Shooting On Location
Location shooting in the film, television, and photography industries refers to a shoot that occurs out in the world rather than in a studio or on a soundstage. This might involve shooting outdoors, like in a park or on the street. It could also mean shooting indoors at locations such as a mall, a restaurant, or even inside a home.
Filmmakers like to shoot on location for a variety of reasons. The most common reason is to achieve realism. Shooting a park scene inside a soundstage made to look like a park won’t appear as realistic as shooting in an actual park. The depth of field will be different. On a soundstage, you’ll likely have a semi-realistic foreground with a painted or photographed background, similar to scenes in The Wizard of Oz. If you shoot in an actual park, the surroundings will look as they would in real life.
Cost is another reason that filmmakers prefer a location shoot over a set or soundstage. Take, for instance, the interior of a home. On a smaller budget shoot, building a realistic set that resembles a house interior can be costly and time-consuming. It may also exceed the film’s budget. Shooting inside an actual home can be a simpler, more budget-friendly option. A real home comes already furnished, lived-in, and fully realized.
When a television show uses the same interiors in every episode, it typically builds those sets on a soundstage. The living room of your favorite family sitcom, for example, was likely a stage. This is for a couple of reasons. First, if the show needs to use the same set every single week, location shooting would become expensive and laborious. When you shoot on location, you have to bring everything with you: cast, crew, equipment, trailers, etc. The second reason is that most producers tend to shoot sitcoms in front of a live studio audience. You can’t exactly bring an audience on location. However, television shows will still use location shooting for specific scenes. These might include scenes set at a soccer field, a mall, an ice skating rink, or an amusement park.
Although location shooting can lend realism and budgetary help to a shoot, it does come with its own issues. Sound can be difficult to capture on location if the location is particularly loud or if airplanes flying overhead is common and frequent. Lighting will also change rapidly due to the sun’s position in the sky, so often a location shoot will be relegated in its hours more than a shoot on a soundstage would be, in which the lighting can be easily controlled. Location shooting also often requires that trailers be rented for the purposes of giving talent a place to rest between shots, as well as to provide specified areas for hair and makeup and wardrobe.