The Fragile Art of Locking Location

A pretty room can still ruin your day. Don't let a pretty location seduce you; a good scout is where you break the spell and look for trouble.

The goal of the scout is to find all your future problems. Let's dive on the art of locking a location, and what you need to do.

Permits are a checklist, not a mystery

Cities publish the rules in plain English. Chicago’s a good stand-in: if you touch the public way (streets, sidewalks, city property) you file the application, pay, attach your COI, loop in city services, and notify the neighbors. It’s not an enigma; it’s a sequence. Permits buy permission. Friendly communication with neighbors buy the day.

The goal of the scout is to find all your future problems.

Power is not a feeling

Wall outlets ≠ plan. Lights on commercial shoots are considered a continuous load. In practice, that means the familiar 80% rule: don’t sit on a breaker’s face value for hours and expect smiles. Spec your distro like you mean it. Stop pretending house power is magic.

Have your gaffer do the boring math once: Watts = Volts × Amps. A 20A / 120V branch is 2,400W on paper, ~1,900W if you respect continuous load. Don’t “hope” a circuit will take one more head because it did yesterday. Pull fixture spec sheets and total real draw. If a head lies, it lies the same way every time—on paper.

The goal of the scout is to find all your future problems.

Sound and access decide more shots than any lens

A perfect room with a compressor next door is headache on a loop. A rooftop with a hero skyline is a lawsuit if the elevator won’t take the cart. The best location manager is a cheerful pessimist. They assume failure in the morning and negotiates away surprises before lunch.

Access isn’t just ramps and doors. It’s where trucks live and whether the neighbors hate you on sight. Knock on doors. Post a number that gets answered. Promise to kill the gennie at lunch and then keep the promise. Goodwill is cheaper than rescheduling.

The goal of the scout is to find all your future problems.

Weather isn’t a twist; it’s the protagonist

Exterior day? Have a Plan B. If the brief needs “that sky,” you either buy the light, write a window, or buy patience. Or you stage interiors honestly—with shape and intention—so the exterior is dessert, not dinner.

The goal of the scout is to find all your future problems.

The best way to scout (the one that saves the day)

The biggest tip is to bring the people who say no.

• Gaffer walks the panel, labels circuits, and feels breakers for heat.
• Sound listens when the building is alive, not Sunday-quiet.
• Camera measures real throws, not wishful ones.
• Art spots where “we’ll just lean a backdrop there” blocks the only fire exit.

The goal of the scout is to find all your future problems. Let the people who are only concerned with how it looks care only about the looks. You want to find all the things that could go wrong so you can game plan solutions before the day happens. That means power, sound, parking, an idea of where to put clients, talent, & gear, and everything in between.

Leave with two artifacts: a single-line distro sketch and a parking map.

The goal of the scout is to find all your future problems.

Five quiet questions - a recap

1. Where does a truck actually land?
2. Where is the breaker box, and is it accessible?
3. What things will hinder set and take up the most time to fix?
4. Are there any sound concerns?
5. Which neighbor will hate us—and what polite bribe keeps peace?

Tiny checklist (worth the tape)

• Scout outside the lens: power, sound, access, bathrooms, rain cover.
• Walk the panel with the gaffer: label, feel for heat, define sacrifice zones.
• Measure doors/elevators. “Looks wide” isn’t a number.
• Map trucks + gennies with real streets and real tempers.
• Ask city dumb questions early: parades, road work, water shutoffs.