This video was made possible by Curiosity
Stream.
When you sign up at the link in the description
you’ll also get access to Nebula—the streaming
video platform that Wendover is a part of.
As you reach the end of a movie’s credit
sequence, usually long after everyone has
left the theatre, you start to get to some
of the names of people that might not have
written the script, might not have played
the characters, and might not have operated
the camera, but were crucial to the success
of that film.
Quite a few of the names might not have dealt
with filming at all, but rather dealt with
getting those who did housed, fed, and transported
to where they need to be.
As much of a challenge getting the story and
picture right in a movie is, another distinct
challenge that only escalates as budget does
is the logistics.
While most movies will film quite a few of
their scenes in a studio using sets, green
screens, and other tactics to portray the
supposed location, still most film a number
of scenes on location, all around the world.
Filming on-location is an enormously complex,
multi-month or sometimes multi-year process
that all typically starts with one person—the
location scout.
We’ll use the example of what is now the
most financially successful movie of all time—Avengers:
Endgame.
As one of the biggest-budget films of all-time,
this movie had a whole location department
that wrapped many of the location-based functions
into one.
For smaller films, though, locations scouts
tend to be more separate, freelance roles
working temporarily for a given production.
Essentially what they do is take the wishes
of the writer or director of a given movie
and do their very best to fulfill them.
If a scout is asked to find a sunny yet run-down
street in a small coastal Mediterranean town,
they do their best to find a location that
looks like that, but it doesn’t necessarily
need to be sunny, run-down, coastal, Mediterranean,
or even a small town.
Some of that can be fixed in post, some can
be fixed with decoration, and some doesn’t
show up on film at all.
There are a lot of reasons a film might use
a stand-in for the real location they’re
trying to depict—cost, time, practicality,
availability, bureaucracy, logistics, even
down to tiny reasons like weather, lighting,
noise-level, and more.
A film set in a small Greenlandic town might
choose to film in Iceland just because it’s
easier to get to, has better infrastructure,
and has a larger and perhaps most experienced
local labor force.
At the same time, a film set in Antarctica
might choose to film in Greenland for the
same reasons.
Once the location scout finds the perfect
location, they then have to make sure filming
is actually possible there.
If it’s a privately owned location, they
have to figure out who the owner is and negotiate
with them, which isn’t always easy, while
if it’s public space they have to work with
the government, which also isn’t always
easy.
In the case of Endgame, some location scout
at some point was asked to find a location
to serve as New Asgard—the fishing village
home of Thor.
For this, they settled on the Scottish village
of St Abbs.
Now, there are a few reasons why this was
a smart choice.
One was that it’s in a country with an upstart
film industry promoted by its government so
government approval was likely easy, two was
that this village was small enough that they
could essentially entirely take it over, and
three was that it was relatively near Edinburgh.
The proximity to Edinburgh served two important
roles.
One was that it meant there was a big city
nearby with the facilities to host a large
production and two was that, for the previous
Avengers movie, Infinity War, they spent months
filming a complex action sequence in Edinburgh.
The two films were shot back-to-back and,
in some cases, simultaneously, so this way,
the production could easily move from Edinburgh
to St Abbs for a few days after rather than
completely moving to a new country to film
this relatively simple scene in New Asgard.
In practice, a location scout typically presents
the movie’s director a variety of options
for where to shoot—for New Asgard, there
almost certainly were quite a few locations
on a short-list before they settled on St
Abbs.
Once a location is selected, though, the job
is then handed over to a location manager.
Now, sometimes the location scout and location
manager are the same person and sometimes
they are different people, but they are always
distinct roles.
The location manager is in charge of navigating
all the legal and logistical aspects of organizing
an on-location shoot once the location is
selected.
One huge aspect of this is getting permits
to film from the local government.
A lot of cities, states, regions, or countries
that are in high demand for filming, such
as New York, have government agencies dedicated
to both promoting and organizing filming activities
in their location.
In New York’s case, for example, the Mayor's
Office of Film, Theatre & Broadcasting fills
this role and handles the permitting process.
