I don't think I can stress enough how important locations are to a project.
This week was extra hectic because we had to scramble to rearrange the schedule and switch things around. Which means we had to scramble to find new locations too. Because it was crunch time, there wasn't a whole lot we can pick from.
Tried bringing on location manager, but the locations she was pulling was waaaaaay out of our price range. So ended up having to find locations ourselves, which we really didnt have the time for, but NO CHOICE.
DAY 1 LOCATION:
House in North Hollywood. Locked that house in on Saturday night, response to ad we posted on craigslist. Didnt have permits, didn't have too much space for holding, and separate rooms, etc...
But the home owner was REALLY REALLY nice and accommodating, that always makes it a bit easier.
But because of no permits, we had to be extra low key and be very aware of the neighbors. Of course Monday is the day the neighborhood gardener comes around and does EVERYBODY's home on the block! YIKES! Ran into quite a few set backs dealing with that and noise issues and trying not to piss the block off too much by telling the gardener to please hold because we were rolling! LOL
This week was extra hectic because we had to scramble to rearrange the schedule and switch things around. Which means we had to scramble to find new locations too. Because it was crunch time, there wasn't a whole lot we can pick from.
Tried bringing on location manager, but the locations she was pulling was waaaaaay out of our price range. So ended up having to find locations ourselves, which we really didnt have the time for, but NO CHOICE.
DAY 1 LOCATION:
House in North Hollywood. Locked that house in on Saturday night, response to ad we posted on craigslist. Didnt have permits, didn't have too much space for holding, and separate rooms, etc...
But the home owner was REALLY REALLY nice and accommodating, that always makes it a bit easier.
But because of no permits, we had to be extra low key and be very aware of the neighbors. Of course Monday is the day the neighborhood gardener comes around and does EVERYBODY's home on the block! YIKES! Ran into quite a few set backs dealing with that and noise issues and trying not to piss the block off too much by telling the gardener to please hold because we were rolling! LOL
DAY 2 LOCATION
Had to film in a gym location. The potential gym we were looking at previously was trying to work out kinks, but when we called and told them we needed it in 3 days, it didnt give them enough time to make THEIR arrangements (having personal trainers, classes, etc...the needed more time to work on their schedule to close down for the day), so the first option fell through. Director, Matthew Cherry, found a gym at the last hour. BUT one of the drawbacks was that it was a completely different look than anticipated, so production designer GOOSE (love him) had to revamp some things in art dept. Also, it was right in the middle of downtown and front faces a major street. Again, if we had a permit, wouldn't be an issue. So when our DP decided to set a huge light out in the front on sidewalk to light interior for when the character enters front door, I AM SWEATING BULLETS! I am adamant at this point that they need to make this shot QUICK!
Another drawback to this location was parking. Because it's downtown, street parking is by meter, so we had to find a lot for all of our cars. They weren't trying to work out any deals so we literally had to pay for every crew car and vans. Had to pay for background's cars too. Which this puts a little curve on the location budget.
We have to be out by 3pm so we need to kick butt. We milked every minute!
We also had a company move to hotel location in Pasadena. Again, booked these on the weekend so didn't have permits. Now we are rolling into this hotel deep with crew and vans, even though we went in with just our skeleton crew. The great thing is that it was a 2 room suite. Bad thing, is that it was still super super tight and we are on the look out for management to make sure we don't get in trouble, shut down and/or kicked out.
WHEW pulled it off!
DAY 3 LOCATION
We needed an office location and the one we originally had was a friend of the director's and pretty much promised that we could use his spot. But of course, when he saw the scale of what our production was, he pretty much withdrew the offer....at the last minute!!! So now we have to find a new office that looks like an NFL sports agency office. Someone from the team had a hook up and called their real estate agent friend and he said we can use his place. We had no clue what this location looked like but *shrug*. Production designer dips off tues night to go to location to start working on props, but when he gets there he sends some pics and OMG, this is TOTALLY NOT a sports agency!! This is like 10pm and Matthew is blowing my phone up saying the pics look horrible. But it's late and what can we do. I tell him let's get there and see if we can make this work. Call sheets already went out and WE HAVE NO BACK UP PLAN!
