Need a farm, barn, winding country road or giant open field?
Good news: you don't need to drive halfway across Tennessee to find one.
One of Nashville's biggest advantages as a production base is how quickly the city gives way to countryside. Depending on where you're starting and what the brief calls for, you can be looking at farms, horse properties, wooded roads, creeks and rolling Tennessee hills within 30–60 minutes of downtown Nashville.
For commercial photography, advertising, branded content, film and motion productions, that means you can get a genuinely rural look without automatically creating a travel day.
Here's where we'd start looking.
Leiper's Fork
Approx. 40–50 minutes from downtown Nashville
If the creative calls for quintessential Tennessee countryside, Leiper's Fork is an obvious place to start.
The surrounding area has rolling hills, horse farms, barns, fences, creeks, wooded roads, historic homes and large rural properties.
The village itself adds another layer: small-town storefronts, restaurants and a distinctly Tennessee feel.
The landscape can be beautiful and polished without losing its rural character, which makes the area particularly useful for lifestyle, fashion, automotive and advertising work.
The tradeoff?
You're not the first person to notice that Leiper's Fork is pretty.
Private-property access and good local relationships matter.
Good for: Farms, horse properties, barns, country roads, upscale rural lifestyle, small-town Tennessee and open landscapes.
Franklin + Rural Williamson County
Approx. 30–50 minutes from downtown Nashville
Downtown Franklin gets most of the attention, but from a location perspective, the surrounding countryside is just as interesting.
Once you move outside the denser parts of Franklin, you'll find historic farms, estates, pastures, barns, creeks, wooded roads and large residential properties.
Williamson County can work particularly well when the creative wants rural but polished.
Think beautiful acreage rather than completely remote farmland.
It's also close enough to Nashville that keeping crew, equipment and accommodations based in the city remains practical.
Good for: Lifestyle, luxury, automotive, farms, estates, equestrian properties and polished countryside.
College Grove
Approx. 40–50 minutes from downtown Nashville
Keep heading southeast and things open up quickly.
College Grove and the surrounding area offer rolling farmland, large properties, barns, fences, fields and rural roads.
It's particularly useful when you need more acreage or want to get away from the increasingly developed areas immediately surrounding Nashville.
The terrain also gives you that classic Middle Tennessee combination of green fields, rolling hills and tree lines that photographs beautifully.
Good for: Farms, fields, automotive, barns, rural roads, agricultural looks and large private properties.
Thompson's Station
Approx. 35–45 minutes from downtown Nashville
Thompson's Station sits in a useful middle ground.
There is newer residential development, but plenty of rural landscape remains around it.
You'll find farmland, historic properties, open fields, horse properties and country roads while staying relatively close to Nashville and Franklin.
For a production that needs a combination of residential + rural, this broader area can be especially useful.
Good for: Farms, suburban-rural combinations, lifestyle, family, automotive and open countryside.
Joelton + Northwest Davidson County
Approx. 20–35 minutes from downtown Nashville
This one sometimes surprises people.
You don't necessarily have to leave Davidson County to start finding rural Tennessee.
Head northwest from downtown toward Joelton and you'll quickly begin seeing larger properties, wooded roads, farmland, barns and open land.
From a production perspective, proximity is the big advantage.
If the creative doesn't require a specific sweeping Williamson County estate look and simply needs believable rural Tennessee, scouting north and northwest of Nashville can save a lot of travel time.
Good for: Farms, woods, rural homes, barns, country roads and everyday Tennessee countryside.
Ashland City + Cheatham County
Approx. 30–45 minutes from downtown Nashville
Head west and the landscape changes again.
Ashland City and the surrounding parts of Cheatham County can provide wooded hills, rural roads, farms, creeks, river environments and more rugged terrain.
The Cumberland River also runs through the area, opening up possibilities for waterfront and river-adjacent locations.
This can be a great direction to scout when the brief needs rural + natural rather than purely agricultural.
Good for: Woods, river environments, country roads, farms, creeks, rugged landscapes and outdoor lifestyle.
Goodlettsville + Rural Areas North of Nashville
Approx. 20–35 minutes from downtown Nashville
Goodlettsville sits surprisingly close to downtown while providing quick access to more rural areas north of Nashville.
