The Location Managers Guild International (LMGI) is the largest organization of Location Managers and Location Scouts in the motion picture, television, commercial and print production industries. Their membership plays a vital role in the creativ
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50 • LMGI COMPASS | Fall 2018 moment it was picked up. The producers decided to hire co-managers to get the show on its feet. Location manager Pat Sones was soon onboard, and one of the first prospects for the co-manager job had next to no television experience. "I hadn't really worked in episodic except for pilots at that point," recalls supervising location manager Keith Adams, LMGI. "But my strength was always in connecting with people creatively in an interview, which is what gets you the job." Adams' first gig in the business was as a set PA in the mid-'90s. He eventually moved into locations as a junior scout on the first season of The Sopranos and never looked back. He joined the Guild in 2008 and worked on everything from acclaimed in- dies to big-budget action films. All of his projects featured New York and its boroughs as background. But as Adams would soon find out, Gotham would be an entirely different beast. Adams was a big fan of the Burton films, and the creative team wanted to meld that version of Gotham with the more recent and grounded Nolan films. "I came to the table with a clear understanding of what they were going for and was able to articulate that immediately," Adams says. "I remember bringing up a couple of ideas for locations in my interview and one of them happened to be very similar to a set Doug Kra- ner had literally just built—this big room with a giant clock face in it—so he perked right up and said, 'This is our guy.'" Sones and Adams put together a list of locations; Adams is quick to credit Sones with helping to set the look. "Her contributions were huge," he re- members. "It was basically, 'What's the Gotham version of blank…?' And that question drove the entire process. After the first half of the first sea- son, it became evident that there was a Gotham-type location that would work for the show." The team learned how to "gothamize" anything. "Throw some graffiti on a wall, cover something up, add a steam source, a wet-down," Adams said. Another trick they discovered early on was to shoot exteriors, whenever possible, underneath any sort of superstructure, like elevated train plat- forms. They've basically lived in the shadows for nearly five years. "With 22 episodes a season, our producers were vocal about minimizing the number of night shoots," Adams says. "We get creative by making night exteriors into day or changing exteriors to interiors … this way we can still maintain the atmosphere without putting it on the shoulders of the crew. We do our fair share of nights, but they're rarely full nights." Gotham shoots an episode every nine days, with eight days of prep, and a tech scout on the second to last day. For the run of the series, Adams notes that he's been lucky to have a solid AD staff, a strong writers room, and in particular, unique allies in former location managers, producer Thomas Whelan and UPM David Chambers. "My background affects the way Keith and I talk to each other," Whelan says. It's an invaluable shorthand because Gotham "feels like making a fea- ture every day on a TV schedule." Even with plenty of prep, Adams admits it's been a struggle to find practical locations that merge seamlessly into the show's fictional world. In recent years, New York's real estate boom has- tened gentrification. Gotham's scouts have become detectives, unearthing buildings and abandoned spaces that fit the show's crumbling aesthetic. "There are a few neighborhoods that have been really good to us," Adams says. "We do very well in the DUMBO (Down Under Manhattan Bridge Overpass) neighborhood of Brooklyn. The Flatiron District has a very Gotham look with a lot of grey stone and really tall buildings. We tend to be ultra-selective. We'll change our schedule sooner than go to a crappy location. Like a period show, we're always avoiding modern buildings." But even newer spaces have their dark corners. One just has to know where to look. "Every shiny high-rise has a grimy basement," says production designer Daniel Novotny, who joined the series in Season 4. He relies heavily on Adams' team. "Keith is involved story-wise, which is great. He pulls selections and we can sit and talk, just the two of us, and pick our favorites," he says. "It's Gotham, right? There's usually no disagreement on what a cool location is. It's nice to agree on our pitch; it helps us look better when we're a unified front." Showrunner Danny Cannon's first meeting when he directs an episode is always with the Location Department. "Danny knows that part of what has made us able to portray Gotham in a way that hasn't been seen before is really the creativity and eyes of our location scouts and managers," says Whalen. Bayley Seton Hospital, Staten Island Old Bronx Courthouse Poppenhusen Institute, Queens