Locations, Locations, Locations

These days, most of SoCal Film Group's biggest headaches don't come from trying to find good equipment or skilled crew or talented actors - they come from trying to find cool places to shoot our films.

If we were in Skokie or Four Corners, we could probably get people to let us shoot on their property for free, just so they could see a film crew in action. But in the greater Los Angeles area? Forget it. If you want to shoot on someone's property, you'd better be ready to shell out some serious dough, especially once you factor in power and insurance on top of the fees.

Here's an example - for one of our earliest projects, Steve And Danny Fuck Up, we had written a scene in a junkyard. You know, piles of rusted cars, assorted and unidentifiable mechanical doohickeys lying around; you should get a tetanus shot if you just drive by the place.

We found a couple of possibilities, out in the middle of nowhere, and figured they'd let us shoot there for the cost of feeding their junkyard dogs for a few days. Boy howdy, were we surprised when we got their quotes. Thousands of dollars a day, plus we'd have to bring in our own generators and get millions of dollars of liability insurance.

Liability insurance? For a JUNKYARD? What were they afraid we would do, break their already-broken shit?

Huh. Still bitter, I guess.

Anyway, we ended up having to drive halfway to Barstow on Interstate 15, and shot the scene in the middle of the desert. The upside was, we could shoot for free; the downside was we had to cram 8 people and equipment into two cars for a 2-hour drive, and Danny Grossman and I had to buy everybody a steak dinner as payment for making the trek.

We've been very lucky to have the support of the North Hollywood Masonic Lodge. We've shot maybe a dozen films in various rooms of that building, and we also hold our auditions there. No one has found Jimmy Hoffa or the National Treasure yet, but we're still looking.

Shooting on public property is somewhat different. We've made nearly 40 short films by now, and I think we've applied for a filming permit exactly once. We've spent three days in a public parking lot, staged kidnappings on the streets of Santa Monica, filmed on Universal CityWalk, driven on public streets with cameras strapped to the hood of the car, shot on the harbor docks, filmed a bunch of high school students setting up for Senior Prom, recreated a street full of hookers near LAX, you name it.

Every once in a while a police officer will drive up and ask us what we're doing, and if we have a permit. We've learned two important things:

1) Police officers generally aren't dicks; they don’t need to demonstrate their authoritay by rousting young filmmakers, and

2) Police officers hate being lied to. This is one of the few things that will overpower #1.

So, don't lie. Tell them you couldn't afford a permit, because your film's entire budget is 28 bucks and change. Tell them you'll leave if they want you to, but you'd appreciate it if they would allow you to stay for another hour or so, and then you'll be gone. Tell them, if anyone complains, you'll pack up and leave right then.

We've had some good results from taking that tack. Even when the cops told us we had to leave anyway, they weren't jerks about it; they were just doing their jobs. Don't take it personally.

And have a Plan B. Before you start shooting for the day, make sure all the cast & crew knows about your alternate location(s). If you get rousted, you're not going to be able to gather everyone for a huddle and confer about where you should go next - you have to be packing immediately. So scout a few decent locations, and make sure everyone knows where to go for your secondary location if you get bumped off your primary location.

I'm curious about how other ultra-low-budgie filmmakers find their locations. Do you have any tricks or techniques you'd like to share?