Location, location, location

[verbalgirl]

steeves's remark on the newly titled "Where do you write?" thread got me thinking... so here is a thread to actually talk about locations in scripts ;) How important IS location in your scriptwriting? Do you write scripts that could be made in Anytown USA [or UK, or wherever] or do you write specific locations? In many movies, the setting almost becomes a character in and of itself... is that something you strive for when you write? Do you ever consider budgetary or technical concerns when choosing to write for a certain location?

vg

[steeves]

I try to stay generic... eg: my current work needs to be in a larget city an hour or two or three drive from a big city... so it could be St. Louis/Chicago or Boston/NewYork or Austin/Dallas.

If on the other hand I needed, say, scubadiving, having an ocean nearby is useful, so maybe it would be Tampa/Miami.

The Talented Mr. Riply needed location, the Usual Suspects did not.
jm2cw

[lilybet]

All my scripts are location specific, except one which is mid-sized city, anywhere in US. But it spans twenty years which is a whole different problem. Violation of the "unities." Sorry, couldn't resist.

lil

[Taotropics310]

Any work I do is extremely location specific ie: not just New York, but the East Village, not just L.A. but the Fairfax district. The more specific the better, and write about locations you're intimately familiar with.

[Steve]

It depends on whether the location is part of the story. In three of my scripts, the city is a like another character. It's part of the characters lives so I go for a very specific feel re: the locations. In another one it's deliberatly "unspecified suburbia" because I want that "this could be your town/this could be your family" feeling.

It all depends on what it has to do with the story. Putting in a bunch of location specific details doesn't do anything for you if it isn't part of the story or doesn't create a tone or mood that supports the story.

[dwickstrom]

Even when I'm trying to concentrate on specifics of location, I always try to keep it broad. You never know when the "Rewrite" monster's gonna come to town. In EXTREME I concentrated on several locations, with the whole shoot in mind if it came down to it (I even have list of best locales). When I penned PSYCHOSIS, I pretty much made it a mid-size city, one location shoot. Either way... I never write unless I have a clear image of location in mind. It helps to use familiarity with location to utilize certain aspects of imagination to the fullest... if you can picture it, so can the audience.

Dan

[wcmartell]

I make sure my script isn't DEPENDANT on a spefific location. Why? HARD EVIDENCE had the protag kill a guy while on vacation in Mexico, and cover it up because he didn't want to spend the rest of his life in a Mexican jail... but they changed it to Vancouver (where they filmed it). Since they always change the location anyway, I don't want that to create a major STORY rewrite.

But I do pick a location and throw in local color. I have a script that takes place in Richmond, CA because I've never seen it on film (except masquerading as someplace else) and it's an interesting place. Of course, if anyone buys the script they'll probably change the location to Long Beach.

TREACHEROUS took place in San Diego, but I did a Miami rewrite, then an LA rewrite, then they shot it in Ensenada. Those rewrites were mostly changing sluglines & a detail or two... the story didn't change a bit (until the director rewrote it on location in Ensenada).

- Bill

[RubyToo]

For me location is strongly tied to character and story, but it doesn't always have a specific flavor. My main character chooses to live in a Midwestern blue-collar town, even though he has lived in many other places via his transient mother. I call the location Davenport, Iowa, mostly because I know what it looks and feels and smells like, but if some director wanted to change it to Decatur, Illinois or Gary, Indiana I wouldn't balk, because the character's choice is maintained. By the end, he has chosen to live in Billings, Montana, still a working-class town but one with refreshing vistas. His reasons for choosing it completes the character arc.

[Charles Nelson]

I try let the story dictate the location. The script I'm finishing now is not tied to any specific locale. My next script very definitely must be set in the San Francisco Bay Area, at least for the opening of the story. It wouldn't work anywhere else. The new idea I just came up with could be set in the suburbs of just about any major U.S. city.

--Charles