Friends In High Places When shooting far from home, the first stop is the state or local film commission. The film commission can provide lots of assistance for your shoot. Most commissions publish a production guide which lists local crew throughout the state, information about rental houses, accommodations and the necessary permits. The New Mexico guide even provided detailed maps of the state and tables on temperatures and the time of sunrise and sunset. This information was especially helpful since we were shooting outside during November.
Rental houses are also a very good source of information.
In most cities, the rental house can give you insight as to local production customs and practices, information about crew members and help locate hard to find equipment. Since most of the people working at rental houses also work in the film business they can give you inside information that a film commission can't or won't give you. The guys at the rental houses can tell you what local rules you can bend, break, or ignore and which ones you can't. There is little worse than feeling the tension rise as you drive around the block for the sixth time trying to find where you're interview is to take place as it gets later and later. Having a PA to help you negotiate your way through a strange city frees you to worry compulsively about other more important things.