Poll - Outdoor Locations

[danielle_ftv]

I love shooting outdoor scenes. Sometimes it can be difficult to find a location were we can get away with shooting. For example, today during the shoot for my website we drove around for almost an hour trying to find an office location that had good lighting, didn't have a boring background, didn't have security cameras and didn't have too many vehicles around it. There are locations that I've shot in multiple times because I know it's a "safe" place to shoot. I've always wondered if shooting in the same location more than once bothers my members.

[Anoree]

I'm fine with you shooting in the same location multiple times

In fact, I would enjoy seeing some recurring locations.
Though on one side shooting at the same location multiple times could rise the chance to be caught there, as people who know the place might be able to look out for you, on the other side it may give us fans the chance to grow accustomed to your favorite locations, making them "our" backyard over time.
An additional plus would probably be that you can relax more on your shoots when you know the place is safe, making the shoots more pleasurable for you - and in the end for us.

[danielle_ftv]

You brought up some great points Anoree. I will keep them in mind. I have two locations (one of them I've shot at twice) that I would like to shoot at again.

[RonTheLogician]

Hey Danny,

A location shoot in a problematic location is a great illustration of how technology can provide a work-around. Here's a high-end example: When making The DaVinci Code a decade ago, Ron Howard was deprived of permission to shoot inside Eglise Saint-Sulpice, a church in Paris built over the ruins of an ancient temple to the Egyptian goddess Isis (meow!) - so it was digitally synthesized as a virtual set!

Obviously, something like that can only be done for a top-tier feature for now, but it is hardly impossible to do something vastly cheaper - and almost as magical - at the entry level. Chroma key compositing, often called green-screening, is the technology used when your TV weatherperson stands in front of an electronic map.

Maybe they should stop giving hurricanes sexy female names, ya think?

Long-time frequent New York Times technology reviewer David Pogue details how he achieved success with it a couple years ago using a professional kit costing a mere $250, here. And he reports that the actual digital editing was the work of his 12-year-old daughter.

So when you want to do something "naughty" at a location where it won't be allowed, you first shoot all the non-naughty footage (e.g. walking around, looking for a place to sit down), and then, back in the studio, you shoot the naughty stuff using footage (or a high-def still) from the location via the green screen trick.

To make things easier, you might use a few props you carry to the location and back, like a chair. By cutting away from the static shot on location to a short shot looking elsewhere, you can then cut back to the static shot resurrected in the studio, without worrying about exactly duplicating how you sit in the chair or whatever. And when I write static, I refer to camera non-motion; it should not be harder to use a still-camera location shot with motion in it than one consisting of still-life alone when you green screen. (Aside: Today, feature films use expensive programmed robotic cameras to enable camera motion when doing green-screen.)

Please observe that this technique also allows you to exploit fantasy sets created by artists, or footage shot on the other side of the world by a third party - maybe even someone to whom you subcontract specified work. So if the time comes you want to bang Dracula's brains out, you can entertain using footage of a real castle in Transylvania. Igor, pass me the buttplug! (Aside: Don't forget to remind Drac that vaginal lubricant is mainly blood plasma, so he doesn't wait for a "full moon" before he heads south. )

[Anoree]

While green-screen shooting would be a great way to stay out of trouble, I'm afraid that some people (including me, I admit) would consider it cheating in this case.

A couple of years ago, I signed up for a site that advertised to show public nudity videos. While a lot of them were actually shot in public, very daring, some where merely showing someone supposedly in a shopping window or hallway, with people wandering about outside. On missing reflections and obviously oblivious window-viewers, it was clear that the girls were copied in. I felt cheated when I realized that, big time. I'm pretty sure that Danielle, who is all about authenticity on this site, won't want to have this here.

[RonTheLogician]

Originally Posted by Anoree

While green-screen shooting would be a great way to stay out of trouble, I'm afraid that some people (including me, I admit) would consider it cheating in this case.

Hey, different strokes for different folks, Anoree, my friend!

It works for me!

[danielle_ftv]

Thank you everyone who has voted and/or commented on this poll. This has been a question that I've been wondering about for quite a while now.