Location scouting for 1.1M views

Sergei Minaev sent an Excel sheet for his Hong Kong film. We planned the route in Google My Maps, with numbered stops and shot notes. We gave lunch its own layer.

With only a few of us on the production team, we agreed a full call sheet would be overkill. Sergei was happy with the schedule we put together. He could see where we’d go and what we planned to shoot, without opening a production manual on the pavement.

The finished film had passed 1.1 million YouTube views by 23 October 2026.

Day one starts at Statue Square. We numbered ten stops through Central, past the escalators and Tai Kwun, towards Cat Street. We drew time blocks around groups of locations: two hours, two hours, another thirty minutes. We kept the walking directions in their own layer, which you can toggle beside the numbered locations.

The “+30мин” area gives Cat Street another 30 minutes. Stops 6–9 sit in the neighbouring two-hour block.

The notes under the pins were short enough to use on location. Three examples, translated from the map:

• Old Legislative Council building: columns and dome against the glass towers around it.
• HSBC: shoot upwards and film the passage underneath the building.
• Mid-Levels escalators: ride up, showing the city’s levels, cafés and signs along the way.

Stop two, with the original Russian note. We kept the shot brief beside the address.

We marked The Henderson optional. Another beautiful building, if we had time. The note is there beside the numbered stops, so you can see what we were prepared to skip.

«Опционально» means “optional”. We planned to talk about Hong Kong’s future and modern architecture here.

For day two, we planned to meet at Central Market, board the tram, then film the crowded Causeway Bay pedestrian crossing. We separated the locations from the travel layers. One route joins Causeway Bay, Wan Chai and the pier by car; another covers the Kowloon walk. You can switch them on and off without losing the shot notes.

We named the food layer «Покушать» and saved three options, including Shugetsu and Tsim Chai Kee. “Head of Noodles” would make a good production credit.

The food layer. «Покушать» means “eat”.

Stop eight on our map. In the film, the escalators appear in the chapter at 1:01:37 .

We imported the locations from a file. You can open the working map or download its current KML export . The export keeps the location notes, route lines and shaded areas. It reflects the map today; its description still says we were developing day three.

For the personal side, read about the shoot and my connection to Sergei’s work . Open a few pins on the map while you watch the film.