Location Scout + Location Manager R. Richard Hobbs
Screen Digest | About Screen Digest
“Screen Digest is the pre-eminent source of business intelligence, research and analysis on global audiovisual media. Based in London, UK, Screen Digest has tracked the development the world’s media markets for more than 30 years.”
About | Analysts | Press Releases | Events
RH | GeoURL | NAC | Plazes | Dipity | outside.in | Mapufacture | Post Map
“In Nevada, every production is important. More than 600 projects a year including feature films, television series and specials, commercials and other media receive attention from the Nevada film office, be it assistance with location breakdowns and scouting, defining and managing logistics, intergovernmental liaison, resource gathering, materials provision, problem solving and more.”
I was in Nevada in Nov / Dec of 2007 with Team Q-Spheres in the Las Vegas / Lake Mead area - here are some photos. Find out more about Q-spheres.
RH | GeoURL | NAC | Plazes | Dipity | outside.in | Mapufacture | Post Map
New Jersey Motion Picture and Television Commission Production Services Directory
“The Production Services Directory is your comprehensive guide to production related personnel, goods and services available in New Jersey. Search the category index…” …read the rest…
RH | GeoURL | NAC | Plazes | Dipity | outside.in | Mapufacture | Post Map
Panoramio | About the Panoramio Team:
“Panoramio’s creators are Joaquín Cuenca Abela and Eduardo Manchón Aguilar. We are friends since secondary school and we come from two small towns in the South East of Spain. Panoramio was acquired by Google on July 2007″
Yahoo! Search: Panoramio
RH | GeoURL | NAC | Plazes | Dipity | outside.in | Mapufacture | Post Map
Update 3/26/08 - This is a general cleanup of an article I originally posted timestamped December 04, 2006 @ 09:07. At the time I wrote the original post, geotagged map solutions which could include photos were really just starting to come of their own (from what I could find myself and / or was able to wrap my head around at the time 
…
I am normally approaching investigation of new technologies from a point of view as a location scout or location manager with regard to how same might be applied usefully toward doing a better job as a location scout or location manager, more efficiently.
That said, it has become pretty easy as of late to build a simple, general purpose location map, i.e. placemarks of all the locations to be used in a production - with the address / other contact info / thumbnail(s) of the location(s) included), on a Google Map:
Still, every shoot is different, with different problems for the location department to solve and the solutions below are still very much alive at this writing, so scroll on thru on check em out… -RH
…via WheresSpot Blog…via New York Times. (requires free registration)
NY Times: Pictures, With Map and Pushpin Included | By IAN AUSTEN | Published: November 2, 2006
“KATHLEEN BENNETT recently bought a device that keeps track of her location with help from the satellites of the Global Positioning System. But unlike many other people in Seattle, Ms. Bennett is not, by her own description, “an outdoor person” and will not be using it to find her way through the wilderness.”
“Geotagging, sometimes referred to as Geocoding, is the process of adding geographical identification metadata to various media such as websites, RSS feeds, or images and is a form of geospatial metadata.” …read the rest…
…which, broadly speaking, is the practice of embedding geographic data in media of one type or another (i.e. “geotag” a …blog post …photo).
There are MANY uses for geotagging, i.e creating a waypoint in a map or perhaps embedding data in a photo to let that photo be associated with a waypoint on a map… then posting that photo online and linking it and the embedded geographic data to a map, showing just where in the world the shutter was pressed.
There are file formats (i.e. GeoRSS, GPX and KML) that “speak” in geographic terms. Much of this type of data is intended to be primarily machine readable, altho, ultimately, the end purpose is usually toward output which is “human readable”, or comprehensible and presumably, of some use to a person.
Geotagging and online mapping are parts of a field coming to be known as neogeography, or “new geography”.
“Tracking news, views, and conversations in 11,860* towns and neighborhoods” * …and counting…
From Outside.in’s FAQ:
“Q: What is outside.in?
A: Outside.in is the best way to discover the people, places and conversations in your community. Enter your city, neighborhood, or zip code in the field below the map (on the home page), and start exploring your community. We’ve designed outside.in to be the best resource online for:
Keeping up with news and opinions in your neighborhood Finding out the inside scoop on local places or events: schools, new real estate developments, playgrounds, bars Meeting interesting new neighbors, and sharing your local knowledge with them
Here are ways to geotag blog posts so that Outside.in can index them. Note: - you need to register your blog with Outside.in as it may be appropriate for inclusion on outside.in.
