Location Managers Guild International

LMGI COMPASS | Winter 2020 • 57 for it to snow, and then we sent a camera crew over to shoot establishing shots in a snowy landscape." "Aunt March's house was actually two things," Gonchor adds, "her house and also a school at the end. We wanted to find some- thing that looked regal and institutional—a little bit stern and a little more masculine. We used the outside and inside of a pri- vate home. There's a whole list of historic homes that they use for functions. We shot at three of them. They're wedding venues now, updated with electricity and plumbing. "This place was tucked away. It wasn't a giant place like some of the other mansions we shot at. It was an A–frame, and when I first looked at it, I thought, 'That's a great academy.' Inside were three rooms and a great backyard. I said, 'We've got to grand- mother this place up and make it into something cool.'" Another location that impressed Gonchor was the Arboretum of Harvard University, which had never before been used for filming. "We did a carriage scene with Meryl Streep in a perfectly restored buggy," he says. "We had the arboretum for one day. It stands in for Paris gardens. Watching Meryl ride by in a buggy in her historic costume, makeup and hair made me forget for a moment that I was living in the modern world. It takes you to a different time. 'Wait a second. We've gone to 1860.' You breathe a little differently." Dresser adds, "I loved the sound of horses and carriages run- ning on dirt roads in downtown Boston that just hours before had cars and taxis passing by." CAN LAWRENCE REALLY LOOK LIKE NEW YORK CITY? One of Little Women's physically biggest locations took place in Lawrence, a manufacturing town from the turn of the century. KALM Oliver took on the challenge of transforming the down- town city center of Lawrence into New York circa 1880s. "Pre- paring Lawrence to be filmed as New York in the late 1880s was one of the proudest, hardest and most challenging moments of my career." Although much of Little Women takes place in and around Boston, Jo (Ronan) moves to New York at one point to further her writing career. "Jess Gonchor and art director Chris Farmer brought the vi- sion to Lawrence, one of Massachusetts' main textile cities, on the Merrimack River," Oliver says. "The city had preserved many of their great historic buildings, including massive factories, City Hall and the Superior Court. We began with a lot of legwork and jumping through hoops long before any actual changes. There were months of preparation before we landed. Then, a few days before we arrived, on September 13, 2018, the gas explosions of the Merrimack Valley hit Lawrence. More than 40 homes blew up from overcharged gas lines, and 30,000 residents were displaced. Most of them were forced to live in makeshift shelters through- out the city. That is where we came in. We had to consider the effect on businesses that feed off the limited traffic coming in and out of the city and stay out of the way of the relief efforts. We also coordinated to make sure businesses weren't addition- ally impacted. The mayor, all of the city staff and most of the residents were extremely supportive with such a prestigious and historically influential story. Over the course of three weeks, we basically transformed three city blocks into New York 1880s and got to film for two days." "It was a major transformation," Gonchor adds. "There were so many people and businesses to deal with and for such a long time." For reference, he looked at paintings from the era. "I wanted to see what the light was like and the different shades of colors. I think half of my research was examining painting from Colonial times and the streets of Concord, which we built as well. There were no real photographs of what it looked like back then." HOMES AS MUSEUMS Because of Boston's historic preservation, the location team had many choices for possible shooting sites. "A lot of the loca- tions we filmed at were built in the late 1800s," Oliver says. "They have been well cared for over the decades and some turned into museums. In one case, we got the unique opportunity to film at a home built in the 1850s by a prominent Bostonian, Charles Hammond Gibson. It served as the New York boarding house. Because it is preserved as a museum and not someone's home, we didn't have the additional task of making arrangements to

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