Logistics: Locations

Logistics: Locations

Recce is a part of pre-production where the production team visits a location they want to film at to determine if the location meets their expectations. Recce can make the team realise many different things such as is the location to busy with the public to film at certain times of day. It also lets the team know if there will be any health and safety considerations whilst filming on the location.

If a Recce is not conducted at locations you want to film at it could have a knock on effect on different parts of production. If a location is not fit for filming like you had previously thought it could cause a delay in filming which will have a knock on effect with areas like hiring equipment and certain times where actors are and are not available for filming. It could be the starting point for the project being cancelled.

Location manager & assistant location manager

For the role of Location Manager you will need to be experienced in multiple areas. These include IT and financial and budgeting skills. The experience you have previously had and the skills you have acquired are not the only requirements for being a Location manager, you also have to be a certain type of person. You have to be very organised and committed to the jobs you are given. You have to be committed because you will not have a weekday nine to five job your work hours will be long and irregular. You have to be organised because you are in charge of deciding everything about the location and the only person above you in this area is the director who will have the final say is the Director so everything else will be checked by you, which is a lot of paper work and time. This means you have to be organised because if you fall behind then no body can continue with their work until you have caught up. The final requirement which is not experience is confidence, without confidence you will not be able to negotiate which means you won't be able to get the best prices for travel etc which means spending more than needed on one area with the budget. The assistant manager is second in command to the Location manage for their said work. There job is to help the Location manager as much as possible and get the work done in time at the best quality possible.

If the work is not completed by the Location manager and the assistant manager this will have a massive negative affect on the production period of the film. If the work is not finished before the first day of filming on said location it will have already caused delays. if the work is not done, the crew will not be able to get to the location because the work saying if the equipment and the crew would or wouldn't be able to get to the site of filming wouldn't be done. Even if the crew were able to get to the location filming would be dangerous because no risk assessment was completed and any possible problems are not known which means any damage to crew member, equipment or even  actors is much higher compared to a situation where the work was completed on time. Without the Location managers work being completed the production part of the project will most likely come to a complete stop until the work is completed. Even after the work was finished it could have caused more delays because some of the equipment was most likely hired and the deadline of giving the equipment back had been reached meaning more time and more money from the budget will have to be spent to hire the same or similar equipment again.

What if the Location managers work is not scheduled correctly?

Scouting locations takes time and is a lot of work for a location manager, the work can not be rushed due to how important their work is. This means that the location manager will need as much time as possible to make sure the location is compatible or not. The location manager needs to be scheduled weeks in advance because they have to book times to scout the location, they also need the time to get a permit. Without correct scheduling, the whole location will fall through because the location manager won't be able to get a permit meaning filming on the location won't legally be aloud.






What specifically are you trying to learn when you undertake a location recce/location survey?

When undertaking a location recce or/and survey, the overall goal is to find out if the location is suitable for filming. The recce and survey will give you an answer to the question, they are both split up into multiple areas. Including the appearance of the location, access to the location, safety of the location and the natural needs of the crew and cast (i.e toilets).