Location Managers Guild International

Summer 2018

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

Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/996734

Contents of this Issue

Navigation

Page 9 of 63

10 • LMGI COMPASS | Summer 2018 IN THE NEWS Finnish Lapland Fam Tour Santa would need to visit some 22 million kids per hour in order to take advantage of the time zones to deliver all his gifts to kids on Christmas Eve. An amazing logistical feat when you take into account the scheduling to figure out how to efficiently hit the locations, making up stops in less populated time zones and staging refueling/ restocking stops. It's akin to the amount of preparation that goes into a well- organized tech scout. This parallel was not lost as we visited the Lapland home of the man in red. It's fitting that the Finnish Lapland Film Commission would invite location managers and producers to visit its winter wonderland to advise on how to best promote its region and meet with Santa to compare notes on how to visit the most locations in the shortest amount of time. With that criteria, Lapland recently invited LMGI members Dow Griffith and Kent Matsuoka, Truenorth location manager Thor Kjartansson (LMGI business member), producer Molly Allen and HBO production by Kent Matsuoka executive Sally Harvey on a Fam Tour of the region, coinciding with the introduction of a new film incentive. After The Revenant and The Hateful Eight were forced into the Southern Hemisphere in search of snow, Lapland hopes to entice Hollywood with its guaranteed eight months of snow above the Arctic Circle, easily accessible through all-weather airports and well-maintained roads. Stopping in Rovaniemi, Kittila, Saariselka, Inari and the vast Urho Kekkonen National Park, the Fam Tour experienced a variety of landscapes from austere ice-bound Eastern bloc cities to dazzling ice hotels, quaint old Scandinavian villages, lonely warming huts, glacial fields, polar research stations, ski resorts and Santa's secret bunker deep in the Lappish countryside. The film commission lined up willing regional partners from hotels to property owners and service providers. From experienced reindeer and dog handlers to rally car drivers, Finland offers unique personnel eager to capitalize on the success of film. With a new 25 percent film incentive, things are looking up for Finland, however, a €10 million cap and the lack of qualified crew and infrastructure may prove to be a challenge for medium-sized projects. The availability of crew, equipment and stages in Helsinki can make for a compelling argument, especially when considering the neoclassical architecture reminiscent of Moscow and Saint Petersburg. During the Soviet era, Helsinki frequently portrayed Russia in Hollywood features, Warren Beatty's Academy Award-winning Reds (1981) and Michael Apted's Gorky Park (1983), chief among them. As tension between Washington and Moscow escalates, perhaps Finland can seduce Hollywood's fickle tastes back from its Nordic neighbors. Finland is betting it has what it takes to compete in an increasingly crowded field of austere frozen locales. Maybe Santa can help. Dow Griffith and Kent Matsuoka, Truenorth location manager Thor Kjartansson, producer Molly Allen and HBO production executive Sally Harvey, among others. Strategy meeting with Santa and Kent Matsuoka Cannes Do! Praise for Chris Beal's Short Film Emma Rae, produced by Los Angeles KALM Chris Beal, played at the "Short Film Corner" at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival. Abandoned and discounted, 15-year-old Emma Rae is placed in a foster family where her new "big brother" bullies her relentlessly, push- ing her to an edge she never knew she had. A scathing insight into the turbulence many teens navigate in this age of social media, Emma Rae focuses an unforgiv- ing lens on the dark realities of the foster care system. Written and directed by Allen Sowelle, the film stars Jack Photos by Kirsikka Paakkinen, Finnish Lapland Film Commission

Articles in this issue

Archives of this issue

view archives of Location Managers Guild International - Summer 2018