An agency like this wants to balance its role
of promoting the industry, which can be a
fantastic boost economically to a city, and
serving its city’s population.
Filming, especially when part of a big production,
is a burden on local residents so any government
that wants to stay popular with its constituents
wants to manage this burden.
For this, New York’s agency has a rotating
list of locations where filming is prohibited
simply because these locations have had too
much filming recently.
That way even the most popular spots won’t
have their residents disturbed too much.
Negotiating a filming permit in places less
experienced in this matter can be more difficult,
though, as that will require a bespoke deal.
That’s only the tip of the iceberg of the
planning a location manager has to deal with.
One other huge complexity can be just simply
getting equipment to the location, especially
if that location is in a different country
than where the production company is based.
You see, when Avengers came to Scotland to
film, they needed all the same cameras and
equipment as in the US so the film stayed
consistent in quality.
With big budget-productions such as this,
that means they need to bring hundreds of
thousands of dollars worth of equipment into
a foreign country.
The difficulty then is that, typically, when
goods originate from outside of a country
and are brought inside that country, one has
to pay import tariffs on them.
As an individual entering a country through
an airport one has certain duty free allowances
and typically there’s a provision that personal
articles can be brought in tax-free, but when
traveling as a business, like a Hollywood
production company, if they were to bring
equipment into a country and keep it there,
for example if they were setting up a studio
there, then an import tariff would be assessed.
Avengers likely travelled with hundreds of
thousands of even millions of dollars worth
of equipment so you can imagine the kind of
financial damage a 20% import tariff would
have.
Of course, though, there are a few ways to
get around this.
The first would be to get an ATA carnet.
This is essentially a passport for goods.
For a fee and security deposit, these work
as a customs mechanism for many countries
in which one can import goods temporarily
without paying any taxes.
These are complicated, though, because once
issued there’s little flexibility as one
has to list exact travel dates and destinations
and must also list all equipment including
its exact serial number.
Since the security deposit scales to the value
of the goods, it can also tie up a lot of
money.
The other option is to just rent equipment
within the location country.
While this is only an option when filming
in countries with top quality rental companies,
even Hollywood productions will quite often
rent their equipment.
Another thing the location manager has to
think about is staffing.
While the top positions in a production will
obviously need to travel to each filming location,
many of the rank and file members just do
not.
If you can get a lighting technician in the
destination country rather than flying one
out from the US, it would obviously make sense
to hire the one in-country since that would
lower cost.
In the case of Avengers: Endgame, the film
shot in four main locations.
The film’s studio was outside Atlanta, Georgia
so many scenes were filmed in there and many
that weren’t took place in the greater Atlanta
area.
That’s where everyone here, the bulk of
the names in the credit sequence, were based.
There was then a partially distinct production
group for the film’s scenes in New York.
You’ll notice that there are a not a whole
lot of names in this group and they mostly
correspond to location management roles and
some other production management roles.
Many of the bigger roles, such as director
of photography, director, producer, and more
would be filled by those working back in Atlanta
traveling out.
The far larger and more distinct unit was
the one dedicated to filming in England and
Scotland.
The movie had two major scenes filmed in the
UK.
One was in that small, Scottish village of
St Abbs, playing New Asgard, and the other
was in Durham Cathedral which played the role
of a part of Asgard—Thor’s home.
Now, these two locations were not insignificant
in the film—they involved some of the film’s
lead characters and accounted for about 12.5
total minutes of screen-time which, in a movie
as big-budget as this, is a decent amount.
Therefore, the on-location productions were
sizable.
The UK unit therefore had quite a number of
specialized staff—it had its own graphic
designers, set decorators, costume supervisor,
sculptors, prop-master, sound effect technicians,
it even had its own administrative staff like
a network and IT technician and payroll accountant.
Sometimes, though, those in charge of a movie
don’t need to be involved with filming at
all.
All of the logistics mess can be avoided if
they just don’t travel.
Further down in the credits, you get to the
section titled, “plate units.”
These are distinct production units that are
in charge of gathering footage that will end
up being used by the movie’s visual effects
department, often as background in green screen
sequences.
