Ep. 60 Planning to film your doco on location? Here's what you need to know!

Filming in unique and unforgettable locations is definitely a perk of documentary-making! But it requires excellent planning to pull off. 

In this episode of Moonshine Moonshot, we're going to talk about the major differences between filming interstate or overseas, vs filming in your own town and all the different jobs, equipment, crew and time allocation that is needed to make your location filming happen.

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Transcript

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SPEAKER_00 0:03

Hello movie makers! If you're creating a documentary, the chances are that it won't all be done on a green screen. Unless you're Errol Morris and you're making the fog of war. In which case, that was all studio and archival footage, so I'll rephrase. Unless you're Errol Morris, you're likely going to be heading out on location to film substantial parts of your documentary film. So in this episode of the Moonshine Moonshot podcast, I am sharing what a typical shoot day on location might look like, how much footage you need to capture, and how much screen time that footage will equate to in the final edit. So the last couple of Moonshine Moonshot episodes were all about the tech, all about sound and camera gear. So it's actually, I'm really relieved to now be talking about where you're going to go and put that gear to use being locations. Now, there's two types of locations that I'm going to be discussing here today. First, there's the type of location that you'll have if you're filming at home or in your hometown. And the second is filming interstate or overseas. There are different considerations for these two types of location filming. And as always, if you're wanting to backpedal before moving forward, just jump back to the previous podcast. If you need to check out the, you know, the episodes leading up to this, because maybe you're not quite ready to jump out on location yet. But you know what? You can listen on from here, and when you are ready, you can always come back and re-listen to this. So Mike and I are also breaking down the topic of locations in the companion video over at the Moonshine Communications Academy YouTube channel. So if you want more depth than what I'm discussing here, you can definitely jump over there. And you know, why am I the one to tell you all about this? I am very glad you've asked. I'm Sue Collins and I'm your host on the Moonshine Moonshop podcast on making movies that matter. And I'm also part of the team behind Moonshine Agency, which is an impact film production house producing multi-award-winning films that have a positive social impact. Impact films are films that are designed to take an audience from passive viewing to being an active participant. It gets them doing something, getting involved, or being part of a solution. Now I have also recognised, and this is my part of being a solution, is that I've recognised that learning how to craft films is really challenging. It's a lot to learn. And when I was just starting out, it was actually very hard to find the right information and learn about filmmaking without attending formal study or without being under the wing of a mentor. And I was lucky I did have some very good mentors. So avoiding pitfalls, being pigeonholed, running out of funding, simply not understanding the business side of the industry has meant that over the years I have seen many people, people with a lot of talent, give up or simply move on to more stable work. But my hope is that I really want the industry to thrive here in Australia and beyond. And I recognize that to do that, I've got to be way more open with my skills sharing. So that's what I'm doing through what I've learned of many years of filmmaking. I'm sharing it with you through this podcast, The Moonshine Moonshot, and also through online courses over at the Moonshine Communications Academy. So make sure you check out the Academy, particularly the resources section, where you can access things like free downloads, check sheets, and ebooks. And if you haven't already come across them, there's some really good online digital courses available through the Academy, such as Define Your Ideal Audience, which helps you figure out who your project's best suited to well before you even roll camera or get out onto your location to film. And that is what we're talking about today. So, first things first, are the crew coming by bus? Well, that would be kind of unusual, but if you've got a big crew, they might you might organize a bus to get you all out on location. But before you do head out, you need to have planned what you want to do on the day. Now that sounds really obvious, but you'd be surprised how many people, when they're starting out, just kind of have a vague idea, grab a camera and go for it. But I would recommend that you have a call sheet and that you've already done all the work of telling your cast and crew where to go and at least what time to be there. Because part of that planning includes figuring out what you need to capture and how it will fit into your overall film. In other words, how much screen time would you expect to capture on a shoot day out on a location? It's a really good question because how can you know what that end result will be? So it's really important to have a realistic goal that works within your schedule and within your budget. And what do I mean by a realistic goal? Well, if it helps in your estimation, when Mike, my co-producer, and I are out on a shoot, we're always striving to capture enough to create one story to make up around three to five minutes of screen time. Obviously, this is a rule of thumb, it's not a hard and fast rule. Any less than three minutes, and that might suggest that we haven't made the most of our time on that shoot. Or perhaps something went wrong. Maybe an interview fell through, or there was really bad weather, and that slowed us down. But if you're thinking five minutes doesn't seem like very much, well, you know, you you're right to an extent because getting that final five minutes, you're actually going to need hours and hours of raw footage, and you would be amazed at how much ends up on the cutting room floor. And of course, every shoot is different. But if we're taking an average on location shoot, this would be an achievable goal. And look, that could be over two or three days of shooting. So, you know, it might be overly ambitious, depending on what you're doing, to get enough footage all in one day to make up three to five minutes of story. But if you're filming at a particular location over two or possibly three days, I would absolutely be expecting that you'd get a fully fleshed out story for your film from that much time invested. And again, as I said, every film's different, it's going to depend on your topic, it's going to depend on exactly what you're doing. But by way of an example, which might help just to just to bring it to light a little bit. So if I'm thinking very specifically about a shoot that I went on in Sydney, I'm from Melbourne and the shoot was in Sydney. So I flew up to Sydney and we were there for filming for a new project, completely new project altogether. And on this particular shoot, we were using multi-cameras for the interviews. We were using overlay