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 | Fall 2017 • 49 in one location and costume in another, all within striking distance of our set and it was all logistically well planned." The crew also closed part of Hyde Park, the biggest of the Royal Parks between Kensington and Buckingham Palace, to film scenes for its opening action sequence, a nighttime high-speed car chase in black cabs through the heart of the city. It culminates at the Serpentine, the lake in the park where Eggsy's taxi transforms into a submarine to access a secret underwater tunnel. Buckley says people from his hometown of Birmingham will recognize some of their city's streets, which stood in for London in part of that sequence. "We had very loud cabs, purpose-built for the film, being chased at night by Jaguars with machine guns on top. To do that in London takes an incredible amount of time and coordination, so we were looking for an alternate location." Buckley's team scouted Liverpool too, but Birmingham was a better match, and the city's film commission could make it happen with only six weeks' notice. "It's getting a name for being film-friendly," says Vinnie Jassal, LMGI, a location manager on both Kingsman films, who grew up about 10 minutes from Birmingham. "[Steven Spielberg's] Ready Player One shot there after us as well. A lot of productions here now are branching out, going to different cities—Manchester, Leeds, Sheffield—because of factors like the tax breaks and the weak pound." Jassal has more than 15 years of experience scouting and managing locations on films ranging from indie My Week with Marilyn to Fast & Furious 8 and Star Wars spinoff Rogue One. "I used to run my father's pub in the Midlands and decided that instead of pulling pints, I wanted to make films," Jassal remembers. "Three hundred phone calls later, I managed to bag my first job in the film industry." He got into locations after working as a scout on commercials and PA stint on Oliver Stone's Alexander. Nearly a decade later, he met Buckley on World War Z and says they bonded over intense table tennis matches. "We were all sweaty and people thought we were crazy. But ultimately, film people, we're competitive. To get to where we get to and do what we do, we're determined people in every department." Buckley (who claims only his opponent got sweaty during those matches) calls Jassal his "right-hand man, without question" when it comes to London locations, including the Hyde Park shoot on The Golden Circle. Likewise, Jassal says it was never an issue for him that he's been in the business longer than Buckley, whose Special Forces skill set helped put him on par from the start. "Andy's organizational skills are second to none, and he knows how to communicate with people, how to get things done, and he's got a great personality, so he has moved up quickly." But when Buckley got an offer to supervise on the first Bottom right: Photo courtesy of 20th Century Fox/Giles Keyte. All other photos courtesy of Andy Buckley/LMGI. Althorp House exterior Althorp House interior