This is the first article in a three-part series about hosting filming at your home or business. Through conversations with accomplished Location Professionals and film hosts, we aim to share frank, open advice about the film host experience.
This month, we caught up with veteran Location Manager Gregory Alpert to set the stage and gather his advice. Gregory has been named Location Professional of the Year five times at the California On Location Awards (COLA’s) for Sharp Objects, Burying the Ex, The Hangover Part III, LUCK, and Frost/Nixon. Together with his team, Gregory also won the 2024 Locations Team Of The Year recognition from FLICS for UNSTOPPABLE, in addition to prior wins for Winning Time S2 and Sandy Wexler.
We asked Gregory to share his thoughts about cold scouting – that is, finding new film locations and working with film hosts who are unfamiliar with the motion picture business.
What types of things do Location Scouts look for in potential film locations?
We (Location Professionals) are there to serve the script. We are ambassadors for the script, then for the production, and then the director. So, in addition to aesthetics, which is the number one part of the script, then [the location] will also have to work for production.
We have to be conscientious as Location Managers. We're bringing several hundred people to this location. So, is it accessible by trucks? Is there parking?
Just because something might be one hundred percent fantastic from an aesthetic standpoint, if you can't get the trucks there, and it's up in the Hollywood Hills and there's no parking, that doesn't work for us.
So, again, it's trying to find what's on the written page, and understanding that it must be acceptable to production.
It also depends on the medium you're working in.
Why would the filming medium matter?
Many times, as a Location Manager for commercials, the director winds up using our exact framing in the commercial. They do not care what is behind you.
If you're working on a feature or television series you absolutely, one hundred percent care what's behind you. Because there's going to be a reverse [shot], right?
So, you need to know that even though this one singular house looks like it can be in Nantucket, if the houses on either side don't blend, then that doesn't work.
Can you tell us about one time finding the perfect film location?
Every once in a while, you get very lucky.
During Winning Time, a series for HBO, we were looking for a house to play as Magic Johnson's childhood home. My long time scout JP O'Connor, who also happens to be the best scout in the business, found the perfect house in Pasadena; a four-square house that looked just like Magic's childhood home, so much so, that it was yellow in color, just like Magic's actual house in Lansing Michigan back in 1979. And the bonus... the houses on either side were also period correct, giving us almost a 180 degree field to shoot.
If you're cold scouting a home or a business , how do you typically introduce yourself?
It's straightforward, right? Knock on the door [and say]:
"Afternoon! My name is Greg Alpert. I'm a Location Manager with HBO. I am in your neighborhood scouting for potential locations for our production.
Are you familiar with the film business? Have you ever been approached before?”
...Listen, it's much easier in Los Angeles since we are an industry town.
What if someone is not familiar with filming? How can they know you are legit?
I've scouted all over the country from east to west, and from north to south, and many times in the deep south, or quite frankly, anywhere that does not get filming... I get the proverbial "who are you?". This does not typically apply to Southern California, being that we are the film and TV capital of the world.
I will have a letter from the film commission, or I'll have a letter from the governor's office or the mayor's office, vouching for who I am. I typically don't need that in Los Angeles because there is always that six degrees of Kevin Bacon.
Here is what you have to do as a location's person. You must put yourself in their position, right? Like, if they have never gone through this before and someone is knocking on their door, [asking] “Oh, can I look inside your house?”
What?
But you hope to gain their trust and explain who you are and what you're doing. And you just spell it out and say, “Listen, if you are unsure, let me give you a couple phone numbers. Feel free to call the California State Film Commission. Call the production company.”
Even then, we imagine some property owners are skeptical...
I will tell you, it has been interesting over the years.
Many years ago, I was doing a picture called Out of Sight and I was in the suburbs outside Detroit. And I knocked on a door and I explained to the husband what I was doing. And he’s like, “Yeah, we're not interested.” And I saw his wife down the hall in the kitchen.
So I said, “Well you know, George Clooney is in the film, and this would be George Clooney's house.”
His wife came barreling down the hallway, knocked her husband [aside] and said, “Yes, yes! Please come in. Let me show you my house.”
So sometimes you find the hook that might, you know, get your foot in the door.