of a person that we were filming with, and she was actually doing some open water swimming down at a very beautiful beach. It was a nice location to get to, I've got to say. We got b-roll footage of this person in their home. And lastly, we changed locations to an entirely different location across town, which was more of a medical clinic. So that specific day of shooting, we started at 6.30 a.m., as I mentioned, open water swimming, and that was done very early in the morning. And the filming actually concluded at around 1 p.m. So we combined some archival footage and a couple of extra hours which we filmed on the following day. And the footage we captured of that story will probably end up being, as I said, three to five minutes of screen time. So we flew up to Sydney on a Sunday afternoon. We started filming first thing very early on the Monday morning, filmed for just over half a day. And then we actually did some meetings in the afternoon, but you know, that might not be part of your plan. But we just made the use of the time in Sydney to meet some other people and get some other projects underway. And then the following morning we went and captured a bit more footage and then we flew home. So, you know, that was uh roughly two days of shooting across two and a half days up in Sydney. And we'll we're it was an amazing story. I can't wait to share it with the world. Be a little while away, as you know. Documentaries move at a glacial pace, but eventually it will be out, and I'll be able to show you the example. So the reason that that shoot all ran so smoothly and we were able to finish at 1 p.m. in the afternoon was organization. Like that is the absolute key to success on a location shoot is being organized. There is a really big difference between filming locally, as in in your hometown, or interstate or internationally. When you're at home, organization is still incredibly important, but you've got a bit more flexibility. When you're filming in your hometown, rescheduling if someone cancels or getting pickups, delays you might experience, they're much easier to accommodate depending on what you're doing. And you can be more flexible around your interviewees availability, when locations are okay to shoot at. And if weather's bad for an outdoor location, it's not as complex usually to postpone the shoot. However, when you are shooting interstate or internationally, these types of delays are much harder to accommodate and they can have significant cost implications. Look, I know I sound like a broken record when it comes to organization, but believe me, it is a really big part of filmmaking, and even the most simple of things when planning your locations is going to have a really huge impact. Things like, you know, when you're booking your accommodation, try and book it as close and conveniently to where you're going to be filming. Not always possible, but when you can, that's going to make it so much easier for early morning starts if you don't have to travel a long way. And whether you need to hire a car, you can work out, maybe you only need to get Ubers. Or perhaps you might just use public transport. Although I've got to say public transport's pretty tough with the amount of film gear we all tend to lug around, but you just might find that's a better option depending on what you're doing. And all of these things affect time, people, budget, and your final production. So I absolutely recommend thinking through how you're going to get from A to B, where you're going to stay, and all the bits and bases that go with that. So that's what I'm talking about when I'm talking about organization. The other part of this is filming interstate or especially internationally, because jet lag, don't underestimate the fatigue. And I'm speaking from experience when I say shooting day after day after day on locations. It's really, really tiring, especially if you're dealing with environments that are hot, maybe they're humid, dusty, or just generally, you know, not the best climate to be filming in. Not to mention that once you finish the shoot day, you'll need to bump out all your equipment from wherever you're located. You've got to charge all the batteries, you've got to copy down all the files from your memory cards to your hard drive, create a backup, check all the footage, make sure everything worked, make sure you're happy with it in case there's still time to do pickups if you need to. And the other battery that might run out is you. When you're shooting all day, the most mundane and routine of shoots can be exhausting, and the rougher the environments and the tougher the weather, even more so. So my recommendation is, and this is definitely a budget and time factor, but if you can, try to schedule your shoots in four-day blocks. It just gives you that fifth day to have downtime and then maybe get back to it on day six. But as I said, time, location, budget all factors into this, but just try and pace yourself. So when it comes down to it, how you manage your locations is going to come down, as I said, to your budget, your timeline, the shoots you're planning to capture, and where you're going. Not to mention the talent that you're filming with and their availability. So as I mentioned, filming in your hometown may allow you the flexibility and you know to do reshoots and pickups and all kinds of things. But the ability to spend many hours on a few shoots at home, you simply can't do that on international shoots. You're going to be so much busier and you need to pack everything into a pretty tight schedule. But that being said, an international shoot may be exactly what your film requires. And it's a definite perk of the job to be able to get out and uh get out and see the world as part of your work. I mean, honestly, that is one of the biggest perks of being a documentary filmmaker. And I'm saying this with a little bit of excitement because um I'm off to the US for a huge month-long shoot very soon, and I'm super excited about it because it's a continuation of a documentary project I've been working on for a long time. Now, if you're still working out where you want to shoot and what you want to shoot, we'll be covering location scouting in well, we actually already did cover that in a previous episode. So you can head back through whatever podcast you're listening on and find the podcast episode on location scouting, which will help you figure out how to choose the locations that you want to film at in the first instance. So be sure to check that out. And if it's still not what you're looking for, reach out to me. You know, I'm very easy to contact. It's just support at Moonshine Communications Academy.com or just direct message me on Instagram, which is just the uh Moonshine Communications Academy Instagram account. Because, you know, I'm here to help and I'd love to help you achieve your movie making goals. So don't forget to tune in next week and hit subscribe on whatever platform you are listening on because I will be back next week and I'm gonna be talking all about production stills. You might not have thought about why that would be important before, but when you're making a documentary, production stills are extremely important, and I'm gonna go through how you need to capture them and what you can use them for. So speak to you next Tuesday. Till then, happy filmmaking.