- Today we're going to talk about tech scouting
and how it will help you figure out
how to visualize your script
and make it work within your location.
Let's dive in.
[Music]
So what is a tech scout?
As you know, a location scout happens
when you already have picked out your place
and a figure out where and when you want to shoot.
I love this location and it`s criminess.
A tech scout covers the more, well, technical aspects of a production.
These include things like power, noise, base camp areas.
All these things that essentially are the nitty-gritty details of a production
that probably should be ironed out before the day of.
Oh, and bring the camera, you'll thank yourself later.
For today's tech scout,
we have a script for a short film.
The continuation of "The Pen."
A project we already shot in our pre-production shot list episode.
Our protagonist Jamie,
wants to cover-up his misdeeds
by silencing the only witness to his crime - the intern.
We start the chase with Jamie in hot pursuit
down a long corridor
which then splits up during elevator/stairwell scene
before they end up outside in a courtyard
where we enjoy a brief 360 hero shot.
The chase then continues into an abandoned restaurant
for a fight scene that inadvertently
ends up with the intern slipping and tumbling down the stairs
to an early, sad demise.
Light and fluffy stuff, right?
Let's check out our first location.
So what's going to happen in the scenes, we have our main character Jamie
who's going to be coming out around this corridor.
As a director,
I'm looking for how does this location reflect the character more
and how do we either dress it or make it look a certain way
that it fits the story that's being told
the characters that are in it
and the world that they all inhabit.
From a story perspective,
I do like the kind of monochromatic, industrial hardware kind of look
because this story is essentially about a man's fight against the system.
At the location scout,
we came in with a rough idea of what we wanted.
We have a storyboard, we had a shot list.
Now, it's more about how do we actually go about executing it in the most creative,
yet also, most efficient way possible.
That's why we have Casey - our cinematographer.
Sheffer - our gaffer.
Chris - our sound guy.
And Carry - our first A.D.
And Herman - our producer,
are going to be looking for some of the more logistical details.
- On the tech scout, the big thing for me as a D.P. is lighting.
One of the things that we're going to fall into a huge trap on
is just resets and we're going to run out of time,
so I really want these setups to go as fast as possible,
so we have more time in the day
to get through the big fight scene.
We keep talking about a steadicam.
If we can actually start with our character looking this way,
maybe we can bring in a bigger light to come through those windows?
And then as he runs towards us,
we backpedal just to make him
a little bit faster, a little bit more energetic.
- Okay.
- Our cinematographer will look for best available light
and the equipment considerations.
Them the A.D. will know how to schedule the shoot
in a most efficient way possible.
- The courtyard as long as we finish it before 10:00.
That's going to give us the best lighting.
- Something important for scheduling at the tech scout is lighting.
This particular hallway area,
we're going to get sun versus a restaurant
which it's a more controlled environment.
And so that one was discussed
that it could be at any time during the day which is more convenient
and so having the line up the shots in that order.
- My only concern is audio.
- Yeah, for sound, kinda getting killed next door,
it seems like they've got some kind of exhaust system goner.
So for this location what I'm thinking about is
how much control do we have over the location?
There's a lot of buildings nearby
that kind of have like HVAC systems running.
You know, if we are shooting in like little office scene
is there a copy machine that's gonna be running
is there, you know, a fridge that might cycle through its power cycle
while we're working.
Can you shut some of those things off?
I've only heard a couple plane so far, since we've been here.
And we have to dodge that on the day,
it's pretty lively space.
It`s going to be a lot of reverb and things
that I might not get the kind of sound that I'm looking for.
Are there any ways we can deaf some of that,
whick are kind of basic things like that that I'm always thinking about
and kind of listening for.
[Music]
- As continuing from that saying,
you know where intern and his chaser
where they severe of the elevator.
- I'd love to get a soft light up in the top. - Sure.
- Obviously, that's gonna need power.
I don't feel like I see outlets here.
First thing I look for is, you know, where the breakers, what are our power options,
you know, how many outlets do we have?
Do we have to pull up from inside the building?
Do we have to run remote on batteries instead?
One of the most important things when it comes to grip our electric
is we need to know where our breaker boxes are
and what our total wattage draw is from those boxes.
So here we have 225 neutral amps.
So that means that's the maximum limit
what is dry we can pull from this box.
Certain lights like a 10K, 20K
draw a lot of power, a lot more watts,
so like this box is incapable of that,
so we would actually have to find an external source for power.
- There are a few concerns that we do have, for example,
the elevator being a little bit smaller than we thought.
A corridor being a little bit more sparse,
a little more sterile than we envisioned it would be.
- Does it look like you can look down?
- Yeah. This is one of our shots actually.
- It`s pretty narrow.
One of the biggest things is safety in terms of access
because we have the one staircase in the elevator
and if we have to block that for the shots,
and if anybody else needs use the building
that's a major concern.
- I'm mostly concerned in terms of safety aisle
with us running power in a stairwell.
There's an incredible lack of fire extinguishers
I'm noticing in the entire building.
I definitely think we're going to need a stunt coordinator
if we're going down stairwells higher than 6 feet,
so that's going to require it.
So I think that's going to be an additional hire
that we're going to definitely have to have here.
- What are the most important things you can do
is figure out how to operate your set efficiently,
but also safely.
Let's look at our next location - a courtyard.
[Music]
So after that shot in the elevator
and when they come in the staircase
they both come up from over here
and we kind of want to take a quick pause,
I think here to kind of see the environment.
This location is particularly challenging
as we're planning do a 360 shot
and it's hard to hide parts of these locations
as everything will be seen.