When Marvel needed footage from a Brazilian
national park to act as the landscape of the
planet Vormir, they just hired a company called
Brazil Production Services to go and film
that for them.
For the most part this company was just left
to get this footage on their own.
When Marvel needed shots of the Philippines
to serve as the landscape around Thanos’
hut in the final movie, they once again just
hired a local production company, Indochina
Productions, to do the work for them since
the character was added in post.
Even for the biggest productions like this,
when actors aren’t involved, they can usually
reduce complexity and cost by hiring outside
production companies to do the work for them
rather than flying one of their production
units all the way out to Brazil or the Philippines
or wherever to get that one shot.
In addition to those two, Marvel also hired
production companies in Tokyo, Iceland, Chile,
and San Francisco to each capture footage
that would end up as assets used by the visual
effects department.
When it actually comes time to film a scene
on-location, all the planning is finally put
into practice.
One important aspect of the implementation
is making sure that the community where one
films walks away from the experience feeling
like it was fun and cool, rather than a burden.
This is also crucial for the government of
a given area which will typically want the
economic boost from a film production coming
while also wanting to keep public favor.
Again using the example of St Abbs, Scotland,
such a big production coming meant the town
was basically completely shut down for two
days.
They cordoned off essentially the whole town
so only residents and workers could come in.
Marvel made a lot of smart decisions to win
over the residents of St Abbs.
For one, many of the residents were used as
extras which certainly turned it into an experience
for them.
In addition, for feeding the crew, rather
than bring in some catering company they hired
a local cafe to serve food.
That way they’re seen as supporting local
businesses.
In addition, the stars were reportedly generous
with their time, meeting many of the locals,
and Marvel made a financial donation to the
St Abbs lifeboat crew.
In all, this made for a win for both the town
and Marvel as Marvel got a location with a
supporting public and good press and the town
got a cool experience and economic benefit.
That economic benefit has even kept coming
after the shoot as St Abbs has apparently
experienced a tourism boom since the film’s
release.
No matter where a film shoots, a huge part
of the location manager’s job is to try
to keep the production as low impact as possible.
They have roles as minute as parking managers
just to be sure that a given production can
get in and out of their location as cleanly
and efficiently as possible.
With tightly packed schedules, films just
don’t have time for a dispute with the local
population and a local government will often
be quick to side with their constituents if
they get too burdened by Hollywood coming
to town.
When successfully pulled off, though, big-budget
Hollywood productions can bring jobs to an
area, bring attention to an area—they can
really transform a place so the focus that
many cities and countries put on attracting
them is truly well placed.
Any long-time Wendover viewer by this point
knows about Curiosity Stream.
They’re the streaming video site home to
endless documentaries and non-fiction titles
about history, technology, nature, science,
and more.
They’ve long represented one of the best
deals out there at just $19.99 a year, but
now this deal has gotten even better.
When you sign up for a yearly subscription
at CuriosityStream.com/Wendover, you’ll
now also get unlimited access to Nebula.
Nebula is a streaming site that I myself was
involved with building.
New Wendover and HAI videos all go up there
completely ad-free but also, the things that
really makes it special are the originals—shows
made exclusively for Nebula.
For example, Real Life Lore and Second Thought
have a fantastic car review show called Grand
Test Auto.
The whole purpose of Nebula is that it allows
us to get experimental and try new things
since it doesn’t rely on YouTube’s algorithm
or Adsense and who knows—maybe there's going
to be a Wendover original in, like, late November.
A lot of your favorite creators are already
on Nebula—CGP Grey, Polymatter, Lindsay
Ellis, Sam O’Nella, Mustard, that Irish
engineering guy, the list goes on and on.
By signing up for Curiosity Stream and Nebula,
you’ll be supporting not only me but the
entire educational creator community to keep
making videos irregardless of whether YouTube’s
algorithm thinks we should.
Once again, it’s super simple—if you sign
up for a yearly subscription to CuriosityStream
at CuriosityStream.com/Wendover, you’ll
also get access to Nebula.
