Filmmaking / Directing : Single Location Films by J G Blodgett

Lol, I think we can all agree on that. But the question still remains...

Maybe a story involving a house, following its history and its various owners over time, showing how the house and its environment (politically and perhaps geographically and structurally) changes over time?

that's good, Ian!! I dig it

I always like when people are forced into a situation and there is no escape.

Last night's Inside No.9 was an excellent demonstration of single-location script. In fact, previous episodes of the series have also been in just one location too.

Here's the longline of the one I'm working on. A mass murderer arrives to start his life sentence at a top security prison and almost immediately prisoners and guards start dying

How about a campsite, going into each tent, telling a different story and intertwining them. Find a friendly farmer who will lend you his field, the cast could also live there while filming.

Michael, Debbie and Arch, all good ideas!! Thank you

here's one!! a husband bursts through the front door to his home, fatally wounded, with a prostitute and little girl in tow. with his last breath the man reveals his dark past to his pregnant wife and charges her with banding together with the prostitute and defending the little girl against an unknown number of assailants, who will be arriving any moment. what do you think?

In TV those are called bottle episodes (just learned that from listening to the Breaking Bad podcast) I would say first thing watch some single location episodes (Buried with Ryan Reynolds is the most hard core single location ever, lol) Fly, from Breaking Bad is a good bottle episode to watch. The Sunset Limited with Tommy Lee Jones and Samuel L Jackson is one. I would say it's tough to make a single location work over an entire feature film. It's totally workable for shorter films. My suggestion would be to find a single location that is big enough to some have some surrounding locations you can use. A five minute film, shoot it in room. 10 minutes, 2 or 3 rooms/locations, and so on. And/or try and find a location that has a HUGE amount of visual real estate and production value, where you can get a wide variety of looks and lighting. That's my 2 cents worth. We shot a lot of our film in an old abandoned factory which doubled for us as an Asylum. If you'd like to see how some of that looks, you can check us out here: http://www.cinecoup.com/theories/differentiator

"A man bursts into his home, covered in blood, following him is a narcotised call girl clutching a terrified child. His shocked pregnant wife, listens to his dying confessions revealing dark secrets and lies. Adam charges his mortified spouse to become the threshold guardian to all, as danger is moments away from assailants in hot pursuit". Hi just a thought, I love doing these log line puzzles. (Yeah, I know some books say 2 sentences, 30 words, hey this is Indie.)

I want to see two people stuck in an area of a valley, and forced to deal with flood conditions, until help arrives. They must survive with each other's help , or possibly each other absence, if survival becomes paramount.

Maybe a casino might be interesting. Just an idea.

Debbie, you think you could pull off shorter loglines? I am impressed and I would absolutely hire you to help me write loglines for my scripts!!

Oh thanks JG. (Glow....). I enjoy both long and short log line puzzles. When my own projects are stressful I often unwind using these Stage 32 columns.

I produce a lot of single location film nowadays. They’re shorts under 20 minutes - most hover around 10. I have a small sound stage available to me so I can build sets. Exterior shoots are pretty easy but I run into problems using a home or apartment – they’re hard to light (low ceilings…) It’s hard to stage much action in an apartment. I see a lot of talking heads films which can be made to work with various camera angles and lighting. I like the idea of tracing history as it plays out over time in some very historic location – like the Ileana (sp?) palace in Hawaii or perhaps a group of people forced together in a stuck cable car or elevator.

A screenwriter living in WWII times—known to be the best writer in America—is kidnapped by the Nazis and brutally tortured until he agrees to write a short propaganda piece for them to film and use in their fear campaign.

When a rope snaps and his buddy falls, a rock climber gets stuck on the top of a spire and has to get down before a storm arrives.

Reminds me of an episode of "I Shouldn't Be Alive"

It was a dark and stormy night as Rodney Carabineer and his companion Igor set out to conquer Lightning Spire in the remote Storm Mountains...