazine issues covered the importance of pre-production and what a good filmmaker should consider prior to establishing a production budget before estimating costs. Because listing the things that you already have in your pocket can save you a lot of money if you don't need to go out and search for it, get permits, permissions, or establish communication with the local community prior to filming. A good producer, with established prior experience, will have a list of things that could help out a project before pre-production has begun. A bad producer will have no idea where to start and a plethora of last minute searches that could hinder production efforts with a "winging it" mentality that will frustrate the entire production team every time a new location is needed.
The job of a producer isn’t just to order people around to help find locations, but it's also the job of the producer to actually get off his ass and establish contacts with the local community, personally ensuring one on one contact, so that the locations can be attained at little cost as possible and even perhaps used for free in future projects. Bum Producers try to evade this part of their job and most of time struggle to make any contact with the right person(s); most of time it’s due to not having the right charisma or personality to mingle with the right city crowds or property owners.
In my years as a line producer; trust me I've worn man hats in my own indie film productions, I’ve had my challenges to find locations for the right scene in a film. I’ve spent my time location spotting even when I’ve been out with my family on burger runs. The search never stops and I do my best to find the property or home owners to get the rights to shoot my indie film projects there as often as I can. Grimes and Montgomery Counties in Texas have proven to be some of the friendliest places to gain access to various, epic locations. I've produced a little over 30 indie film projects with locations that have extended the "script to film" environment to unexpected levels.
One location, that I call my "go-to" location, when all else fails, has been the scene location called "The Lightsey Ranch." This property has been in almost every indie film I've ever filmed. The location is perfect; far from main roads, ambulances, fire houses, with a closed property, access to power, restroom, shower, and running water, plus plenty of room to maneuver. Even better is that it's located in a private community with strong supporting neighbors who know whats going on there from time to time, even late at night. The location has been used in various types of movies and web series productions, from ghost stories, to Science Fiction, to murder mystery, to paranormal, and even a zombie movie or two.
Recently, we started working on two new projects at the ranch [one SciFi, the other a paranormal film] and with the new greenery starting to sprout this spring, we expect to catch some great scenes out there. Be sure to check out next month's issue of the QSE .357 because we will be presenting a trailer and some in-depth behind the scenes looks at several studio projects!
I've worked with a few Bum Producers recently who have attempted to take me to court and take control of the Lightsey Ranch property by filing court papers and threatening a "demand of a lean" on the property. Yeah, their desire to make use of the property to make films is so childish and over the years I had to make legal changes to keep the property off the ownership of the film maker [me] and the private film studio that I own and operate. Believe me, it happens and greed is out there, so always cover your ass and don't trust anyone in the indie film business, especially when they claim to have money and know the business!
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What has been lost over greed is the importance of the positions are in film teams. Remember that producers establish the materials for the director to use and deliver the kind of project a good script can emphasize. Executive Producers being in cash flow and investment opportunities. Seldom to producers actually take part in being in the filming development phase of the production, unless he's staked his reputation in monetary value for the projects delivery. If that is the case, then that producer is called a "pigeon toe" - essentially, "...some asshole who gets in the way a lot..." of the production efforts and slows everything down by constantly demanding certain changes to the films production because he found something else to add to the film; or more commonly, he's found another investment opportunity by adding some person, location, music track, or other useless item to the film.
Finding a good location that can be used time and time again is gold, folks. New directors need to absorb the fact that Bum Producers love to use the same locations over and over again from one film to the next, with little artistic flair in the projects they choose to support. Before you agree to work with any producer, check out the work they've done before; more especially the materials they brought to other projects. You don't want to step on any toes using scene locations that were used in another movie in the same way.
That's why it's very important to have an experienced, strong and knowledgeable director to lead the production team and who isn't afraid to say "No!" to a producer every once in a while. Successful film teams can't look up to a "suck up" whose always kissing a producers ass just to keep him around for "this" or "that" reason.
Stay strong, my friends. Continue to search for those new and interesting film locations!
Ride Easy,
D. R. Quintana
Editor in Chief
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