nyc.locationscout.us

Times Square, New York City, NY - a photoset on Flickr by nyc.locationscout.us

Times Square, New York City: This series was photographed a few years ago when I was figuring out the best ways to produce panoramic photos for my film location files for my location library at locamundo.com. At the time I was playing around with Photoshop’s transform tools (skewer, perspective); in the quick-n-dirty world of location scouting photography, you use snapshot cameras and there are always differences in perspective (and often exposure) from frame to frame. The transforms and pasting layers didn’t turn out to be the most efficient way to make my pano’s (now I res the files down to screen resolution and use a stitching program, an oldie but goodie, PhotoVista) but it cant be denied that the transforms made for some interesting “art”

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Hardly anyone, leastly a location scout would argue that New York City has a boring skyline!

What’s very kewl too is there are lots and lots of places to view the NYC skyline from many angles.

Manhattan Skyline, NYC (c) nyc.locationscout.us

NYC Rooftops and Views contains some examples of some great cityscape locations available for film, photo, video and events.

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Attached are two (2) boilerplates of the location contracts we use so there is a written agreement between us, production and property owners when a deal has been negotiated to use a property as a filming location for a film, photo or video shoot.

(1) is a long form - the one that has been around here some time now, but often seems intimidating and “overkill” for “everyday” use…
(2) is a shorter form, less detailed but seems to-the-point for most everyday use.

Caveat: R. Richard Hobbs is NOT an attorney and makes no warranty of legal validity of either document presented here. These documents are presented for illustrative purposes only, do not neccesarily constitute legally binding agreement(s) and certainly do not represent agreements of any sort between R. Richard Hobbs and anyone who views or uses the aforementioned location documents. For legal advice seek the services of a registered, licensed law professional.

…at the same time, please feel free to use these documents for your own purposes as reference or for ideas to use to come up with your own forms.

MS Word Format:

1. Location Contract - long form MS Word .doc
2. Location Contract - short form MS Word.doc

PDF Format:

1. Location Contract - long form pdf
2. Location Contract - short form pdf

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Lcation Exchange | About LocationExchange

1. LocationExchange is a Co-operative Limited Liability Company, owned and operated by its members location professionals, founded on May 5th at the first Locamundo.Congress.

LocationExchange stands for: Exchange between members of know-how and knowledge, Exchange between location professionals and people needing locations, trading of locations (like a stock Exchange)…”

Locamundo and Q-spheres are divisions of LocationExchange.

locationexchange

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• New associates | Thursday, 19 April 2007, 9:42 am
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Geotag Your Blog, Site or Feed (addressfix.com) … via GeoPress and GeoRSS del.icio.us links

I am very impressed with Douglas Carr’s geotagging tool.

Geotagging and many other online mapping resources and mashups appearing new nearly daily on the internet (most of which are free and most currently sans ad clutter are useful tools for anyone in my chosen profession of location scouting.

Geopress is such a tool, being a mapping plugin for WordPress. You can find implementations of GeoPress all around my site, specifically in the form of the little maps you’ll see like the one at the end of this post of my current hometown of Clifton, NJ.

Nice folks at GeoPress too - I have corresponded with Andrew on a few occasions regarding questions I had about GeoPress and he has always been friendly and helpful.

GeoPress is part of the GeoRSS Project . The GeoRss Blog is a great map technology read.

If you like this kind of stuff you would do well to check out Google Maps Mania and the Official Google Maps API Blog. That should give you a running start.

Over time, I have made a few posts on nyc.locationscout.us about various online map and photo online tools and such, so you might want to poke around some.

Have fun -

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As a producer or production coordinator, when asked to estimate production costs for a specific shoot, there are almost always some of the basic line items that have to be covered…

The following laundry list is presented with the caveat that, every production is uniquely different and can, in fact (and often does) change on the fly. The following should be used ONLY as a very basic jumping off point:

1. assumes the shoot is for commercial / advertising or editorial / corporate still photo shoot with high production values
2. local (no overnight travel) location shoot
3. a. specific in some cases to the New York City area
4. assumes there is professional talent (models) to be involved

Basic Line Items to Consider:

• Crew

1. Producer (you!;-)
a. PrePro Day(s) (research, crewing, coordination…)
b. Shoot Day(s)
c. Strike / Wrap/ Returns Day(s)

