Oh, The Places You’ll Go (Career Path: Location Scout)

Hogwarts castle from Harry Potter, the fictional town of Haddonfield from Halloween, and Rivendell from the Fellowship of the Ring are all examples of movie sets that have the ability to bring a film to life. When someone watches a movie, they should feel as though they are actually in the movie. The last thing anyone wants when watching a film is to be constantly reminded that what he or she sees is fabricated. The worlds must be authentic and true to the feel of the story and the vision of the director. The job of a location scout is to figure all of that out.

Back in the day, sets were often just fabricated on a stage or in a studio. It was cheaper and they could always go back and change parts of it if needed. However that was back when film was first beginning and Technicolor was brand new. These days, audience members are smart; they notice CGI details and fake looking props, which can be jarring enough to take them out of the movie. The set has to look like it belongs, or it will stick out like a sore thumb. But still, being a location scout can’t be that hard, right? Wrong. Scouts often spend days and days traveling all over cities, going to multiple countries, and connecting with people from all over the world to find the perfect location. And it isn’t just a handful of locations either. The average amount of locations in a Hollywood movie these days is around 40. Some movies contain up to 100 different sets, and others go beyond that.

Still sounds easy? The location scout is also in charge of getting access to these locations, managing the set, and making everything run smoothly on set so the director has one less thing to worry about. In big action movies, like the Avengers, you see huge areas of major cities being used for filming. Have you ever thought about how that happens? It’s up to the scout to get the permission from the city council, deal with the paper work, and make sure they get all the streets closed down for the time of the shooting. When you’re talking about a city like New York, this can take months of planning.

So next time you see the location scout’s name in the credits of a movie, think about all the work that goes into planning the sets. It probably took hundreds of hours of sleeping on the road, dozens of phone calls, and countless photos taken. It’s a great job if you have a love of movies and traveling, but definitely not as easy as many would believe.