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 • 47 Trafalgar Square director settled on Englefield. However, "They did want the suits of armor! So we put suits of armor in the hall. It was a fantastic place to work, very film-friendly. It's a large estate, so we could use drones to follow motorbikes through the park and all that kind of business, whereas if you were trying to do that in the middle of a Royal Park or the National Trust, you'd have great difficulty. It was a very quick turnaround." Like World War Z, Heritage locations in Britain are not exclusive to—as Pat would say, "Posh people in big houses." Location manager Sue Quinn, LMGI, whose five-star vitae includes both Fantastic Beasts and the majority of the Harry Potter movies, was given the challenge of a lifetime by no less than Tom Cruise. She was at a production meeting with director Doug Liman for the sci-fi cult fave Edge of Tomorrow—the kind of meeting "where you sit with your head down while they get on with stuff," describes Sue. When in walked Cruise with writer Christopher McQuarrie. "And Tom turns round and says, 'I had this idea that we should land a helicopter in Trafalgar Square to start the movie. What do you think, Sue?' I went bright red from head to toe. And producer Tim Lewis, who knows me terribly well, looked over the table and said, 'That'll be okay, won't it Sue?' Because he knows how hard it would be, and … Jesus, where to begin on that one?" Whitehall is the main thoroughfare from Trafalgar Square toward Parliament Square—an epicenter of UK history, since the days of Henry VIII's court. The Prime Minister's residence, Scotland Yard, the National Gallery, the suffragette-bashing Houses of Parliament—they're all there. "Security is on high alert," says Sue, "and it's not built to land helicopters." Her journey began at the mayor's office. Three months later, Sue and her crew had permission to stop the bells from ringing at St Martin-in-the-Fields, close the National Gallery for two hours, redirect traffic from 57 bus routes, keep the Queen's Life Guard from parading, all the while flying Tom Cruise in on a Royal Air Force HCI Puma helicopter around Big Ben ("that was not visual effects—that was for real"), over Westminster Abbey, down Whitehall and onto Trafalgar Square without chopping the head off Nelson's Column. And, for good measure, there was a second helicopter filming the whole thing. Sums up Sue, "I have never been refused anywhere to film, and there's never a problem that can't be got over." And that brings us back to Suffragette, and those same Houses of Parliament that Tom Cruise flew over en route to saving the world. "You do not move in that place without their say-so," insists Harriet Lawrence, and while they may be well versed in state visits, "a film crew is more feral, really. And I had to tell them it was about rioting suffragettes because you don't want to be there and have anyone going, 'Well, we didn't think it was going to be that violent!' "Eventually, we pushed it over the line. I got the contract signed on Friday afternoon, the day before we actually started filming, which was a bit late for comfort and suitably nerve-racking." Harriet walked away from the signing thrilled. For the first time in history, filming would be allowed in the Houses of Parliament! And then the call came. "One of my contacts said, 'You know that painting we said we owned in the main room that you're going to film in? We don't own it, actually. So could you just not look that way?'" Back-and-forth it went. Harriet: "You'll have to take it off the wall." British Parliament: "We can't touch it without the owner's permission!" Harriet: "Well, you're going to have to do something because you've now signed a contract that says x, y, z!" She laughs now. "You know how it is where you think you've cleared all the hurdles, and then someone plants a great big jump right in front of you?" In the end, "I don't know who or what they mobilized, but they managed to find who actually owned it, and get in contact." The next day, filming began. For four days, 200 rioting suffragettes rushed the House of Commons in a sign- wielding tumult that had not been seen for nearly 100 years. "It was a long, drawn-out process," Harriet says. "But I think they enjoyed it. And, eventually, I enjoyed it. I think. A few months later." Photo by GeorgetteTurner/LMGI