Short Film Location Scouting: Finding The Ideal Locations For My Next Short Film

Join me as I location scout my next short film in Portland, Oregon!
As you might already know, if you’ve watched my video on how to apply to film grants, I’ve been in pre-production for my next short film, May I Put You On Hold which I hope to shoot next year.
Because the film mainly takes place in an idyllic forest, I knew it was key to find the perfect location that would add a lot of production value. So over the summer I went location scouting in one of the best places to find forests, the pacific northwest. Portland Oregon to be more exact. And thanks to our ability to work from home, Bryce, Spence, and I packed our bags so we could head up to Stump Town for a whole month!
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Because we live in southern California, it was an epic three day drive so I made sure to find fun stops along the way. Such as Head Creek Falls in Dunsmuir, which is a quick stop right off I-5 that has a waterfall at the end of a short five minute hike.
Once in Portland we of course had to do a couple touristy things before actually location scouting. I mean it’s Portland. It’s freaking awesome! We went on amazing hikes, did some sight seeing at the Rose Garden, hung out with some lamas, and of course ate amazing food! We even had a robot make us a drink! And of course we had to spoil Spence a bit too.
Once we had our fill of Portland, quite literally I probably gained like 5 pounds, it was off to the forests of Mount Hood to location scout, which is only about an hour’s drive away. Our first stop was the Salmon River trail.
The day after the Salmon River Trailer, while driving around we stumbled upon a promising shooting location. Stoked to find a great location, the next day we took a break from the hard work of location scouting and hiked to an epic waterfall. And let me tell you, if you haven’t seen Oregon waterfalls, you have been missing out because they are indeed epic.
With limited time on Mount Hood we choose the Tamanawas Falls Trail, which is a moderate 3.4 mile hike to 110 foot waterfall over a lava formed cliff on the eastern side of Mount Hood. The hike is nicely shaded and crossed Hood River on two awesome log foot bridges. If you do the hike on an especially hot day, you can cool down in the Cold Spring Creek, which Spence especially enjoyed. There’s lots of options for great photo ops along the way, but do note that this is a popular hiking trail so make sure to get there early in order to snag a parking spot.
After a long day enjoying waterfalls and hikes, we took a detour to Trillium Lake to check out some locations there, but found them bad for sound due to the busy lake close by.
Now we were only on Mount Hood for a limited time and because you can literally camp anywhere in the national forest of Mount Hood, I decided it might actually be better for us to shoot the film on private land. So after doing some research on Airbnb, I found a spot that looked like it might just be perfect. I reached out to the owner and she agreed to let us come check it out. Because the location was on 10 acres, there were plenty of trails and spots to check out which was very exciting as we needed at least two separate forest locations.
While the 10 acre airbnb looked promising, the owner unfortunately changed her mind about letting us shoot there. But we still left with at least one good potential option at the campground and I’m going to continue the location scouting in various parts of California such as Lake Tahoe and Idyllwild, so I’ll keep you posted with more vlog updates in the future.
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[@chris_sparrows]

If you end up back in Portland, I'd love to help. I've lived in this area my whole life and spent plenty of time in the beautiful outdoors of Oregon.

[@Film_It_Yourself]

Oh cool!

[@OuterEastLLC]

Thanks for sharing. I work in the biz in Portland so would enjoy helping out if needed. Best wishes.

[@Film_It_Yourself]

Oh cool! Always good to make crew connections!

[@oliverlime5589]

Love your channel! i need your guidance. i have shot a time lapse video of sunset .as you know time lapse don't conrain any sound so my question is whether i should put that time lapse video in the movie with no sound or should put bgm on it... Is it okay if i don't put bgm on my sunset time lapse and it would be completely silent moment in the movie?? Please guide me through this.

[@Film_It_Yourself]

Hey Oliver! Great question! Since it’s your movie I’d say it’s completely up to you. It depends on what mood you’re trying to convey to your audience. I’d say put it in without sound and see how it feels. Maybe even have a friend or two watch it and give you feed back. If it feels odd then add sound. You can find cheap or free ambient sound tracks either here on UA-cam or on other sites such as Envato Elements. Hope that helps!

[@oliverlime5589]

@@Film_It_Yourself i want to convey serenity and calmness and therefore i don't want to add bgm.i hope the members of jury in film festivals don't reject the movie only on the basis of this one scene being without bgm. thanks a lot though for your guidance 🙏