Get there in the morning and of course, we were right, it's not going to work. Have to cancel Lance's call time cuz there is no way we can shoot this scene here. We have to now just make this base camp and they do a whole revamp of the scene and make the agent drive in the car and talk on the phone for his POV instead of having him sitting in the office. Goose, the production designer is peeved because he spent an all nighter trying to make this location work and we didn't film inside at all. SORRY GOOSE!!!
Company move to what is Kyle's apt to another friends spot. We had already spoken to management about filming here and had reserved a room for our crew in their leasing office BUT the friend who actually lived there had to leave and management was not pleased. AND he said we could only have the conference room when we were under the impression we could have the WHOLE room. So hurry up and finish eating and condense down. But at this point they are really upset with us and the tenant. I have to leave to pay for parking for the following day's location which is in the hills and street parking is super tight so have to do the same thing that we did yesterday. I'm on the road and get a call from Scott, the other producer, that management kicked us out of the room and EVERYBODY had to pile into the apt (a ONE bedroom, crew of 20). *sigh*
I'm stuck in traffic trying to get to the parking structure off of sunset and then to the hills house location which is our house party scene the next day. The parking structure lets me pay for our crew cars but says there is no in & out. Because of parking at this location we have to plan for a few cars to shuttle crew back and forth to house, this is going to slow us down. Can't really afford a cargo van for the day because we've already overspent on this location. We have to pay for parking and have to pay a crew to come in and black out the windows today because tomorrow we don't have the time for G&E to do it, will definitely slow us down and we will definitely go into over time if we do that. And since we have background and using a background service, we can't afford to pay overtime on background AND cast AND crew. So we have suck up the loss on paying for these things today because the other option is way more expensive.
I don't get home until 9pm.
DAY 4
House party location in the hills. Great house BUT there's a huge pool in the living room that is a major concern for me for safety issues. It pretty much takes up the area and I'm adamant to our AD dept that I BETTER not see anyone crowding around this pool, to try to stay out of this area. I can kick Matt & Scott for picking this place to shoot.
Don't really have a separate spot for holding for Lance so he's in the room with the production team while we are doing all of our paperwork, payroll and prep for tomorrow. But he's cool and chill, so not TOO big of an issue.
Dealing with the permits for the following day's location at the Rose Bowl. We have to finalize all the paperwork but there is no signal at this house and I am missing calls left and right so trying to do everything by email. Talk about a hindrance. They approve us at the VERY LAST MINUTE - 5:47pm to be exact.
Once we get approved I can actually breathe a little easier and spend some time on set to see how things are coming along. I've spent no time with the cast and barely any time in front of the monitor. Been trying to get us caught up.
But looking at the clock, we need to rush this thing because we are about to go into overtime and one of those things I won't do is pay background so Matthew needs to hurry up and shoot the wide so we can start cutting these ppl.
DAY 5 LOCATION
Rose Bowl. We picked the Rose Bowl because it's the only location that resembles and NFL style locker room and corridor. I was surprised at the price but our Production Manager, really worked out a great deal with them.
I actually breathe a little easy on this location. Have our permits, have a strong location. We all take a moment when we see how grand this location is and today actually goes smooth. We finished a bit early and chilling for lunch. Loving our caterer and crafty guy. THEY ARE GOOD.
Company move back to North Hollywood. Our production designer and his team really put their foot in this one! They made one location look like 5 and this montage scene is going to look great.
Have to break off for Lance's bus scene. It's literally just Lance, director Matt and DP Richard hopping on a bus and shooting him looking out the window. Have to take the Canon 7d and not the Sony, need to be inconspicuous.
Finally feel like we got caught up after the curve ball from last week.
Rose Bowl. We picked the Rose Bowl because it's the only location that resembles and NFL style locker room and corridor. I was surprised at the price but our Production Manager, really worked out a great deal with them.
I actually breathe a little easy on this location. Have our permits, have a strong location. We all take a moment when we see how grand this location is and today actually goes smooth. We finished a bit early and chilling for lunch. Loving our caterer and crafty guy. THEY ARE GOOD.
Company move back to North Hollywood. Our production designer and his team really put their foot in this one! They made one location look like 5 and this montage scene is going to look great.
Have to break off for Lance's bus scene. It's literally just Lance, director Matt and DP Richard hopping on a bus and shooting him looking out the window. Have to take the Canon 7d and not the Sony, need to be inconspicuous.
Finally feel like we got caught up after the curve ball from last week.