2. Location Scout
a. Research / File Pull Fees / Clearing / Permitting
b. Location Scouting - Photography / Organization / Presentation / Storage
c. Tech Scouting with Photographer / Client
d. Location Management - on set presence on shoot day

3. Casting Director
a. Research / Booking Day(s)
b. Casting Day(s)

4. Stylist(s) (Wardrobe / Set / Prop Stylist(s) as appropriate
a.Research / PrePro / Prep Day(s)
b. Shopping Day(s)
c. Shoot Day(s)
d. Wrap / Strike / Returns Day(s)

5. Hair and Makeup / Groomer
a. Shoot Day(s)

6. Digital Tech
a. Prep / Research / Rental Equipment Pickup / Returns Day(s)
b. Shoot Day(s)

7. Assistants
7a. First Assistant
a. Research / PrePro / Rental Equipment Pickup / Returns Day(s)
b. Shoot Day(s)
7b. 2nd Assistant
a. Research / PrePro / Rental Equipment Pickup / Returns Day(s)
b. Shoot Day(s)
7c. 3rd / 4th Assistant(s)
a. Shoot Day(s)
7d. Stylist Assistant(s)
a. Research / PrePro / Prep / Shopping Day(s) / Returns Day(s)
b. Shoot Day(s)
7e. Casting Assistant(s)
a. Research / Prep Day(s)
b. Casting Day(s)

• Talent
• Location(s)

1. Photo Location(s)
a. Prep / Wrap Day(s)
b. Shoot Day(s)
2. Casting Studio
a. Casting Day(s)
3. Stylist Prep Space
a. Prep Day(s)
4. Talent Holding / Equipment / Prop Staging Space(s)
a. Prep (Staging) Day(s)
b. Shoot Day(s)

• Equipment Rentals

1. Photo Equipment (often as coordinated btn and specified per photographer / digital tech / assistants)
a. Cameras
b. Computers / Accessory Hardware
c. Lighting / Grip

2. Stylist / Misc Rentals
a. Steamer(s) / Clothes Rack(s) / Hangers/ Iron/ Ironing Board/ Tools (some items may be part of kit?)
b. Folding Tables (as may be needed for equipment / props / wardrobe / catering / client workspace)
c. Folding Chairs (as may be used by idle crew / talent / client workspace)
d. Golf / Sun Umbrellas / Folding Canopies / Tent(s) (if outdoors)

• Props / Wardrobe

1. Possibilities to be either/ or purchase(s) / rentals. Coordinate with Photographer/ Stylist / Client

• Set / Prop / Model Construction

1. Set Building is more often related to a studio shoot but probably worthy of mention / consideration here

2. Prop or Model / Miniature / Mock-Ups

• Catering / Food Service / Refreshments

• Transportation

1. Motorhome (if needed)
a. Shoot Day(s)
2. Equipment Truck(s) / Van(s) Rental
a. Prep / Pickup PrePro Day(s) (if equipment not delivered by vendor)
3. Crew Transportation (Cabs / Subways / Auto Rentals as might be used by crew - could be mileage paid if crew owns vehicle)
a. Photo Asst(s) Equipment Rental Pickup / Return
b. Stylist / Stylist Asst(s) Shopping / Prep / Returns
c. Location Scout
d. Casting Director (i.e. Street Casting)
e. Talent (especially if location is outside Manhattan)
4. Trucking and Deliveries / Pickups (if not done by crew as may be appropriate)
a. Product/ Merch (if not arranged by client)
b. Equipment (Cameras / Computers / Lighting / Grip)
b. Props / Wardrobe
c. Couriers (client / crew production hard copy correspondence as may be appropriate)
d. Catering Delivery / Pickup (often part of Catering Fee from caterer)

• Misc

1. Shipping (i.e. hard drives / merch / props to / from client)
2. Gas / Tolls / Parking
3. Copies / Printing/ Misc Office Expenses (i.e sundry call sheets / production books / other office correspondence
4. Long Distance Phone Charges / Faxes

Delicious/rrhobbs/production

• InBaseline - The Industry’s TV and Movie Database | Sunday, 26 April 2009, 9:53 am
  InBaseline - The Industry’s TV and Movie Database #filmindustry #tv #directories #InBaseline
• [Exit, Produced By A Bear] | Thursday, 16 April 2009, 5:38 pm
  [Exit, Produced By A Bear] #mediaproducers productionpeeps ####################
• Judy Inc | Tuesday, 31 March 2009, 10:43 am
  Judy Inc | Fashion / Wardobe | Hair / Makeup | Off Figure / Product | Prop / Room Set | Food / Tabletop | Creative Services

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I was interviewed last week by New York, NY CBS affiliate WCBS-TV, for a video news article entitled Hollywood Being Priced Out of 1 Upscale Rockland County Town that ran on the Thursday, April 12th 11pm Newscast and in extended form the following morning on the Morning News regarding a situation in Orangetown Township, NY whereby the town has initiated a $500 per hour fine for film crews present before 7a.m. or after sunset.

