True to its title, “Tracker” puts its bounty hunter in a wide variety of locations in every new episode of the CBS procedural as Justin Hartley’s survivalist Colter searches for missing people. That means plenty of opportunity for new guest stars and fresh drama — and brand-new locations that encompass all the terrain one wants to see a survivalist tackle. But that presents its own challenge for a weekly network series that films in Vancouver.
”We usually get a [script] outline about two or three weeks out,” location manager David Tamkin told IndieWire. “The outline will tell us, ‘Hey, this next episode is in New York and we need a high-rise tower or something.’ So we can start the process, but when the script actually lands, that’s when we get into the specifics of the requirements.”
That can range from high-rise apartment buildings to waterfalls, a big range that requires different skill sets (and contacts). “If you’re looking for houses or apartments or something in the city, you have to be getting lots of options,” location scout Steve Booth said. “Whereas if you’re looking for outdoor places, you’re not calling 15 different apartment owners or whatnot. There’s a different energy.”
Easy enough for seasoned location scouts to find, but much harder when it comes to finding ones that can be used safely for production. Not to mention that many of the needed outdoor locations are in out-of-the-way places and require more research.
”In my personal life, I love going out into the country, driving down dirt roads,” location scout Caro Johnson told IndieWire. “So if there are scenes that need those kinds of locations, I’m definitely more interested in doing those kinds of things. [Location scouting can be] so interest-based, so it’s fun to go out. And I just know those locations because I’ve been there in person or I’ve spent a weekend out there.”
Knowing the possibilities is only part of the process — there’s always making sure that the production can film there. “Episode 6, we needed a waterfall,” Tamkin said. “We thought, ‘Oh, well, this is going to be relatively straightforward. It’s mostly in the woods But, you know, we don’t do anything easy, so we needed to find this waterfall, and there’s not that many available that you can get near, that aren’t gonna kill you, and it became a whole thing. This waterfall,, in particular, was like a hike up a mountain for the crew. They were not super impressed, but you watch the episode and it looks amazing?”
”I remember scouting for the waterfall,” Johnson added with a laugh. “And I’m like, ‘I can get to the base if I hop over this fence and climb down this rope, but I don’t know if Justin or the producers are going to want to do that!”
Luckily, there’s always Reddit for other locations to take the strenuousness out of the process. Location scout Kira Godden cites it as a massive resource. “It’s hard to find new places that haven’t been filmed in Vancouver, so it’s kind of a challenge for me where I’m like, ‘OK, I know we have this one spot, but can I find something that hasn’t been seen before?’” she said. “I spend a lot of time on Google Maps. I call them my Google Map walks and I’ll stroll the city looking at things. Obviously, you see something on Google Maps, and then you drive there, and you’re like, OK, well, this place doesn’t exist anymore. So it’s not always super reliable, but it’s a good starting point just to get the conversation started.”
That’s just the beginning, of course. After Tamkin and his team find the locations, it’s up to the logistics teams to make it all happen — and make sure it’s a good experience for the people opening up their homes to production. But Tamkin points out one very specific plus to how “Tracker” operates.
”Our producer, Connie [Dolphin], and I sat down, and we spitballed ideas for possible episodes, which never happens. Locations never gets ahead of the game. Collectively, we were putting together packages being like, ‘OK, if you want a New York episode, here’s what we can give you. If you want to do a New Jersey sort of Sopranos-y kind of thing, here’s what we can give you. And we’re starting to see those episodes come back to us. The idea that, as locations, we sent down things to let them know what they could write to, I’ve never had that before in all the years I’ve been doing this. It’s great to know that there’s that collaboration from the very beginning of the writing stage with us as a department.”
