Location filming

Location shooting is the shooting of a film or television production in a real-world setting rather than a sound stage or backlot. The location may be interior or exterior.

The filming location may be the same in which the story is set (for example, scenes in the film The Interpreter were set and shot inside the United Nations building), or it may stand in for a different locale (the film Amadeus was primarily set in 19th century Vienna, but was largely filmed in Prague). Most films feature a combination of location and studio shoots; often, interior scenes will be shot on a soundstage while exterior scenes will be shot on location. Second unit photograph is not generally considered a location shoot.

Before filming, the locations are generally surveyed in pre-production, a process known as location scouting or recce.

Location shooting has several advantages over filming on a studio set. First and foremost, the expense can often be far lower than that of constructing sets in a studio. The illusion of reality can also be stronger; on a set, it is hard to replicate real-world wear and tear, as well as architectural details, and the vastness of a city is difficult to recreate on a backlot. Shooting outside of the home country is sometimes used to bypass union rules, labor regulations, or work stoppages. It can also allow "frozen" currency to be used: the 1968 movie Kelly's Heroes was filmed in Yugoslavia using profits that had been made on movie exhibitions in that country but could not be exported.

Conversely, there are a number of reasons why a production may choose not to shoot on location. Shooting on a set gives the crew a greater control over the environment: a room may be created to the exacting specifications of the story, for example, and there is no need to shut down street traffic when shooting on a backlot. Additionally, a given location may have inconvenient restrictions. The convenience store where Clerks was shot was open during the day, so the crew could only shoot at night; this necessitated the shutters on the windows be closed to hide the fact that it was dark outside.

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