Location recce report interior
Location recce report exterior
For this individual task, we had to demonstrate our skills on producing a location report for two settings. Using two existing scenes from television dramas (appendix 2 & 3), one being interior and the other exterior, the individual task included working as part of a location management task and creating initial assessments on the locations chosen. Included in location reports are risk assessments, photos and a SWOT analysis.
During this production, we had to scout two locations. To do this, I followed a published guide “The Ultimate Location Scouting Cheat Sheet for Producers and ADs, Michael Epstein, 2017). The guide advises you on the specifics to look out for during a location scouting and helped me chose my locations. For the interior location, I decided to report on a familiar setting and use the location of my university studio. In doing this I was able to create a very detailed report on where plug sockets are, what space would be available for equipment and the health and safety aspects of fire exits etc. For the exterior location, I also wanted to report on a familiar location in order to understand any restrictedness that may be faced. Due to my scene being location on a road, there was many options that I could have chosen. However, studying the existing location within the episode of Sherlock, I found the street to be characteristic and have a range of properties from homes, to cafes and restaurants. Using this information, I discovered a road that had a range of access points, a car park nearby and the option of blocking off the road to create space for any food trucks or portable toilets for crew members.
I chose to create a SWOT analysis on both locations as the first task for the report. This gave me information on the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats if each location and I was able to therefore analyse whether the locations would be workable in each scene I had chosen. A weakness that became apparent in both locations was electricity. Within the interior location, there were only 4 plug individual plug sockets within the set, that were available at two points. This meant cabling would be limited to where it could be laid and with the limitation of space it would become a health and safety hazard. The electricity weakness in the exterior location would be from having to gain a source of power from inside any existing properties along the street. This gave a lot of access points; however, it did mean long cables would be traced along the floor on parts of the set.
Sunlight can be an issue in locations in trying to gain natural light through windows. In both scenes I have chosen, one from Friends and one from Sherlock, they are both set within the evening hours of the day. This could make it difficult for working hours. Within the interior location I decided to check what hours would be available for access and discovered access is available 24-hours and security is on hand throughout the night. This meant no limitations on filming if the time of day is wished to be expressed through the light outside. There are however also black out blinds within the room that could make filming hours even easier.
The exterior location would be under the same issue of limitation to filming hours due to night time filming. This however would make the option of blocking the road off more accessible due to there being less traffic on the road later on in the day.
The success of this task came from an initial knowledge of the locations that I chose to use for both scenes as well as easy access in order to create a full report including photographs. Using the guide “The Ultimate Location Tech Scouting Checklist for Producers and ADs” (Michael Epstein, 2017) I was able to visualise the shots and how they would look when finalised.