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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12 • LMGI COMPASS | Fall 2017 leaders to what they have to offer, and LMGI location managers Becky Brake, Bill Doyle, Doug Dresser, Ilt Jones and Kent Matsuoka answered the call. The mission's objective was to share the amazing assets, capabilities and stories available to filmmakers through the DoD. A diverse group of producers, production executives, writers and LMGI members were invited to attend the three-day tour. Due to the diverse group of attendees, it wasn't a typical Fam Tour of filmable locations. The tour included visits to secure areas, currently unavailable for filming, to experience as a reference should we get the call to replicate them. There were also opportunities to talk with airmen in little-known fields such as the combat air controllers and parajumpers, revealing additional avenues for possible use of Air Force locations or assets. The potential to introduce the general public to a positive impression of the military through integration in media that would otherwise be unavailable through advertising is generally the most common justification for military cooperation. Potential filming locations included March Air Reserve Base in Riverside County. The pre-war era March is the closest Air Force Base (AFB) to Los Angeles and served as the starting point of the trip. In Colorado, we visited Cheyenne Mountain (the secretive bunker seen in War Games and Stargate), the Air Force Academy and Space Command. In contrast to March, the Air Force Academy was built in involved the demilitarized zone (DMZ), which separates North Korea and South Korea. Our tour guides were able to have the museum director give us a private tour of the facility and viewing area. From our vantage point, we were able to see North Korea. It is a very surrealistic place. I was imagining that 67 years earlier, this area was a battlefield. A short distance away was Daejin Port. This small fishing village would be an ideal location for filming. It is very picturesque and Daejin Port is not very large or very busy. Nearby, we visited World Heritage Site Wanggok Village. The homes had a unique thatched roof design in conjunction with a traditional tile roof design, which is a defining feature of Korean architecture. Sometimes both roof styles were used for the various buildings located in the same compound. If you removed a few cars and a satellite dish or two, you are back in time 200 years. The other cultural aspects to South Korea are their unique shopping and food markets. We visited numerous "old- fashioned" markets of every kind. Fish markets, food markets, shopping markets, simply amazing. We ate all types of Korean food, modern, traditional, casual and formal. All of it was unique and I tried to be as adventurous as possible. Chopsticks were the utensils of choice. There were no knives at the table and if meat or fish had to be cut, a scissor was used. Overall, South Korea was a beautiful and very unique place. There are hills, valleys, rural and urban areas that are very picturesque. While traveling from Seoul to Gangwon, we went through tunnels, one of which was 10 kilometers (6 miles) long. The tunnels were very clean and very well maintained. In fact, that can be said for all the areas that we visited in Korea. The people were very friendly and gracious. Our various hosts were very professional and they were great tour guides. They were able to answer all of our questions and they were great cultural ambassadors. In closing, South Korea has a lot to offer filmmakers and I feel confident that the areas I visited would be able to handle any type of filmmaking. FLYING HIGH with the U.S. Air Force by Kent Matsuoka It's "Zero Dark Thirty" and we're out on the flight line at March Air Reserve Base (ARB) preparing to board a Boeing C-17 Globemaster III for an airlift out to NORAD… It might sound like the opening scene of a movie, but in reality, it's just another familiarization opportunity LMGI members recently participated in. Thirty years ago, Top Gun was released and has since been recognized as a watershed moment in the Pentagon's involvement with Hollywood as enlistment numbers spiked in aviation fields and the Pentagon realized the advantages of partnering with Hollywood. The military was experiencing drawdowns following Vietnam and the thawing of the Cold War made it harder and harder to justify growing defense budgets to Congress, but along came Top Gun, and having the fastest, most technologically advanced warfighters became cool again… Cut to 2017 as the Air Force Entertainment Liaison Office finds itself fielding calls from productions such as The Amazing Race, Bridge of Spies, Hawaii Five-0, Lone Survivor, Transformers, Pitch Perfect and Whiskey Tango Foxtrot. Navy SEALS have been getting much of the attention in recent collaborations with the military, so the Air Force wanted to introduce entertainment industry Photo courtesy of Michael Burmeister/LMGI