Cool article on how tech is changing location scouting from thelocationguide.com ( https://www.thelocationguide.com/spotlight-report/spotlight-report-from-... )
The good news: "The top-line consensus seems to be that technology has not replaced the scout; it has raised expectations, compressed timelines and placed even greater emphasis on experience, taste and trust."The better news: there are fantastic tools one can use to location scout at any budget.
Here's an AI-generated TL;DR, but reading the actual article is worth the time, especially the techie side panel, if that's your thing ;)
Location scouting has flipped from “footwork + gut” to “framework + data.”
The job still requires taste and instinct, but tech has compressed timelines, raised client expectations, and put scouts under constant real-time scrutiny (more stakeholders reviewing images daily, faster turnarounds).
Phones replaced film—and changed the social fabric of scouting.
iPhone/Android photos + instant sharing mean rapid decision cycles, but scouts often don’t even meet each other anymore; teams can be fully distributed, feeding digital packs back to production.
Discovery is increasingly digital (even social media), but verification remains human.
Instagram (and even Craigslist/Yelp) can surface “never-seen” locations, yet the scout still has to validate: access, ownership, permitting feasibility, and whether it truly works for story/crew.
Virtual scouting is now mainstream:
VR, photogrammetry, and especially LiDAR/phone scanning (e.g., Polycam) are used early to build rough 3D models so directors/DPs/art/VFX can previs, estimate scale, and plan faster—sometimes before a location is even chosen.
Navigation + environmental apps have become core gear.
Google Maps/Street View for pre-scouting, Google Earth Pro for 3D views and sun simulation, offline GPS (Gaia), sun-path apps (Sun Seeker / SOLight), and weather/climate AI tools to assess fog, wind, terrain stability, etc.
AI is reinventing the location database layer.
The big problem used to be tagging/metadata at scale; now platforms (notably FilmFixer’s LocationDB) use AI to ingest archives, auto-keyword/group, and enable searching by text prompts, reference images, even sketches—moving toward script-to-location suggestions.
Tension point: ownership, protectionism, compliance.
Some scouts resist sharing hard-won finds, but the article argues images are “already everywhere,” and platforms mainly deliver speed + inspiration—while serious users emphasize GDPR/IP/cybersecurity and controlled visibility (public/private, “rest” a location).
The future is hybrid, not replacement.
Tech gets you to the shortlist faster; the scout’s role expands into creative interpretation + diplomacy + community relations + logistics + sustainability, with final decisions still resting on human judgment: “Technology doesn’t replace instinct. It gets you to the instinct faster.”
How are you going about location scouting? Are you in 'hybrid mode' yet ?
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Thanks for sharing the article, Sebastian Tudores. I look at photos online, videos, and Google Maps when I research locations for my scripts. I'm going to try Google Earth.
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Sebastian Tudores We look at maps. Then photos. If a virtual walk-through is available we will use that to narrow down possible locations. Then visit them physically. Being in the spot and talking with the people highlights advantages and challenges that cannot be learned any other way.
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that's great Maurice Vaughan - Google Earth has some nice planning features relative to lighting and time of day, etc.
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Shadow Dragu-Mihai, Esq., Ipg sounds like an efficient 'hybrid mode' - yeah, 100% agree about physically present assessment eventually for things as you cannot otherwise detect, as you point out. And probably also because places have their own personality, characteristics in which your actors will need to live, and breathe, etc. wishing you a wonderful Holyday and a kick butt 2026!