COURTESY

When showing up en masse at a home or business, behave quietly and respectfully. Location owners do not always understand the number of people and vehicles a production entails. Remembering that you are a guest helps ensure that a location agreement will not be rescinded by prior to shooting.

The Producer should organize mandatory carpools by department, reducing the vehicle footprint and allowing for ideas and work to flow during transit.

You can check out from the ER a large car magnet with the FSU logo and “Location Scouting Vehicle” that you can put on your car door.

DOCUMENTS

By the night before the tech scout, the Producer (in concert with the 1st AD) should post the Tech Scout Schedule document to the production’s slack channel. This document lets students and faculty know the travel schedule for the day, the time of lunch, and which scenes will be done at which location, as well as the approximate amount of time it will take at each location for all departments to adequately plan for production. Ideally one starts with the most distant location from the Film School and then works backward geographically closer to home.

For the day of the Tech Scout, the Producer should provide paper copies of the latest production draft of the script (with locked scene numbers) as well as a copy of the One-Line Schedule (strip board). These paper documents allows crew members to take notes and ask relevant questions about production requirements for each scene, as well as which day of shooting and which time of day specific scenes will occur.

Up-to-date documents should also be posted to the project slack channel by the night before the Tech Scout.

TIME FOR TRAVEL AND LUNCH

Lunch is not provided. It is a good idea to list one or more inexpensive lunch options that are closest between two locations, and account for drive and wait times. A minimum of 45 minutes (not including travel) should be allocated for lunch. If running ahead, move up the next location on the schedule to avoid lunches more than 90 minutes. Whenever possible, the crew should lunch together to discuss what they have learned so far and make any changes to the schedule for the rest of the day.

LEADERSHIP RESPONSIBILITIES

During the Tech Scout, it is the Producer’s responsibility is to proactively be in contact with the next location and anticipate any changes to the schedule throughout the day. Location owners must be made aware in advance that a window of time is needed rather than a specific time, as tech scouts often run ahead or behind schedule. The Producer must have telephone numbers for all location owners for this purpose.

During the Tech Scout it is the 1st AD’s responsibility to take notes on behalf of the Director regarding any questions from faculty and department heads about items that will need to be addressed after the Tech Scout.

For cycles where the BTL is scheduled during pre-production (such as MTH), the BTL crew will attend the Tech Scout in order to proactively plan for their respective departments’ needs. In addition, the Script Supervisor is responsible for confirming any questions about scene numbers. The Script Supervisor should already have broken down the story chronology of the script and should be prepared to answer questions or provide information to the 1st AD about what story day or night is being discussed (D1, N1, D2, N2…, D9, N10, etc.) This is important information for departments (such as wardrobe, hair, makeup, etc.) for scripts that cover more than a few days of story time.

For cycles where the BTL is not scheduled during pre-production (such as D1 & D2), the department heads must take into consideration the needs of each department.

SCENE-BY-SCENE DETAIL

For each and every scene number, the 1st AD’s responsibility is to, in an orderly and organized fashion, physically walk the crew to the exact location for each scene heading. After detailing which scenes will be done there, how many pages will be covered, and on which day of shooting, the 1st AD turns to the Director for the Action Overview (explaining the action to be covered) and then manages the necessary time needed for Departmental Exploration (technical considerations to execute).

ACTION OVERVIEW

For each scene number, the Director describes and stages the proposed action of the scene (using stand-ins), while the DP and the crew watch from the position of the master shot (or dominant angle of the scene). The 1st AD fields any questions from any departments regarding the scene, which are generally answered by the Director or Director of Photography. When there are no more questions, the 1st AD describes the next scene number at that location (usually in story chronology) and the Director repeats the same process until the action of all scenes in that particular area have been described.

DEPARTMENTAL EXPLORATION

When all the Action in an area has been described, before moving on to the next area the 1st AD allows time (usually 10 minutes) for departments to explore and manage any technical considerations and challenges. The 1st AD watches department heads and faculty problem-solve and explore, and makes sure all departments have time, even if some have already finished. When all departments are satisfied, the 1st AD walks the crew to the next area and repeats this entire process (see Scene-by-Scene Detail, above). This process is repeated for all scene numbers no matter how small the size (bathrooms, etc.) or short the scene (establishing shots, etc.).

DEPARTMENTAL NOTES

While the 1st AD takes general notes on questions from faculty, it is important for all crew members (but especially Department Heads) to take notes on their script, detailing specific departmental necessities of each scene. Examples of what to note include:

• logistical factors (distance diagrams, outlet locations, etc.)
• details from the script relevant to the department
• changes to the script based on discoveries at the location
• production limitations and rules (location of staging areas, greenroom, craft services, parking, etc.)

LOCATION OVERVIEW

When all scenes have been described, Departments should have a final chance to go outside and review any larger technical considerations related to the overall location (crew parking, truck parking, etc.) prior to departing and travel to the next major Location.

RELEASING FOR TRANSIT

At the end of a location overview, or at the end of the day, the 1st AD should gather the crew and offer all Department Heads a chance for any final observations or questions before releasing the crew to drive to the next location, lunch, or home for the day.