A location manager finds the real places a film will be shot, secures permission to use them, handles the permits, contracts and neighbor relations that come with that, and manages the location during shooting and after it. They are the interface between a film crew and everybody who has to tolerate one.
Finding a good-looking place is maybe a fifth of the job. The rest is negotiation, paperwork, and keeping a hundred people welcome somewhere they were invited once.
Scouting
Reading the script for locations. From the breakdown, a list of every place the film needs, with the scenes at each and their requirements.
Searching. Location libraries, film office databases, previous knowledge, and a great deal of driving and walking. The best location managers have an enormous mental catalogue of places and, more usefully, of the people who control them.
The recce. Photographing candidates comprehensively: every wall, every direction, the approach, the parking, the power, the light at different times of day. These become the location package the director and DP choose from.
Presenting options. Usually several per scene, with the practicalities attached. Part of the skill is knowing which beautiful location to leave out because it is unusable.
The tech scout. Once chosen, walking it with all the heads of department to work out how each scene will actually be shot there.
The full process of assessing a location properly is covered in location scouting.
Securing it
Where the job becomes mostly negotiation.
Finding who actually controls it. Frequently not obvious. A shop has an owner and a landlord. A stretch of road has a council, possibly a highways authority, and businesses fronting onto it. A field has a farmer and possibly a tenancy.
Negotiating the fee and the terms. What the production pays, for how many days, covering what hours, with what access for prep and strike, and what can be changed.
The location agreement. A contract covering the fee, dates, access, what the production may do, insurance, damage liability, and the right to use the resulting footage. That last clause matters and gets forgotten: without it, a property owner can create real difficulties later.
Permits. Covered in detail in film permits. Filming permits, road closures, parking suspensions, drone permissions, and whatever else the jurisdiction requires.
Insurance. Proving to the location owner that the production is insured, which they will ask for and should.
Neighbors
The part nobody anticipates and which consumes the most time on urban shoots.
A film unit is loud, it arrives early, it takes all the parking, it has lights pointed at things, and it does not leave when the neighbors would like. Every person living or working nearby is affected and none of them agreed to it.
The location manager handles this: letters delivered in advance explaining what will happen and when, a contact number that is actually answered, negotiations with the person whose driveway is blocked, and payments or arrangements where appropriate.
Done well, this is invisible. Done badly, someone plays loud music during takes, or complains to the council, and a location is lost mid-shoot.
Almost every other element of a production is under contract with someone in the industry, who understands how films work. Locations are usually controlled by people who have no stake in the film and no reason to be flexible. They can change their mind, sell the building, have a family emergency, or simply decide the whole thing sounds like a nuisance. This is why locations fall through more often than anything else, why a good location manager keeps a second option alive for the difficult ones, and why contingency planning is mostly location planning.
On the day
The location department is first in and last out.
Before the unit arrives: open up, put out signage, set up parking and unit base, brief any security, and be there to meet the owner.
During the day: manage access, deal with the public, hold roads or pavements where permitted, handle complaints, and enforce whatever conditions the agreement carries. Also protect the location itself, which means floor coverings, corner protection, and stopping people leaning ladders against something delicate.
At wrap: derig, clean, restore, and remove all trace. Then walk the location with the owner and agree that it is as it was.
Afterward: settle any damage, and leave the relationship in a state where the production, or another one, could come back. Location managers trade heavily on goodwill accumulated over years, and burning a location damages more than one film.
The department
Location manager. Head of department.
Assistant location manager. Frequently runs the location on the day while the manager is prepping the next one, which is the department's fundamental rhythm: always working two locations ahead.
Location scouts. Finding options, particularly early.
Unit managers / location assistants. Signage, parking, base camp support, public liaison.
What makes a good one
A visual eye plus practical judgment. Seeing that a place is right and simultaneously that the truck cannot get within four hundred meters of it.
Negotiation. Getting a yes from someone with no reason to say yes, at a price the production can pay.
Unflappable public handling. They spend the day being complained at.
Contacts. An enormous network of owners, councils, film offices and fixers, built over years. This is most of what a production is buying.
Anticipation. Noticing on a scout that the light will be behind the building at the time the scene is scheduled, or that the market operates on Tuesdays.
On a small film
On a short you will likely be doing this yourself. The failures are consistent and avoidable.
Get permission in writing. Even from a friend, even for a flat. An email confirming the date, the hours, and that filming is permitted is enough, and it is the difference between an inconvenience and a lost day.
Ask the neighbors before, not after. A note through the door two days ahead prevents most complaints.
Check the sound. Stand there silently for two minutes at the time of day you will be shooting. This one check catches the flight path, the road, the school, and the extractor fan.
Check the power and the access. Where you park, how far you carry, what you can plug in.
Photograph everything before you touch it, and put it back exactly.
Have a second option for anything critical. Especially exteriors, and especially anything you do not control.
Leave it better than you found it. Small productions run entirely on goodwill, and the person who lends you their cafe will tell other people whether it was a good experience.
Next
Back to the people in front of the camera, and the person who found them.
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