Paula González-Nasser Gives Location Scouts Their Due

Sofia rises early to drive from Brooklyn to the Manhattan production office where she works as a location scout. She’s tasked with finding spots in which to film an upcoming television pilot: a few apartments and, randomly, a fish store. Her day brings her around the city and in contact with a variety of people—a tech guy who shows her how to hack the system to avoid parking tickets, an old friend she hasn’t seen in years, a man who insists on dinner as recompense when she shows up late to scout his store, whereupon he will not shut the fuck up about his Moby-Dick ripoff novel. This is The Scout, a loosely plotted but deeply resonant portrait of modern New York as related through its inhabitants and their spaces. Writer/director Paula González-Nasser based the film on her own time in the trenches as an NYC location scout for TV series like High Maintenance, Broad City, and Search Party, as well as movies like Never Rarely Sometimes Always. Appropriately, she served as her own scout for this film, which has raked in plaudits since premiering at last year’s Tribeca Festival. Ahead of The Scout’s theatrical release, I sat down with González-Nasser over Zoom to discuss her time as a location scout, how it informed the film, and how she charted a realistic journey through New York. Our conversation has been edited and condensed for time and clarity.

Read it at Defector ↗

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