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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LMGI COMPASS | Fall 2018 • 51 There are 13 full-time staff members in the Gotham Location Depart- ment, including three assistants. Two are keys who manage each al- ternating episode and Adams says the third is a specialty ALM who handles the many safety issues related with going into old, abandoned buildings. "There are a lot of environmental concerns. We constantly have to deal with lead paint, asbestos, mold ... so we've come up with this process of how we test and abate locations. It's a really big job." More often than not, production sends a crew in to clean locations. "Then it has to be posted before the crew goes in—even to prep," Adams says, "which on a TV schedule ends up being tricky." In New York City, where anywhere from 50 or 60 projects may be out on the street at any given time, Adams is quick to mention another critical ally: The NYPD Film Unit. "The permit office does a great job but is in- undated. To get an answer from the police early in the process in terms of working out on the street or doing something in a neighborhood that might be dicey is essential." He says the city's film office does its part to minimize impact on various neighborhoods to prevent burnout. "If a neighborhood's getting blown up too hard, they put it on the 'hot list.' The residents get a break and then you go back." Even with those hot zones, the Gotham crew has left no stone un-pho- tographed. "We shoot in every borough, in nearly every county within the zone of the city ... Staten Island, we shot there a lot. The people there are wonderful. But you go down to DUMBO, and someone's shoot- ing there every other day. They're not that psyched, but we take care of people." Taking care of people, more often than not, means paying them, and those fees are constantly rising. "On a TV schedule, you don't have the time, necessarily, to negotiate the way you would on a movie or to be able to walk away … you don't have that luxury," says Adams. "There are numbers that we won't pay. We hit our ceiling often and say, 'forget it, you got too greedy, we're not doing it,' but overall, you have to be ready to put the money into the system. "Any good location manager knows it's not just a key location, it's ev- erybody ... the people you're parking in front of whose business you block ... the guy whose baby is gonna be up all night, I mean ... you have to be conscientious about who you're affecting, approach them before they approach you, and show people that we know this is going to be an inconvenience, but we're going to do it right … We try to leave a location with people saying, 'They were here, they were big, but they treated us fairly.'" The Gotham Location Department gets its hands dirty, often literally, in order to find those grimy, grungy locations that define the city as a character. While a more obvious location like the Brooklyn Navy Yard is a crew favorite for its wide variety of looks and proximity to their stages at Steiner Studios, their specialty is scouting off the beaten path deliver- ing visually stunning locations rarely used by other shows. Many of Go- tham's most extraordinary locations are scheduled for redevelopment, their legacy living on through the show. The most mentioned location is the landmark Dime Bank in Brooklyn, an imposing Classic Revival with a striking rotunda. Adams credits scouts Susan Silas and Scott Tankel. "To find something unique, you have to pay attention to the real es- tate development world, and track things that may become available," says Adams. The bank was closed for two or three years and owned by a number of different entities before finally being sold off. Silas heard about it and got in to take a look." The location was exceptional—even for a department with an impressive track record of unique finds. "Built