Location Scout Book: Filmmaker’s Guide to Production Design by Vincent Lobrutto
Although the lines of protocol are often a bit fuzzy, a location manager (or “location scout” – like I said, the lines sometimes get fuzzy 😉 answers directly to a Production Designer. …or it could be an Art Director …or a Producer… or the Director / Photographer him / herself …or whatever they happen to be calling their self… (…like I said…) Additionally, depending on his / her talents and versatility (and the production budget ;), a location scout / location manager may also at times actually work as a production designer.
Although it probably entails realizing a Director’s “vision”, rather than completely their own, someone on the production team has to create and maintain the overall “look” of a visual media project; sort of “drive the car”, so to speak – at least from a visuals standpoint, since even a small project has potential to quickly have its concept and style become “diluted” by more than one person’s creative input – imagine a project the size of a feature film! …so I hope you get the idea?
Additionally, the production designer is most often tasked with determining the practicality and actual execution of the creative ideas, supervising engineers (…and often being one!), overseeing set construction and of course, approving locations.
That said, familiarity by rest of the entire creative team with the production designer’s job description and responsibilities is a responsibilty itself! …not to mention it seems like being a production designer could be a fun job 🙂
I found The Filmmaker’s Guide to Production Design on Google Books
There are several chapter previews on the Google Books Page for Filmmaker’s Guide to Production Design:
- Location Scout (you could just as well use the book preview embed below – search for “location scout”.
- Location Scouting (you could just as well use the book preview embed below – search for “location scouting”.
- There is a chapter for “location manager” indicated in table of contents but there was no preview when I looked.
About the Author of Filmmaker’s Guide to Production Design, Vincent LoBrutto
Vincent LoBrutto is an instructor of film editing, film sound, film studies, and production design at the School of the Visual Arts and at Film/Video Arts. He has worked as a film editor for Fox and HBO and as a postproduction coordinator for ABC. He is a contributing writer to Films in Review, Cinemaeditor, American Cinematographer, and Moviemaker and is the author of five other books on film sound, editing, cinematography, and independent filmmaking. He lives in New York City.
