8 Quick Tips For Filming Abroad
I’m a big fan of filming abroad in a foreign country. It’s guaranteed adventure, and most of the time, it makes up for the most memorable experiences.
Unfortunately, doing a proper-scale film production abroad is also very costly. No matter where you decide to go, as a foreigner, you are a walking ATM machine for the outside world, especially when bringing a camera.
Plus, in terms of logistics, it can be an absolute nightmare that can skyrocket your stress to unparalleled levels.
8 Quick Tips For Filming Abroad
If you decide to film a project abroad, I’ve outlined eight quick tips below to help you on your way!
Location Scout With Google Earth
In my experience, Google street view is a filmmaker’s best friend regarding location scouting.
Whether there is or isn’t money for a location scout abroad, I’ll use Google street view as much as possible to better understand the surroundings, lighting conditions, and potential logistical headaches.
This can be busy highways, airports, railways, 24/7 stores, homeless shelters, police or firefighter stations, construction sites, or any business that can cause trouble during the shoot.
Collaborate with translators
I’ve been in many situations while filming abroad where locals don’t speak English. In these situations, having at least one crew member who speaks the local language can be a lifesaver.
On one of my productions in the south of Belgium, having a French translator prevented the entire crew from being arrested and going to jail. Halleluja!
Use cash for bribery
I’ve used candy and other types of food as the perfect bribery tools for kids and animals on a film set, but cash is king when shooting in a foreign country!
I’ve been in many situations where we could solve problems by paying someone a certain amount of money on the spot. My third tip for filming abroad is always to ensure to bring enough cash.
If you encounter a problem that money can solve, you don’t have a problem at all!
Know the local culture
I’ve experienced that in other countries, daily activities for a film crew might work a little differently from what I was used to at home, affecting the filming schedule.
These were things like a different labor law with obligatory longer (lunch) breaks, certain religious aspects that affected the workflow, or particular political objects or subjects I better avoided discussing or filming.
I believe it’s best to respect whatever you deal with and go with the flow. Disrespecting whatever it is will only delay the film shoot.
To help me better understand the local (filmmaking) do’s and don’ts, I always found it helpful to have a local location scout or fixer on the team.
This is someone who knows everything regarding local culture, national holidays, or other events and aspects that can delay or influence the film shoot.
Rent locally
I’m a big fan of renting filmmaking gear locally to avoid getting in trouble at customs while entering or leaving a country.
With gear becoming cheaper and more accessible for everyone, it’s becoming easier to hire film equipment locally. For almost all of my projects filmed abroad, we’ve rented the equipment locally.
It wasn’t always possible to rent everything locally (sometimes we wanted to work with something specific that wasn’t available elsewhere), but if it was possible, renting locally ensured a much lighter, faster, and cheaper journey.
On top of that, we didn’t have to deal with the constant responsibility of the expensive camera equipment.
When we rented locally, we always hired a camera assistant from the rental company who would be responsible for the equipment throughout the day so that we could relax at the end of each filming day without gear concerns.
If you decide to bring your film gear, check out my blog, ’16 pro tips for flying with camera gear.’ It might contain a nugget of gold for traveling with your filmmaking tools.
Get work permits
If you want to work with peace of mind in a different country, following the official route and getting work permits can help immensely reduce your stress levels.
I didn’t take this route for many of my projects because of time and financial restrictions, with an apparent intense increase in my heartbeat throughout the entire production. Looking back on it now, I believe it’s not worth it to work like that…
Taking the official route of getting work permits costs extra time and money, and it usually involves a shit load of paperwork. Still, it will provide you and the crew peace of mind when you contact local authorities.
And just like going to the office with peace of mind, that should be the goal to allow creativity to roam freely!
Film at private locations
If we didn’t get the work permits, we always tried to film at private (secluded) locations where you pay the owner a certain amount of money.
Different rules apply when you film in a private area, saving us potential headaches and an increased heartbeat.
Use a small film crew
Depending on the size of my projects, I always try to keep my crew size as small as possible when filming abroad. Mainly because of the costs involving transportation for large groups of people.
And if we can’t afford to work with permits, we can stay under the radar and film the guerilla-style project.