Map Examples:
The first map below utilizes geotagging, Google Maps and Flickr. It is a Widget published by Mapsack.
Next is another Mapsack mashup - it does not integrate the photos from Flickr, however, it does display a nice hybrid map and location of my office location in NJ <- ...this is a link to a Google Map...
note: the map above uses an iframe tag … in case you were curious what that might be…
This my Frappr Map (or “friend” map) - you can see an example of it embedded in a blog post here. It is interactive - you can add yourself to it- be my guest.
Finally, below is a map created using GeoPress, a WordPress plugin, which shows where I am located in Clifton, NJ.
RH | GeoURL | NAC | Plazes | Dipity | outside.in | Mapufacture | Post Map
updated 3/26/08 | original timestamp: December 04, 2006 @ 09:07
In November / December 2007, I travelled to the Lake Mead, NV area to meet with, along with the rest of Team Q-spheres USA, Jo VanHove and Frans VanDenBemd for an opportunity to familiarize ourselves with and use the Q-spheres digital capture system. During the course of the trip, not only did the American contingent of Team Q-spheres come away with a thorough training in Q-spheres technology and practices, the results of the actual Q-spheres sessions have provided us all with the valuable assets of beautiful lightspheres and backgrounds of the Nevada desert.
(above) Actual low-resolution lightfield of Team Q-spheres USA
Q-spheres training session, Lake Mead, NV - Jo Van Hove instructs Q-spheres Team Members
View Q-spheres Nevada Photoset on Flickr
locationexchange
RH | GeoURL | NAC | Plazes | Dipity | outside.in | Mapufacture | Post Map
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.”
“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:”
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.
RH | GeoURL | NAC | Plazes | Dipity | outside.in | Mapufacture | Post Map
The Creative Planet websites are the online version of all those niche trade magazines you always can never resist subscribing to (free for qualified subscribers!) and often wonder what you were thinking as six months of “Widgets Monthly” piles up unread; the upside of the online versions (if you can stay your trembling hand from subscribing by email) is you can stay up to speed on your own time on the latest technologies (yup, lot-o industrial/gear/tech press releases) online -and no trees died for your sins:
Feeds are available, but as far as I can tell only on the The Creative Planet websites, I wasnt able to find any links to subscribe to the feeds. It would be really nice if these feeds were rss-enabled on the public side; If they were, if you had the tech where-with-all to have (and have figured out how to use) a newsreader, subscribing to feeds to my mind is inherently a lot less painful than an email subscription when you just feel information-overloaded or grow loathe of whatever content you may have happenned to have subscribed to. A lot less potential privacy issues as well, altho admittedly a company such as CMP Media (parent of The Creative Planet websites) is by nature in the business of selling advertising based on aggregation of market research and demographics data, which is probably their reason for not offering up anonymous feed subscriptions. Just seems oh-so-old-school…oh well.
On the proverbial flip side of the burger, if you are a business in a related field, companies like CMP can provide an important outlet for announcements of newsworthy events or innovations that involve your business. As depressing as all those back issues of WidgetWorld can look piling up on your commode tank, the fact is that journalists rely on these types of periodicals and the data contained therein for background and research. You want to be sure there is plenty of positive hype about your ground-breaking widget in FindArticles as well as (obviously) on Google and Yahoo.
I personally also like PRWeb, and also NewsisFree for driving people crazy with announcements of my latest bits of news of widget of the month
About Creative Planet Communities
“Founded in 1997, the Creative Planet Communities, a division of NewBay Media LLC, offers online resources for the film and television production professional. Updated daily, the CPC sites offer news, articles and discussions forums for the creative community. The company’s network of sites includes 2-pop.com, VFXPro.com, Cinematographer.com, Videography.com, DCinematography.com and DesigninMotion.com.”
RH | GeoURL | NAC | Plazes | Dipity | outside.in | Mapufacture | Post Map
nyc.locationscout.us | News nyc.locationscout.us | Everything Else
Bad Behavior has blocked 1282 access attempts in the last 7 days.
Social Networking