Kind of see a little bit of everything.
So that's I'm a little bit concerned.
We want to make sure that we're not endorsing any company or whatever
or they get pissed off using the brand,
so we should greek out all the company letters
and all that stuff in this location.
Intellectual property such as brands, art, etc.
That's a whole other topic.
Before it's too late, consider any legal issues that may potentially arise.
For example, the artwork on the wall.
Do you have clearance for it?
- So as odd as it may seem,
this little display here is a very real concern.
If it were free-standing wood, I wouldn't be concerned
because that means one of us (inaudible)
as it has been mounted, it's an intellectual property.
So I would send pictures of this to our legal team
to make sure that we can use it.
Otherwise, if you shoot it without that clearance,
you can't use the shot.
- When you're about to shoot,
be sure that background doesn't adversely impact the way you're filming.
If you have concerns at your tech scout
this is the time to talk about them.
- Do I need to hide base camp somehow over here?
- Yeah, we definitely need a like find a way for people to like scoop behind.
- One of the biggest things is accessibility
such as work and base camp be.
- In this space, we've chosen this area here,
as the base camp because it's rather hidden,
also because you have sort of an escape plan right here
that leads down to the parking lot,
which means that anyone coming to set for drop-offs or deliveries
can come up through the back way and then come straight to production,
rather than going through the set where they're going to be shooting.
The proximity to the bathrooms is another real consideration.
It sounds flippant,
but I promise it can give you a huge headache
if you don't think about it on your tech scout, honestly.
- As you know, there are a lot of elements for production.
You want to make sure that base camps are close enough
to ferry people back and forth,
but also not close enough that you end up distrupting principal photography.
Let's move on to our final location.
Okay, so the actors will be coming through this door right here.
What I really like about this location is how derelict it looks like,
it's just perfect for our fight scene.
This is exactly what we need.
Here we are in the restaurant, for our climactic scene.
We have some space in this location
which has pros and cons.
- As we get in here,
and G.E. and D.P. are kind of dealing with lighting stuff.
- Let's maybe talk about getting some quasars or quino's
to put in these mirrored sections.
- I'm going to be looking at
how can I avoid my equipment getting in the shot?
We've got these mirrors in the back,
you know, are they going to be having really directional lights
that I'm going to have to avoid?
So this starts to be kind of a maze of
where can my equipment live
because I need to get a boom in there during the shot.
I don't like relying solely on on lavaliers.
- Going off the storyboard itself,
I know we're finding a lot more that we can add into it
to kind of amp up the action
but I mean that does bring up new problems.
- What do you think about maybe our character
grabbing a sugar glass bottle and using that to crack the other one
out of this area.
- I think it will be cool, yeah, absolutely. I think we definetily--
Having early storyboards or shot list at your tech scout can help
but expect to make an adjustment or two.
Especially when it comes to action or stunt scenes.
- There's going to be five choreography in this area.
Do we have enough room?
- Also with that sink there
we might need to fake how they hop over.
You have to find the happy medium in terms
of wanting the director to still have their creative vision
but still fit within your budget and your time of that day.
And we only have 30 more minutes here at the location,
I think we should move on to the next.
- Yeah, so let's check out our final scene
and then we can wrap it on this tech scout, let's head over.
We continue the action from the bar
that's happening over there,
so this is a very important climax of the scene
where our hero and our protagonist to kind of, fight or flight, kind of moment
just see what`s he's going to do so.
Let's talk about the set scene that's going to happen.
The unique elements of each scene
will give you unique considerations.
Be flexible.
These are not problems you can't solve.
- I don't know what our situation on sidewalk uses
but I'd love to do something a little bit softer through these windows.
- Use of public streets is a little cost-prohibitive.
We got an additional permit.
We got additional security to worry about there.
And also you have to sometimes rain amin a bit.
So I just remind them that their budgetary constraints.
Let's think a bit more creatively.
- If we can find a way to rig a mere board over here,
maybe we can shoot the Jolie go from across the top
and that'll be our motivation for the light streaks coming down
and we can do that in the building instead of sidewalk.
- If it isn't in the cards from a technical standpoint don't be discouraged.
Think of solutions.
Just because we call it a tech scout,
doesn't mean you can't get creative.
We blasted through, we put a heiser up, get some fog.
Yes. I have like light streaking in it
Come to a compromise that best helps your story.
It takes a village to shoot a film.
And you want to make sure that every department is synchronized
and working in harmony.
- I think they're pretty much covers it for tech scout.
So we got everything covered
and we're ready to go.
- To quickly recap, one of the most important aspects of a tech scout
is establishing your level of control over the location.
Don't tech scout by yourself,
bring a cinematographer, gaffer, the A.D. producer, sound mixer,
and of course your director,
like your`s truly.
So we have this full 360 shot.
I think that works. Yeah. I think we can you study--
Remember to visualize how the scene will play out.
Look at the natural lighting.
Listen for any sound complications.
Figure out the power requirements.
Find errors to stage equipment and background actors
that won't get in the way.
Oh and get your location agreement in writing.
Don't worry,
if you don't remember everything we went through in this video.
Check the description below,
to download and print out our official tech scout cheat-sheet,
so you can take it with you next time to your next location.
Filmmakers, are you looking for your next film location?
Check out Wrapal.
We're an online marketplace that connects filmmakers to film locations.
Pair with StudioBinder`s production management software
to break down your script
into elements, locations, create shooting schedules
shot lists, storyboards.
And when you're ready, send out mobile call sheets.
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Good luck and do take it up.
I will see you guys on set.
Please cut that out.