As I said on camera, Orangetown’s fees are exorbitant. I could never recommend sending a film crew to Orangetown under these circumstances. Film makers are not fools and contrary what many casual observers seem to think from what they may have seen on Entertainment Tonight, the production side of film and tv are not about burning thru money as fast as you can throw it on a fire, which is about what Orangetown’s fees amount to.

Directors Guild of America (DGA) publication on the subject of runaway film production

Evidently, at some time or another, someone was inconvenienced by production vehicle traffic (I am told it is one individual in particular and a review of town meeting minutes on the town website reflects a couple of instances where the same few specific residents made complaints about filming activities). The Town Supervisor, Thom Kleiner was quoted as saying they were inconvenienced by truck traffic.

The majority of film productions are very willing to work to with local residents as well as local government and law enforcement to facilitate conditions with every one’s best interests in mind. It seems like something cumulatively seriously fell thru the cracks in Orangetown.

It just doesn’t seem to all add up.

Time lost by residents due to occasional temporary neighborhood film-production traffic delays: 15 minutes?

Time spent preparing for and attending town meetings to complain: hours?

What’s sad is the town has cow-towed to these several misguided and selfish individuals. The many positive effects that film production has on a local community seems to be lost on this bunch.

Film production brings business to town. If there is a crew shooting they are likely putting people in hotels, eating in local resturants and using local caterers, shopping at local retailers and spending money with any number of other local businesses, not to mention owners of property used for locations who could be banking several mortgage payments in fees when their properties get utilised by production even just short-term.

Film production is a decent-size industry which accounts for around $5 billion a year New York City alone. In fact, contrary to popular belief, the local film offices exist not primarily as arts and cultural entities but rather as offices of economic development and the New York State Film Office and New York City Mayors Office of Film, Theater and Broadcast (MOFTB) are very active at their respective government levels to create tax incentives to attract film makers. A study of effects of New York City’s recent Made in New York Incentive reflects dramatic annual shoot day increases over the past several years which translates to a more than $3 billion increase in city revenue from film production. Tax incentives have shown to generate 30%+ returns, or, every tax dollar waived, have resulted in $1.34 in increased overall revenue.

The New York State Film Office and NYC MOFTB have both worked long and hard to attract filming to the state and greater NYC metro area, so, a town like Orangetown is, for all intents and purposes, shooting the film offices (as well as their own local economic development) in the foot.

Film Production is clean. You dont have to worry about cleaning up the ground water after a film company leaves town.

There is no doubt that for most people, being able to say that you have had a movie made in your town brings a sense of pride and most find experiencing the process to be fun and exciting.

An active local film/arts community does a lot to raise the cultural level of any town or city.

C’mon Orangetown, wake up and smell the coffee!

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Tomorrow night (Tuesday, April 3rd, 2007) will be the third and final session of the Location Scouting and Location Management Workshop that Mark McKennon and I have been teaching at Learning Annex in New York City.

Details and registration form are available on the Learning Annex Website. Just navigate to “Local Classes” (New York) and to the date (April 3, 2007)

Better hurry if this workshop is something you would like to attend!

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This past week I was contacted by a mid-Westchester County, NY property owner about the prospect of using their 200 year-old farmhouse home as a shoot location for film, photo or video projects.

As evidenced by the rest of the content here on my website and very likely because you were looking for someone like me, you probably already know I am a location scout and location manager and maintain a location library of shoot-ready locations for use by film, video and photo production.

In addition to being a beautiful home, this particular house has the distinction of recently being the “hero house”, or one of the main filming locations in the soon-to-be-released Miramax Film Corporation feature film, The Hoax, directed by Lasse Hallström, starring Richard Gere and Alfred Molina (complete IMDB webpage here) which attempts to tell the story of the Clifford Irving / Howard Hughes autobiography scandal of the 1970’s.

