great movies with one(or very few) locations

N

Nobody356

Well-known member
Hey guys,

I want to do a little studying up on how films with one or very few locations can play out. I'm hoping to hear of some of your favorites or classics that take place with very limited, simple locations.

Alot of hitchcock fits into this category, with films like rear window, rope and dial m for murder. More recently hard candy made do with very minimal locations.

Hoping you guys could give me some more good examples to check out

Chris
 
I wouldn't call any of these great:

Phone Booth I enjoyed. Nothing particularly special, but I found it clever and it uses very few locations, which is why it took only 3 weeks to shoot. I liked this one.

Recently room 1408 was nice. Again, nothing amazing, but I enjoyed it and it also uses very few locations. Although it obviously had several versions of the same set.

Another one is Unknown. I didn't like that one as much (and it's certainly not great), but it's a bunch of people with amnesia trapped in an abandoned building, and some of them are kidnappers and some are the kidnapped, however they don't know who's who. Pretty cool concept.
 
Breakfast Club
Saw
Open Water
Phone Booth
Shining
Amityville Horror
Blair Witch
Inside Man
Clerks
Crimson Tide
Panic Room
Career Opportunities
Identity
 
HappyGobo said:
Man, talking trash about Clerks is liable to make someone go all Saw on your ass...
Click to expand...

picard-sigh.jpg
 
I seem to be the only one, but I enjoyed Tape.

Jpeck- That image is even more of a groaner than the original comment. :shocked:
 
Cube...I posted about this film somewhere a short while ago.

One location, a room sized cube, inside of giant cube. To represent different cubes the characters progressed through as they solved problems and tried to figure their way out, they just changed the gel colours in the translucent cube walls.

Very effective.
 
This is an older movie, but I loved 12 Angry Men. As a filmmaker, I sat down and was blown away by what they did. It was most definitely not a low-budget movie, their budget was a couple million, but a large majority of that was spent on getting amazing actors, and it shows. Nearly the entire movie, except for the beginning and ending scenes, which were both moderately easily obtained locations, was shot in a small room with only a table and a light, and a door with "Men's" on it. They also showed the inside of the Men's bathroom towards the beginning. It was pretty much leaving everything to the strength of the acting, and in my opinion, it pulled through. It was very inspiring.
 
I was coming into this thread to post "12 angry men" ....looks like someone beat me to the punch.

"Oleanna" is another good one (at least I liked it)
"Glengarry Glen Ross" is another.

A good thing to look for is films based off plays (which many of those mentioned are) - usually you wind up with limited set changes in those cases.
 
Good point. Small plays with one or two main locations and a small cast can translate well into dramatic film.

The original 12 Angry Men is one of the greatest films ever made, it has maybe five locations (deliberation room, hallway, oustide courthouse, courtrom, washroom) which could very well have been done on location in one building, and it was all talk. Simulated rain was one of the only SFX I can recall being used.

The cast is amazing, one of the best ever...but it might be hard to get a group of that calibre to do a small film for you. You're going to need a good story and compelling actors, because films like that are heavy on dialogue.

Or you could do it with half as many people. Like Woody said on Cheers about a play he was in..."It's 12 Angry Men, but we only have six guys....so we have to be be twice as angry." (Or something to that effect.)
 
Home Alone
Home Alone 2
Home Alone 3

:)


Dead Calm was a great little film that had very few locations. Almost the entire movie took place on two boats.
 
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