Beyond the commercial corridors, you'll find larger residential properties, farms, fields, barns and wooded roads.
For productions working with a tight schedule, this area can be worth scouting simply because of how quickly you can move between Nashville and a rural-looking environment.
Good for: Rural residential, farms, barns, fields, family lifestyle and country roads.
Gallatin + Sumner County
Approx. 40–60 minutes from downtown Nashville
Northeast of Nashville, Sumner County gives you another strong mix of farmland, historic properties, rolling countryside and water.
Gallatin and the surrounding communities also sit near Old Hickory Lake, which means you can potentially combine rural and waterfront looks within the same general scouting area.
That's especially helpful for productions that need several outdoor environments but want to minimize major company moves.
Good for: Farms, fields, lake properties, barns, rural roads, waterfront and lifestyle.
Lebanon + Wilson County
Approx. 35–50 minutes from downtown Nashville
Head east toward Lebanon and you'll find another broad stretch of rural Middle Tennessee.
Wilson County has farms, agricultural properties, barns, fields, wooded areas and classic country roads, along with small-town commercial environments.
The landscape tends to feel less manicured than some parts of Williamson County, which can be useful when the creative calls for something more authentically agricultural or everyday rural.
Good for: Working farms, barns, agriculture, country roads, small-town environments and Americana.
Don't Forget About Private Properties
Public parks and scenic roads are useful, but some of the best rural film locations around Nashville are simply private properties that aren't traditionally marketed as filming locations.
A farm may have the perfect barn.
A horse property may have exactly the fence line from the reference image.
Someone's backyard may have the creek you're looking for.
And that beautiful open field may come with a homeowner who's perfectly happy to host a production—as long as someone asks.
This is where local location scouting becomes particularly valuable.
Rather than limiting a search to established event venues and locations already advertised online, a scout can source properties directly, speak with owners, confirm access and determine whether the location can realistically support a production.
Because finding the picture is only half the job.
A Pretty Farm Isn't Automatically a Good Film Location
This is the part that can get overlooked.
The location has to work behind the camera too.
When we're evaluating a rural property for a production, we're also thinking about:
Crew parking. Truck access. Basecamp. Bathrooms. Holding. Power. Cell service. Catering. Road access. Neighbors. Sound. Weather cover.
A gorgeous barn at the end of a narrow gravel road with nowhere to turn around a grip truck may still work for a ten-person still shoot.
For a 60-person motion production?
Different conversation.
That's why rural locations should be vetted for both the creative and the production footprint before they're presented as viable options.
What About Tennessee State Parks + Natural Areas?
If your rural brief leans more toward forests, trails, lakes, creeks or undeveloped landscape, Tennessee's public lands can open up additional possibilities.
The Tennessee Department of Environment & Conservation manages Tennessee's State Natural Areas, while Tennessee State Parks provides information on parks throughout the state.
Public land comes with its own commercial filming rules, permits and restrictions, so these locations need to be researched individually before they're promised to a client.
But from a scouting standpoint, they're another reason Nashville works so well as a base for outdoor productions.
How Far Do You Actually Need to Drive?
Usually, not that far.
For a straightforward rural brief, we'd often begin looking 20–45 minutes outside central Nashville before expanding the search radius.
Within roughly an hour, you can potentially find:
Farms. Horse properties. Barns. Open fields. Creeks. Forests. Lakes. Rural homes. Historic estates. Country roads. Small towns. Working agricultural properties.
The exact direction we'd scout depends on the creative.
Need something polished and aspirational? We might head south.
Need something more rugged and wooded? West could become interesting.
Need agriculture, open land or a working-farm feel? East and north give us plenty to explore.
That's the advantage of Nashville.
You can stay based in a major city without your "rural location" being three hours away.
Looking for a Rural Location Near Nashville?
Nashville Location Company scouts and sources farms, barns, fields, country roads, private homes, horse properties, forests, creeks and rural locations throughout Nashville and Middle Tennessee.
Send us your creative brief, reference images or location specs and we'll figure out where to start looking.
And preferably, we'll find it before anyone suggests a three-hour company move.