(dreamy electronic music)
- So, this is something that me and Peter do all the time.
We just ride our One Wheels around
trying to look for cool spots
where there's cool light, cool composition,
just trying to find those really epic,
cinematic spots, even though we're just in
Newmarket, Ontario, a small town here in Canada.
But this is something that I think
a lot of people don't do,
so I thought we'd talk about location scouting.
(dreamy electronic music)
All right, so what's a location scout?
Well, essentially, it's just going to different locations
and finding the right location for your video shoot.
So, this is pre-production,
you're doing this before you're actually filming something.
You're figuring out what's the right location
for your video.
And now, why would you do this?
Well, A, you get the best look for your video.
B, you can plan out some of the shots
in that location already beforehand.
C, you can figure out the lighting strategy for it,
you can figure out what kind of natural sources,
what kind of lights you might need for your video.
And D, if it's a bigger shoot,
you need to figure out the logistics
of that location.
Is there bathrooms there?
Can you get the gear there?
Do you have enough space for food,
for a craft table?
Craft is just a fancy word basically
for catering for a film shoot.
I don't know actually why it's called craft,
but that's what it is, craft.
So if somebody's talking about craft,
that's food, that's your food,
just an FYI.
All right, so location scouts sound great,
and here are some tips that I've found
are really helpful when you're actually
doing a location scout
so that you have the best chance of finding
the best location for your video.
First off, you wanna know what you're looking for.
This is gonna save you a lot of time because
location scouting can be really time consuming.
It take up a lot of time going from difference places
if you're going to one spot in the city
and then going to a totally different,
across the city to a different spot.
There's a lot of time that goes into actually finding
the right spots so know what you're looking for,
have kind of an idea of what would be good
for your video.
Number two, I would say do some test shots
so don't just go to the place and just look around,
like oh yeah, this is good.
Do some test shots.
Just take a stills camera or maybe take some video clips
and just take some photos, document what the place
looks like, what are some cool features there,
what's the lighting looking like, just take some photos,
take some video clips so that you can look at
that afterwards and now be thinking at home,
wait, was there, how many windows, wait, what,
how many, was there light, what was going, I don't...
You're gonna forget everything, you're gonna think
that you're gonna remember but take some photos,
take some video clips, that's gonna help.
Next look at the composition, look at the different frames
that you could get in that location and I like to look
for different kind of compositional elements,
for example leading lines if there's a brick wall
or any lines anywhere, I just love lines
so that's something that my eyes are drawn to right away
but things like frames or anything
that you like com positionally that you think
would be good for the frames that you need to get,
just look at the location and figure out
do you have those compositional elements there.
Number four, I'd look at the natural light
in that space, figure out are there windows,
what's lighting the space, what's the ambient light
looking like, is there enough light to get an exposure
and if there is really good natural light sources,
figure out kind of how you can use those and if they're not
working for you at all, figure out can you get rid
of those lights, do you need to add lights,
what kind of lights do you need to get.
A location scout is really, really good
for figuring out your lighting plan
so that on the day you don't have way too many lights
because you had no idea what you needed
and you don't have too little lights,
you have exactly what you need.
Location scout super, super important for lighting.
For example, this tunnel had really cool natural light
just coming out of the ends, you know,
a really soft source and then it's really directional,
there's not really much else going on in there
so just a really cool natural source
so figure out does this work for your video.
If you don't want a moody video, then this would be
a horrible location for you but if you're looking
for this kind of look then that's great.
So this is why location scouting is so good.
Just figure out what kind of location works
for your needs and talking about lighting,
something that's really important when you go
to a location is using something like an app
called Sun Seeker and what it does is it tells you where
the sun is going to be at different times of the day.
So depending on if you're, let's say,
you're location scouting at 6 p.m. at night
and then your shoot is actually at 12, 12 p.m.,
the light is gonna be totally different
so using something like Sun Seeker, you can figure out
where the sun is actually gonna be at 12
when you're filming.
Is it gonna blasting through a window
and you're gonna have to be competing with that
or is it just gonna be behind
and you're just gonna be getting ambient light?
So using Sun Seeker, super really, really important.
I'm not sure if it costs money, I've had it for a while,
I think I got a free version a long time ago
but I do recommend this app, I use it all the time,
especially for location scouting because you can find out
really accurately where the sun will be
so you just kind of hold it up and it shows you
where in the sky the sun will be and yeah,
super handy and this one I already kind of mentioned
but think about the mood of your video.
Does that location fit the mood of your video?
Are you trying to get a nice happy summery vibe
or do you need a moody vibe?
Figure out does that location provide that mood
or that feel because if that location
does it kind of automatically, that's gonna help you
so much in your filmmaking process.
And lastly, think about the logistics
and this one's a big one, you need to think about
so many different things.
For example, do you need it to be quiet
or do you need privacy, do you have actors
or talent that kind of need that privacy
or do you have bathrooms there or can you get food there,
is there a restaurant you can go to near there,
can you get the gear there, is it really hard
to get to that location, is there parking,
all of that stuff you need to figure out
because if you're on set and there's no food
or a place to go to the bathroom then the people on set
are gonna be pretty pissed and you might not realize it
but that is gonna make a worse film or worse commercial,
worse video in the end because the people working on it
are just gonna be miserable, they're not gonna work
as hard if they don't have food and a nice place
to get away from the sun and to go to the bathroom,
all those normal logistical things.
There's a lot to think about here so that does dictate
sometimes if a location works or not.
It might be perfect for the light and the mood
and everything but you just can't get all the gear there
or it's so remote that it just doesn't work.
All right there we go, so those are some tips
that I've found to be really helpful
when location scouting and yeah, sometimes you don't have
the time or the budget to actually location scout
or you're going to Norway and you can't just fly there
and location scout or you just have three days there,
you don't have time to just go around and look at things.
What you can still do a lot, just from the internet,
Google, Instagram, these guys are your friend.
Just look up the places, figure out what kind of spots
are around there, maybe look at Google maps
and figure out where's the sun gonna be coming from
at different times of the day.
All these things do help.
It really, really helps to just do that work beforehand
and you're gonna get way better work done
once you're out there shooting.
So yeah highly recommend doing location scouts.
Also thanks to Skillshare for sponsoring this episode.
Skillshare is an online learning platform.
So if you want to learn more about filmmaking
or photography or branding or business or anything really,
go and check out Skillshare, the link is down below.
It's a free trial, so yeah, nothing that's stopping you
from learning right now.
I really like Skillshare so I think you guys will too.
All right that's it for this video.
I hope you guys liked location scouting
and yeah go try it out and next time you're working
on a project, take some time, do a location scout
and I promise you it will not only make your video
way better but way less stress.
It'll just cut out all that stress and that anxiety
when you know what space looks like and you can picture
in your head, you have the photos and the videos,
you can plan out everything, you're just good to go.
All right that's it for this one,
I'll see ya in the next one.
(dreamy electronic music)