The owner relates to me that filming for the movie last year at their home went on pretty much full time for a period of about two months and that, overall, they enjoyed the experience and wish to host more shoots at their home in the future.

The home is located within a 30 mile radius of Columbus Circle, New York City, so it may be considered “within the zone” for many film and video shoots.

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Mark McKennon and I were featured recently on the New York City Mayor’s Office of Film, Theater and Broadcast (MOFTB) website!

Read about it here and here.

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I have joined LocationExchange.

Locamundo has been acquired by LocationExchange.

locationexchange

• Website q-spheres live ! | Tuesday, 26 June 2007, 9:54 am
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• Jeep Compass Q-Sphere production | Friday, 15 June 2007, 5:39 am
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• New associates | Thursday, 19 April 2007, 9:42 am
  We welcome Dan Uneken and John Cody as new associates to LocationExchange. Dan and John work in the South of Spain and Morocco, both regions with good. […]

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Mark McKennon and I will be teaching a Location Scouting and Location Management Class at Learning Annex starting in January 2007. I taught this class with Mark once before in 2004.

Right now we are scheduled for three sessions. The first class session is January 16th, 6:45pm, in New York City, NY. All classes will be held in New York City, NY. Class location(s) will be announced by Learning Annex to registered students prior to class.

HERE is the complete class description and registration instructions.

Schedule:

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I recently worked on finding a location for a very interesting art/marketing project in New York City for Lexus.

Jane Stuart of HomeworkPeople and I worked with World Financial Center (NYC) for Inform Ventures, LLC (Los Angeles) to provide a location for the installation, which was created by nARCHITECTS (NYC).

-RH

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Yours Oughta be in Pictures… | By JENNY HIGGONS | (Original publication: October 18, 2006)

“You probably wouldn’t recognize these Rockland homes if you passed them on the street, but they’ve starred in some famous Hollywood flicks. Think your home has movie-star potential?

Charles Mouquin and his wife, P.J., barely had to break their daily routine—or even a sweat—to earn in 17 days what many people earn in a year. The Sparkill couple simply had to—all expenses paid, thank you very much—spend a night in a ritzy Manhattan hotel and briefly put their dogs in a kennel during a nighttime shoot. How did the Mouquins snag such a sweet deal? Last year they rented out their 9,000-square-foot Sparkill mansion on 19 acres to 20th Century Fox for the filming of Stay, its movie starring Ewan McGregor, Ryan Gosling and Naomi Watts. OK, so the psychological thriller’s box-office take was a drop in the bucket compared to its estimated $50 million budget. But no matter: The Mouquins still got a tidy bundle for the use of their Second Empire Victorian home built in 1873. (The couple was reticent about revealing the exact amount, but let’s just say it was a healthy five-figures.”

…read more…

I am interviewed and quoted several times in the above article.

Ms. Higgon’s article, in my (admittedly biased) opinion, gives a pretty even-handed overview of what a property owner might expect in the course of an encounter with a location scout or film crew if approached with regard to having their property used for filming or during the course of a number of in-production filming situations.

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MOFTB: Scouting Tag Program Discontinued

“May 23, 2006- Effective June 30, 2006, the Mayor’s Office of Film, Theatre and Broadcasting will no longer issue production scouting tags and all existing scouting tags will expire. Due to the success of the “Made in NY” tax incentive program, the City has accomplished its goal of attracting increased production business and employment for New Yorkers who work in the entertainment industry. In an effort to balance the needs of production and the communities in which they work, the MOFTB will no longer issue scouting tags. Easing the impact of parking upon neighborhoods will serve to keep locations film friendly, and allow the City to attract even more employment for our local entertainment professionals. The MOFTB will continue to issue tags to essential production vehicles with the shooting permit.”

Cinematical | NYC Cuts Film Industry Perk | Posted Jun 13th 2006 8:01PM by Christopher Campbell | Filed under: Newsstand

“Just when the city of New York is enjoying a surge in film production, hopefully cutting down on movies set in NYC but shot in Canada, a new decision is pissing off a lot of people in the movie business.”

