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 | Winter 2019 • 19 Bringing home the bling with the Dream Team for CSI: NY. With Nadia, the love of my life, at the California On Location Awards. The Dream Team, from left: Mona Nash Boelter, LMGI, Tim Hillman, Chanel Salzer and Justin Healy, LMGI. Photo: Nadia Hillman The next week, the designer came out. We went to a couple of places he liked and I asked him to please look at Canadian. He humored me. I could go to the crossroad two ways: One route was direct, the other route passed the farmhouse. I took a chance and decided to pass the farmhouse. As we approached the farmhouse, I noticed the designer sitting up a bit. I took my foot off the gas as we were starting to pass it and nonchalantly said, "That's the farmhouse from the pictures. We could stop in if you like." We did stop, and five minutes later, he was videotaping me delivering a FedEx envelope to the front door and walking through the gate to the barn. He loved it! Then we were up the road to the crossroad and it was a slam dunk. After all those weeks I had something, and it was something pretty special! Several years after that and several other movies (S1mOne, Road to Perdition, 50 First Dates), I was on my last feature film, License to Wed, one of Robin Williams' last pictures. The producer said he was taking a TV show and would I be interested. I needed to think about that. TV? My kids were 12 & 15 and I'd already missed two of each of their birthdays. All of the feature work was leaving town and I wanted to stay home. So I figured, what the hell. Again, luck was on my side because I walked into a really great situation on CSI: NY. Fantastic people, home at night with the family, good steady money and the run lasted for seven years. I have to admit, I was nervous making the jump from features to television. I knew that television was a faster pace. On a feature you usually had 30-60 days to shoot two hours of movie. With episodic television, you put out one hour of movie every 7-9 days. But features changed. You used to get 6-12 weeks of prep with a script and schedule that could be pretty well locked in. Then you shot for 30-60 days or so and wrapped for a couple of weeks. By the time I left features, they were green lighting pictures on a release date. No script, no cast, not even much of an outline. You'd start off scouting, then, as pages came out, you would re-scout and usually re-scout again. Then they'd cast someone who was only available on Tuesdays every other week and you'd have to go in and out of locations two or three times. It was getting pretty goofy, so could TV be any worse? On our first tech scout on CSI: NY, production asked for lane closures and alleys and the normal stuff. We'd look at them and say, "Okay" and they would say, "Really?" We'd say, "Sure, why not." Then Chanel Salzer and I (she is the best location manager in town, by the way, but refuses to manage so all the better for me) walked into base camp the first day on location and started laughing. We could park this in our driveway. We'd gone from 40-50 pieces of rolling stock to 16-18. After a couple of months on TV, I felt that I took a 15 percent pay cut and got an 85 percent boost in mental health. Were there crazy days? Absolutely! Same circus, different clowns. But on day one of the episode, the train is leaving the station whether you're ready or not. Photos courtesy of Tim Hillman/LMGI