A tech scout is a visit to each confirmed location by the first AD, the director, the DP, and every head of department, to work out in detail how each scene will be shot there: where the camera goes, where the lights rig, where the power comes from, where the unit parks, and how long it will all take.
It happens late in pre-production, after locations are locked and before the schedule is finalized. It is the day the plan meets the building.
Scout versus recce versus tech scout
The terms vary by territory and the sequence is consistent.
The scout or recce is the search: the location manager and often the director looking at options, deciding which place is right.
The tech scout (sometimes technical recce) is after the decision. All departments, one visit, working out execution.
Some productions add a final walkthrough in the last days before shooting, checking that agreed changes have happened.
Who attends
On a mid-sized production: director, first AD, DP, gaffer, key grip, production designer, location manager, sound mixer, UPM or production manager, second AD, costume designer, hair and makeup designer, and stunt coordinator or special effects supervisor where relevant.
It is an expensive day, with fifteen senior people in a minibus, and it repays itself many times over.
What each department is assessing
Director and DP. How each scene is blocked and covered here. This is often where the shot list becomes concrete, because a space either supports an idea or it does not.
First AD. How long each scene will take, in this space, with these constraints. The AD is turning theoretical estimates into real ones, and this is the main input to finalizing the schedule.
Gaffer. Where the power is, how much of it there is, where lights can be placed and rigged, what needs pre-rigging, and whether a generator is required. See what does a gaffer do.
Key grip. Where the camera can be supported, whether track can be laid, whether the floor takes a dolly, and what needs building.
Production designer. What has to change: paint, dressing, removal, construction, and what the location will not permit.
Sound mixer. What the place sounds like. This is the assessment most often skipped and most consequential. Traffic, aircraft, air conditioning, refrigeration, a school, a building site next door, and whether any of it can be controlled.
Location manager. Access, parking, unit base, toilets, what the agreement permits, neighbor issues, and the practical logistics of getting a unit in and out.
Costume and makeup. Where they will work, whether there is space, light and power, and how far it is from set.
Second AD. Where cast will be held, where catering goes, and how the morning pipeline works here.
Stunts and effects. Rigging points, safety, clearances, and whether the sequence as designed is achievable in this space.
A tech scout is a room full of specialists asking practical questions, and the same ones recur. Where does the unit park, and how far do we carry? Where is the power board and what does it give us? What time does the sun come round that corner? Can we black out those windows? Is that road live during shooting? Does the floor take a dolly? Where do the actors get changed? What happens if it rains? Who has the key at six in the morning? Is that fridge on the same circuit as the lights? None of them is glamorous, every one is a shooting day saved, and a tech scout that does not produce a long list of small answers has not really happened.
What comes out of it
A revised schedule. Almost always. Time estimates change once people have seen the space, and the AD updates the day loads accordingly. Sometimes a scene moves to a different day entirely because the light will not work at the scheduled hour.
Equipment adjustments. The lighting order, the grip package, and the generator requirement all firm up.
Pre-rig plans. Anything needing rigging before the unit arrives gets planned and scheduled here.
Art department work orders. What has to be changed at the location, and by when.
Problems surfaced. The whole point. A location with no usable power, a room too small for the intended coverage, a scene that cannot be shot at the time of day it needs, a soundscape that makes dialogue impossible. Every one of these is a crisis if found on the shooting morning and a manageable adjustment if found now.
Occasionally, a location change. Rare and painful, and vastly cheaper now than later.
Running one well
Bring the schedule and the shot list. The scout is structured around the scenes to be shot at that location, in schedule order.
Walk the scene, do not just look at the room. Physically block it. Where does the actor come in, where do they stop, where is the camera.
Take photographs and measurements. Everyone will want them afterward, and memory is unreliable across eight locations in a day.
Note the time of day. If a scene shoots at 8am, the scout ideally happens at 8am, or at least someone works out where the sun will be.
Write everything down. The AD or the second AD takes notes and circulates them. A tech scout whose findings are not written up is a day spent for very little.
Let each department ask its questions. The temptation on a long day is to hurry. The five minutes the sound mixer spends listening is worth more than the time it costs.
On a short
You will not have fifteen people in a minibus and you should still do a version of this.
The minimum, at every location, ideally at the time of day you will shoot:
- Walk each scene. Where people stand, where the camera goes.
- Find the power. The board, the circuits, what you can draw.
- Listen for two minutes in silence. This one check catches the road, the flight path and the extractor fan.
- Check the light. Where does the sun come from at that hour, and what happens to it over the day.
- Check access and parking. How far you carry the gear.
- Find the toilets and somewhere to put bags and food.
- Confirm who unlocks the door and at what time, with a phone number.
- Photograph everything, including how it looked before you touch it.
- Ask what happens if it rains.
Bring whoever is doing camera, lighting and sound, even if that is two people. Half a day of this eliminates most of what goes wrong on a small shoot.
Next
A step back to how the location got chosen in the first place, and how to assess one properly.
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