Location Scout

The process of finding a suitable location for Zombie Undead started in earnest earlier this year. As i'm sure all directors do i had an ideal location in my head, an old Victorian style building with high ceilings and long wide corridors. Think turn of the century school, country hospital or sanitarium. Again the drawn out nature of the project and its low budget presented some problems. Firstly we needed a building that would be around for at least a year. The type of property we wanted seem to all be currently being chopped up into flats or demolished. As producer the first 6 months of the year were extremely frustrating for this reason. Secondly it needed to be in good condition, we needed to shoot in all weathers and have electricity. These reasons and more meant finding a location would be hard.

Of the many locations i scouted two stand out so far. This is Princess Marina in Northants:










A more modern build than is ideal for the project but a viable choice nether the less. The second option is the Derbyshire Miners Home. This is a great location which matches my ideas pretty damn close.











Well all good so far but ....A major downfall of each is where each location is. Northampton is not too far from Leicester but the mechanics and costs of getting cast and crew there on odd days over a drawn out period of shooting where too high. The Derbyshire Miners looked ideal but is based in ... Skegness. Go figure. Thanks must go to Em-Media who suggested these locations. Its just frustrating that each remainded just out of reach due to financial limitations.

After this initial round of scouting i turned closer to home. The ideal location came up after consultations with Leicester Regeneration and Claire Hudson at Creative Leicestershire. After a visit to the old Police station on Charles Street, Leicester i thought we'd got our location. Complete with safe, cells, lift and wood paneled superintendent office this was cool. However time was against us - as we speak the station is being made into flats.

Well all we can do is plough on. I'm a firm believer that these things happen to make way for a better option and our dream location will arrive.

The things which i found out thoughout this process which with hindsight would have come in handy were: Needs to be close to home, have electricity as generators cost to hire then you have ADR costs afterwoods, have cheap or no security costs.

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