Location shoots are often quite frustrating. When you’ve got the luxury of an entire Moonbase filled with props, equipment and things to play with, packing it all up to go somewhere that has no comfortable chairs or power outlets isn’t the most attractive option.
Location shoots are also usually cold, which as far as I’m concerned, just adds insult to injury. (Of course, my idea of “cold” is pretty different to everyone else’s, so it’s not uncommon to see me wearing two hoodies and a scarf while Matt is standing around in shorts and a light jacket.) Disputes about what temperatures are acceptable aside (which is, for those that care, at least 73 degrees fahrenheit / 22 degrees celsius, with only a light breeze), the other issue with location shoots is the ratio of preparation to finished product can be incredibly low.
Imagine spending: 15 minutes packing gear, 15 minutes driving to the location and finding parking, 5 to 10 setting up the camera and figuring out where to position the sound and lighting setups (longer if it’s a dolly shot), being interrupted at least five or six times by cars revving their engines on purpose and pedestrians passing through the shot gormlessly while mugging for the camera, another five or six retakes to ensure smooth delivery… and then realizing you’ve spent an hour on a 30 second establisher. And then it starts to rain. Or get dark and you have to reshoot sometime later in the week anyway.
Congratulations, you’re cranky, cold, possibly wet and likely making a rage face. All that said, the location shoots for The Quest for Wi-Fi actually went really smoothly and quickly, so… yeah. Locations!
This week’s trivia:
? The equipment used in the video was my iPhone, James’ laptop, Graham’s iPad and Matt’s old laptop from school, which he has now replaced with a new Apple laptop. While we do not actually endorse Apple, if they did want to throw a few bucks our way that would be rad. We’re not Apple fanboys per say, but Macs are the computers to have for video editing.
? Two Starbucks were used in this shoot. The window with the signs was Starbucks one, but a customer asked us not to film him, and as we needed a wide shot showing the entire frontage of the store, we decided to move to a different Starbucks. Also the first one was to use the technical filmmaking term, “hella backlit.”
? I’m seriously cold all the time. I was cold while in Southern California too. I’m cold right now. I’m not kidding. I’m wearing a hoodie with the hood up to keep my ears warm. BRR!
