This Indie Darling Highlights The Highs & Lows Of Working As A Location Scout

Paula González-Nasser's debut feature “The Scout” shadows a young location scout across her average day on the job in New York City. Largely based on González-Nasser's own experience as a scout—where she was tasked with convincing people to allow their homes to be used on-screen—the film sheds a much-needed light on the minutiae of film production from the inside out.

González-Nasser got into the locations department by happy coincidence: in 2016, her then-roommate was working on a television show where the unit PA had just quit. Despite not knowing what a unit PA did, she eagerly offered to take over the job. Since then, González-Nasser has been absorbed into the world of film locations, scouting locations for shows such as “Search Party,” “High Maintenance,” “Russian Doll,” and “Broad City.” 

Before González-Nasser got the green light to move forward with “The Scout,” she was already scouting locations—the natural order of operations for someone of her background. The first-time director was excited by the prospect of scouting locations for her own project, and used the locations she could secure around Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Queens to inform the characters, as opposed to vice versa. Inspired by the films of Chantal Akerman, González-Nasser imagined using extended time vignettes to explore the “very ordinary parts of people’s day” and turn it into something fascinating. 

The central premise of the film grew out of González-Nasser's disillusionment with scouting other people’s projects in the post-COVID era, during which she stepped back from the profession to make time for her own creative endeavors. “In letting go of [location scouting] I got to reflect on what a strange job it is and how different it is from other positions on set,” González-Nasser tells The Set Set. “You're really the liaison between the real world and production.” As a scout, she recalls the ratio of callbacks to flyering being something close to one in thirty, often trekking to three or four properties a day.

When describing the day-to-day operations of a scout, González-Nasser underscores how the demeanor of the homeowner—and their familiarity with the film industry—dictates her experience on the ground. “You never really know what you're getting into until you do it. You can set a precedent, you can explain what it's going to be like, you can even scare them a little bit, but it doesn't really hit someone until a hundred people show up at their door with dirty boots and snow and dirt going in and out of every room and changing things around,” González-Nasser says.

Of the many apartment buildings featured in the film, only one had appeared in a previous project of the director’s. When González-Nasser reintroduced herself to the owner, she explained her film’s premise in simple terms: “You know how when we shot [at your home] we brought a bunch of people over and they kind of looked at your stuff and made weird comments? So it’s that,” González-Nasser recalls relaying in her pitch. “I think she liked this idea of us making a film about a disruptive crew coming into her space, but hopefully not [actually] being disruptive in her space,” González-Nasser says. The rest of the locations she secured came through extensive community outreach.

González-Nasser describes scouting as “director’s prep 101.” She identifies people management as the biggest common denominator between directing and scouting. “You're kind of trained to know that shit's gonna hit the fan and to stay calm within that process,” she explains. After years of gauging homeowners’ micro expressions while shuffling around their property, she has grown attuned to noticing the unspoken. Knowing how to “be sensitive towards the requests [of homeowners] while also balancing the needs of the production” has allowed González-Nasser to excel at scouting and directing alike. 

González-Nasser drew on many of her own experiences when brainstorming scenes for “The Scout.” “When I started scouting, I was in my early twenties, and I think there's like a naivety that comes with being young and unaware of your safety being at risk,” she says. In one of the film’s most tense scenes, Sofia (Mimi Davila) finds herself in the basement of a software developer who keeps making inappropriate and sexually charged comments. The experience was based on an uncomfortable afternoon González-Nasser spent in a stranger’s home as a scout, where she recalled having to rush off to twenty more appointments after finally being permitted to leave. “I wanted to capture this idea that even when you have a crazy, uncomfortable, potentially dangerous situation, you're forced to keep going in these jobs and don't have time to reflect, ” González-Nasser says. 

The film ends on an ambiguous note, as González-Nasser herself is “still figuring out” her relationship to scouting. “I think the job is awesome, but if it's the wrong project, it can be such a demoralizing experience,” González-Nasser says. On her own set, she made an effort to engage with every location with humanity. “There wasn't this sort of removed, cold, transactional experience as you see in the film where they're just looking at pictures and moving on with their day,” González-Nasser says, priding herself on a “process over product” approach to filmmaking.