Location Scouting – Finding the Perfect Setting
Making a film is more than just showing up and rolling the camera. Preproduction is all about preparation—solving problems before they become problems. In fact, the “pre” in preproduction might as well stand for “prepare as much as possible before the shoot.” The more work we put in now, the smoother everything will go when we step on set. This week, director Adrian Burt and I took a trip to Norrtälje to do exactly that.
Our goal was to get a better sense of our primary location—Lisa’s Bistro—where the majority of the film takes place. We wanted to evaluate how we’d control daylight on set, plan our lighting setup, and visualize the blocking of key scenes. There’s only so much you can do with reference photos and Google Street View; sometimes, you need to physically stand in the space to really see it.
Unfortunately, when we arrived, we discovered that the bistro was closed for the day. The owner, Lisa von Garrelts, wasn’t there, so we couldn’t get inside. But that didn’t stop us. Determined to make the most of the trip, we studied the location from the outside, pressing our noses against the windows like two kids locked out of a candy store.
To anyone passing by, it must have looked pretty strange—two grown men intensely discussing camera placements, lighting setups, and blocking while staring through the glass. We probably looked like we were casing the place for a heist rather than prepping for a film shoot.
Our trip to Norrtälje was never the less an essential step in our short film preproduction. Visiting Lisa’s Bistro in person helped us anticipate potential challenges and refine our shooting plan
Making the Most of Every Moment
“Even though we couldn’t get inside, the visit was still valuable. Short film preproduction is all about problem-solving, and just observing the windows and how the natural light shifted throughout the afternoon gave us ideas on how we might control it during filming.”
To wrap up our field trip, we found a cozy café nearby and treated ourselves to a well-earned semla. Because if you’re in Sweden in February, scouting locations or not, skipping semla season is simply not an option.
Next step: finalizing funding, lighting plan, blocking, some rehearsals, a thousand other things we haven’t thought of yet and making sure everything is set for the shoot. Stay tuned!
