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 | Spring 2019 • 25 NM: How difficult was finding a house in Mexico City to serve as the Cuarón family home? HR: That was one of our biggest challenges. Searching began with a visit by some department heads, Alfonso and me to the real house where he had lived in Colonia Roma. Because of security issues in the city, the family that today lives in that house didn't trust us. They wouldn't open the house because in the beginning we couldn't say it was an Alfonso Cuarón project. After two or three weeks, we had to tell Alfonso that we should use his name to get the door open. It was the only way we managed to enter that house. In our visit, Alfonso showed us the whole house. Unfortu- nately for him, his childhood house was already modified. He left disappointed because it was no longer the house of his memories. For us, it helped us to understand the geography of the spaces that Alfonso required for his project. We searched all neighbor- hoods, especially the oldest neighborhoods in the city. The Colonia Roma has a certain look in the interiors of their houses. In Mexico City, Colonia Roma is a neighborhood where a middle-high social class lives today. There are not too many neighborhoods like that. I think we showed Alfonso around 150 houses—both interiors and exteriors. He was very clear about how the interior spaces should be. Many of the houses we presented did not suit him, ei- ther because of the layout, the lack of double-height ceilings or they did not have garages. It was extremely difficult to remove a complete family from the house that Alfonso would use for more than six months. So we went to a second stage. As location manager, I suggested to Alfonso that instead of looking for a house to rent, it was better to buy it. That way, Eugenio could adapt the spaces in the house and make all the modifications that were needed. In the end, we found a house that had been empty for a year. It was going to be demolished and replaced by an apartment building. Fortunately, we managed to postpone the demolition. It even worked as a cover set when suddenly in the rainy season, we had to do interiors only and that was our refuge. Eugenio Caballero: It was very important that we had an actual house because we were working with nonprofessional actors, so the idea of going to a studio wasn't an option. NM: Roma is set in 1970 and 1971. Was it difficult to find Mexico City exteriors that looked like the 1970s? HR: It was a great challenge to recreate Mexico City in the '70s be- cause when Roma was filmed, the streets looked like 2016. The sup- port of Mexico City's government was very important because we had to remove a lot of street furniture that did not match the time. NM: Eugenio read the script a few weeks aer shooting started. Did he advise you? HR: Not really. I think it helped the department heads to contrib- ute our memories to the project in some way. Alfonso and Eugenio guided me only in memories. Before introducing the locations to Alfonso, we introduced them to Eugenio. He knew if the locations would appeal to Alfonso. He was our main filter. NM: What other locations were challenging to find? HR: The hospital. It is a real building in a very crowded medical complex, 21st Century Medical Center, in Mexico City. That build- ing was damaged in the earthquake of 1985, and it remained closed until we found it. After talking with the authorities of the Mexican Institute of Social Security, we were able to open the building. They let us use all the space for five months so that Eugenio could create the sets. The only thing we did was do a study, a structural assessment with engineers so that they would guarantee that the