Let's Talk Locations

Hey Blog!

Aside from props, which I discussed in my last blog, the location is another very important element to consider when you're planning on filming. Having the right location means that a scene won't look too out of place since the background matches the storyline. It wouldn't look right to have a cooking show in a living room or a skiing movie at the beach. The right location allows for a more authentic feel where the audience can be properly immersed into the environment you, as a creator, are creating. In our film opening's case, the storyline is continuous which means that we really only need one location to film in over a couple different ones that all have different things happening in them.

Because we wanted a very summer-y feel of two friends simply enjoying their last summer before college, we thought that our extremely suburban city was a great place to film in. We only needed to choose whose neighborhood was a better fit. My neighborhood is very big and would have been a great area to film in, but we ultimately chose Sofia's because her house and her street were better fit for the shots we had in mind that we wanted to include. 

Image from YouTube, citation below

We wanted to have a scene like this where there's two (well three in this case) kids riding their bike down the street, and in this scene from Stranger Things they are running away from some people but our bike ride scene would be a lot more happy and upbeat, but the streets around Sofia's house allowed us to ride the bikes around and end up at her house in a fairly simple way but one that had more interesting possibilities than mine, which is honestly pretty boring in that it is simply one long street. 

Now, it may be asking, "but couldn't you film the street shots and the house shots in different places and fixed it in editing?" and the answer is yes, but our cars may actually thank us that Sofia's house has a more open floor plan that has a view of the entrance and the kitchen pretty much all in one pan of a camera, whereas my house is built in a more odd pattern that did not serve our functions.

So, due to the importance of the location, I'm glad that we were able to find one that worked in our favor so easily. This project has many elements to worry and stress over and I'm glad that we were able to get the location scouting out of the way so quickly. I think it will work perfectly in our opening.

SOURCE:
YouTube. (n.d.). Stranger Things - Season 1 Episode 7 Scene: Bike Chase - No Background Music | 4K 2160p HD. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LvUlY_4MnNo