I see so many movies, old and new, that I think I’m seeing an actual house, or a street, or some place. Then when I see the behind the scenes footage, it’s often not a real house, or street scene. It always just seems like such a huge waste of money. Could they not have found or used a real house or street or town?
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The problem with location shooting is you can’t just rock up with a dozen trucks full of lighting, cameras, craft services, talent trailers etc. and expect everyone to be happy. The interior of buildings may not be period accurate so you have to do some set work to restore the interior to say a 1940s aesthetic – which the current owner might not appreciate, or you’d be spending quite a bit of money to change/restore/dress the location how you like, then restore it to how it was afterwards. Meanwhile if its someone’s home, they gotta go stay somewhere else (on your dime). You gotta have parking for the trucks, traffic control if you’re blocking the street, permits, security yadda yadda.
ALSO, depending on the shots you want to make, the geometry of the building itself might be a problem. Lets say you want a wide angle shot of your cast member falling down a stairway. Well, there’s a wall where you’d be placing your camera. Can’t slice a real home in half for that – but if its a set, its built modularly for this express purpose.
A good set crew can knock out a convincing replica of a building relatively quickly – they know what details to get right, and what aspects they can eliminate for time and cost or for practical effect. For example, they can make a wall look like lathe and plaster but its really balsa wood and foam. It may not sound right when the lead thumps it with his fist (but you can fake that in post with the foley guys), but it will look convincing when the stunt person goes flying through it.
If you do a location shoot you gotta rent your gear there or truck it there. Cast and crew have to be hired locally or flown in and you’re paying $hotels. If you build a set on your lot, the gear just gets wheeled over to the soundstage from the storage location. The cast and crew get to stay in their LA homes at night.
Lastly, a lot of movie studios have backlots with building exteriors – and even some complete buildings inside – where the building isn’t a legit building, it just _looks_ like one. This saves a lot. Does this [“Midwestern” town center](https://www.wbspecialevents.com/portfolio_page/midwest-street-2/) look familiar? Of course it does – its the Warner Brothers studio backlot. That gazebo has been in everything from the Gilmore Girls to the Dukes of Hazzard.
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