Location Managers Guild International

58 • LMGI COMPASS | Winter 2020 move them out for several weeks while we filmed. But a lot of the things in the home were antiques. Nothing in the house was up- dated or modernized. This home even had its original gold leaf, embossed wallpaper, popular for the period and very delicately preserved after all these years. Our job then, as location professionals, was to ensure we protected it—like not accidentally dragging some sharp object down the stairs and putting a hole through the wallpaper. One of the things that comes with our job is being the bad guy to our crew," Oliver adds. "This role isn't something I like but is some- times what we must do. It takes a lot of hard work to address all of a property's concerns, even before they allow us to film somewhere. But then, after all of that, you get there and the crew doesn't necessarily think, 'This vase the designer wants to use is priceless' or 'This 200-year-old piece of furniture is something we can't easily replace.' They're thinking, 'My boss needs me to screw a light into the ceiling or remove a 100-year-old door for a camera position.' So we have to act as the enforcers on the set. This way the director can get all the shots needed and we, hap- pily, are allowed back." NO, NOT THAT HARVARD Dresser mentions one of the key locations he is most proud of. "The production designer and the art department did a fantastic scene that is supposed to be Concord in the 1860s," he says. "We were in Harvard, a small town in Massachusetts (pop. 6.500), and we were able to take over a few blocks of the downtown area and add horses, buggies and smoke. It's one of the most incredible sets I've ever seen. We brought in truckloads of dirt and snow. Most of what you'll see is real—not a completely designed com- puter graphic that is just made up. When you're standing there, you can smell the horses and the smoke burning. It helps the actors get the feel of the times. The buggy was 150 years old. It made it all feel real and authentic." How did they find it? Luck. Dresser and some of his team stopped there for lunch one day while scouting. "We went to the historic neighborhood market and were struck immediately that we could look 360 de- grees and all we could see were historic buildings," he remembers. "They've preserved it for hundreds of years. We kept thinking about this town. 'Remem- ber where we stopped for sandwiches?' Eventually, we approached them and said, 'We'd like to add a few buildings and take over your streets for a few days and bring in snow and horses. We want to make a movie.' "They'd never had any- thing quite the scale of Little Women. They were willing, somewhat hesitantly, to go along with us. In the end, we involved the town. We had town meetings and hired some of the locals as extras. Everyone was supportive. We were there for multiple days over the course of several weeks. We built enough and changed enough to make it story-specific." Adds Merims about the choice of Harvard, "I initially thought we'd film in downtown Concord, but when Jess Gonchor and I went to see it, I thought it would be very difficult to control. It looks period, but it's a modern operating town. So I asked, 'Aren't there any other smaller towns?' The town of Harvard was suggested. Doug got involved working with the town, the city council, the town manager, and the police force for our two dif- ferent time periods—winter, when we were putting down tons of snow, and not winter. The town really embraced us. Doug and I did town halls and learned about their concerns. We were really protective about being period-correct, so we had to cover up things like wheelchair ramps and asphalt." ALCOTT FAMILY CONNECTIONS Dresser hoped to be able to film inside Orchard House, the Al- cott home, but it was impractical for many reasons. "It's on a busy road," he says. "It would have been difficult to film for as long as we needed and do the things we needed to. The movie takes place over time, and we go through the seasons. We had to make it snow a little early, and we raced the beginning of production to make sure we had enough greenery and flowers for spring. When we moved into the winter months, we added snow and rain. The story will take you on a journey through time and seasons—just getting a little slice of life of this family." Another location that had a direct connection to the Alcott family was Fruitlands, an agrarian commune that Bronson Al- cott helped found in 1840 in the town of Harvard. "It was an important location because the Alcott family lived there for a while," Gonchor says. "On that property is a working farm. I think the story of Little Women is not all her memories. I

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