Best Practices for Location Scouts and Producers with Adam Snyder
Posted on: Oct 08, 2024
Photo Credit: Adam SynderAdam Snyder is a Kentucky-based location scout and manager with 20 years of experience, who has worked on a diverse range of film and television projects. Notable credits include Secretariat (2010), 50 to 1 (2014), Rust Creek (2018), Mom and Dad (2017) and Wildcat (2023).
I wanted to have a discussion about what makes for a streamlined location scouting process, and Adam had plenty to share.
Have Clear Communications and Materials
Specificity on locations can vary job to job, but it helps the scout tremendously and speeds up the process if there are materials such as scripts or storyboards that help them fully understand location needs.
However, producers shouldn’t be so specific that it holds up the production. Producers can waste a lot of time or money being too specific and rejecting potential fits over elements the art or lighting department can work with. Sometimes the ultra specific doesn’t exist.
“They might say, ‘We need a house.’ I’m thinking ‘I’ve got a hundred houses. Awesome.’ And they’ll say ‘Well, the house needs to be on a hill.’ I probably have like 20 of those that are kind of on hills. Next, they say, ‘The house needs to be on a hill, but the hill needs to be in a valley and needs a cave at the bottom.’ I’ll get down to one house, it’s on a hill, in a valley, it has a cave, it’s got everything, and I’ll send it to them. They’ll respond, ‘Yeah, just like this, but green.’ I’ve even had someone point to their script and tell me they need ‘floors that glow red.’”
He went on to say that he will often ignore extreme specificities at first to make sure he has plenty of options to show. After that, they can be narrowed down.
Ensure Both Parties Understand the Vision and Needs
A scout should be able to produce a variety of options for each location that indicate they understand the vision, but sometimes the scout has to do some coaching.
“Sometimes a scout will get requests for things like a really small apartment. The production may think that’s what they want, but what they need is an apartment that can be made to look small. Otherwise, the DP will get in there and wonder where the camera and crew are supposed to go,” Snyder said.
Being able to lead the production team to the best options is a great skill for a scout to have. The human brain is often inclined to reject the first option they see or ask for more, so one helpful trick is to present the options to the team in order from least favorite to best fit.
On the other side, the production team needs to provide feedback to the scout promptly, or it slows the whole process down. Adam said it’s best to put the scout directly in touch with the director and production designer, so they can share their vision firsthand and provide relevant feedback.
Work with Local Scouts
Adam said that just about any other crew can be brought in from elsewhere, but a local scout is worth their weight in gold. They’ll get the job done much faster and should know local legalities and how to pull permits. They typically know the surrounding area well enough to meet demands, such as small-town vibes, that aren’t more than an hour from the major city they’re working in.
Adam has 75,000 photos in his files, and he often starts with a pull from his own files. Then, if he needs to, he can go out and look for additional locations. When he stores his photos from previous scouts, he makes sure to edit every single photo and ensure they’re bright enough and not crooked. That way, teams can truly see the spaces for what they are. He doesn’t clear or check with location owners until the production team has narrowed the options down to the ones they have interest in—leading location owners on by calling too often about films that don’t follow through can burn his contacts and network.
Have a Clear Budget
The production team should share a clear budget and scope of project with the scout. The scout should have an eye to look for necessary things like good parking for cast, crew, trailer and accessibility. Sometimes, they might need to know where the sun sets and rises. It’s great to know if the location is under a flight path or next to a railroad track, and the scout may even want to check into how it sounds inside a space when speaking or singing.
“You can really shoot yourself in the foot as a location scout if you show them something that logistically is not going to work. It might look great and the director falls in love with it, but then it’s revoked for logistics and it’s a big headache,” Snyder said.
Problem Solving & People Skills
Scouts should be personable enough to represent film productions to the location owners. They may find themselves having to cold call people or knock on doors. They need to come across as professional and carry business cards that add to their legitimacy.
They should know how to catch the owner’s attention. Someone who is well-off isn’t necessarily in it for money. They may want to show off their amazing home. Someone who wants the location fee may need to better understand what’s realistic. Scouts should be able to identify and work with different motives.
Snyder explained: “You definitely have to have a little charm and be friendly and not a weirdo, because people might already be a little iffy about you knocking on their door. I worked on a project once that wanted a cookie-cutter neighborhood.
Another scout and I found one and drove through with me taking pictures out of the sunroof. We get to this one road and like four neighbors walk out in the street and block our car and demand what we’re doing because they thought we were scoping the neighborhood. Luckily we had business cards on us, and after explaining, they became very helpful recommending houses.”
Be Clear on the Scout’s Role
Sometimes a scout may also be the location manager, but often they’re not. It should be clear whether or not the scout should be negotiating rates with the homeowners, or if that will be handled by the producer or location manager.
There’s nothing more frustrating than a scout negotiating a rate with the owner, only to have the producer or location manager go and try to renegotiate and upset the owner. It can burn the contact for the scout and strain the relationship with the location manager during filming.
Tricks of the Trade
Adam uses software called ImageEvent to upload and organize all the photos for the locations he has scouted with notes, contact info and specifics about the location. He sometimes uses the Sun Scout app on his phone to determine where the sun rises or sets at a location.
The most useful tip Adam says he has is related to hunting down ownership. You can go to the property value administration for a county to find out whose name is on the deed. Cross-referencing that with some internet research can lead to their phone number or their socials, and Adam rarely has to pound the pavement and knock on doors anymore.
Jessica Mathis (AKA Divinity Rose) is an award winning screenwriter/performer/producer from Louisville, Kentucky. She is the CEO of She Dreams Content Development and Production, which focuses on female forward projects in comedy, docustyle and genre entertainment.
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