…read more…

“The Reeler | Tag, You’re Out: NYC Location Scouts’ Parking Perks Revoked | June 13, 2006

“AM New York’s Chuck Bennett today has the “latest” on the troubles affecting New York’s location scouts, whose liberal, city-sanctioned parking privileges will expire June 30–never to return. The news is kind of old–the Mayor’s Office for Film, Theater and Broadcasting made the announcement May 23–but in case you wanted to hear location scouts bitching on the record, here you go:”

…read more…

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060614/ap_en_mo/film_scout_parking_2 (dead link) | By SARA KUGLER, Associated Press Writer Tue Jun 13, 8:11 PM ET

“NEW YORK - Film scouts trolling New York City for its picturesque stoops and street corners won’t be free to park wherever they want now that officials are halting a special parking-permit program.”

I was interviewed by phone today (but evidently, not quoted by name) by Sara Kugler from WABC-Radio in New York City. Here is some of what we discussed and points I tried to make:

Looks like we location scouts might be losing our location scouting tag priveleges come July.

“And what exactly is a location scouting tag privelege?”, you say?

Well… upon completing a New York City filming permit application at the New York City Mayor’s Office of Film, Theater and Broadcast (MOFTB), requesting scouting tag(s) and approval of MOFTB, location scout(s), (for the duration of time allotted on the permit) have considerable leeway and freedom to park anywhere in the five boros in order to see locations with potential for use in their production.

This is indeed a gift in a city the size and density of New York. Public parking is scarce at best and fraught with not only arcane parking restrictions, but sometimes those arcane parking restrictions are obscured further by the fact that the parking signs that contain those arcane parking restrictiction are, in fact, often absent, whether it be by theft/vandalism, perhaps having been in a spot where an auto accident occurred… there are a lot of reasons a parking sign could be missing in a town the size of NYC.

The location scouting tag basically gives you the privelege to park wherever you can (with the intention of performing your duties as a location scout), provided you dont place human life in jeopardy (i.e. obvious no-no’s like parking in front of a firehouse driveway, or in an ambulance exitway) and be immune to the city’s ubiquitous “Brownies” (NYPD Traffic Enforcement) and the quite pricy parking citations they are employed to hand out (the last parking ticket I got some years back cost something like $85). If you receive a ticket, you turn it in with your scouting tag- it goes away.

Doctors and foreign diplomats, as well as some members of the press (this could be an incomplete list) are eligible for many of these same priveleges.

Alas, reports of abuses as well as the fact (per the excerpted article above) that the city has achieved its filming incentive goals combined with the undebatable fact that parking in New York is scarce in the first place may spell the end to scouting tag priveleges for NYC location scouts.

I had a scouting tag once; I was working on a feature film, 9A several years go. The shooting schedule was tight, we were facing significant challenges regarding fulfilling locations required by the script, including scouting for night shots (at night) in what most would consider “less than desirable” parts of town; the scouting tag helped. A lot.

Another argument for continuing the scouting tag privelege in NYC:

New York is a world-class city. Some of the world’s most famous films (including tv shows, commercials, videos and photgraphs) have been made in NYC.

As a location scout, one of the reasons you live in the NYC area is to have an opportunity to work on projects of this caliber.

It is not unreal to assume that you could, in fact, find yourself driving around NYC (showing locations) in the same car together with an Oscar-winning director or acclaimed director of photography, a producer you just read about in a tabloid and a bazillion-dollar net-worth executive producer or financier, with the power between them to give the nod or say no to bringing $100 million or more in jobs or business to the city. (This is “economic development”. It’s good for cities. Production is good at that. And production doesnt pollute the air and water.) Anyway, I am sure you can see the motivation to let these people feel special and get their jobs done quickly and easily.

In contrast, the film industry has changed a lot in the past few years, nowadays, there are hundreds, if not thousands, of smaller budget films in production in New York each year, thanks to the advent of the internet and digital imaging, which have effectively taken content distribution out of the hands of a few big-money players and put it into the hands of anyone with a passion to tell a story and can afford a camera, a crew, talent and their locations. Individually, these types of productions dont always spend that much, but as the sum of the parts, this group represents a sizable chunk of change in New York’s annual production income. It is this group that will be most affected by the scouting tag change, as they will have to figure into their budgets that their scouts will either have to pay for parking or for parking tickets. New York is already a fairly expensive town just to exist in, period; discontinuing the location scouting tag privelege could be one of many ways that production might have an incentive to go elsewhere. This is what is known as “runaway production”

It’s a couple of more weeks till the scouting tag priveleges are scheduled to go away. It’s been good.

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