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: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1036928
34 • LMGI COMPASS | Fall 2018 T he most nerve-wracking, and on the other hand most hilarious experience I personally had on this movie was down at the lake in the beautiful Lehesten quarry. There is this amazing wide shot in the movie where Lisbeth is approaching the mansion on top of the cliff, walking over the frozen lake below—it's all in this picture, frozen lake, cliff, mansion, all under a light snow cover—just perfect. So of course, we did the full drill preparing that shot, checking the thickness of the ice in all places to ensure it is safe to walk on, put up signs for the crew letting them know that nobody was allowed to step on the ice, not to leave any footprints on THE QUARRY INCIDENT by Klaus Darrelmann the immaculate white surface (there was a thin snow cover on the ice), etc. To make sure that nothing would happen to this set until the day we wanted to shoot it, I put a security guard in place 24/7 and three weeks out, just for the occasional hiker or village resident passing by. What could possibly go wrong? On the morning of our last prep day and right after the arrival of all our technical trucks the previous evening, I showed up on location around 9 a.m. just to see if final prep was going well and if any department needed additional support or anything else. Peeking over the edge of the cliff down to the until-then- immaculate frozen lake, I was hit with the view at left. I found out that some hardcore surviving-in-the-wilderness nature lover had shown up at the lake with a backpack and an ax over his shoulder. But because he didn't walk down directly to our filming spot, the security guard didn't think it would be necessary to ask the guy what he was up to in a nature preservation area with that ax casually resting on his shoulder. So this guy went down to the lake unmolested, changing direction literally exactly to the spot where we planned to have our actress start her walk across the ice later that week. Without further ado, he then hacked a hole of 1.5 meters by 1.5 meters into the ice and took a bath in the freezing cold water. He took a video of the action as well, as we found out later on Facebook. After all that exhausting morning exercise, he took a quick walk down to the base of the cliff, just to make sure his footprints were all over the place, packed his stuff and left. Again, he did not raise any suspicion with the security guard I was paying to prevent just that from happening. My immediate phone call to the UPM was initially met with laughter because he thought I was joking. I had to send the above pictures to make him aware that this wasn't me trying to be funny. In the end, our SFX/artificial snow company "Snowbusiness" saved the day. They covered the hole and removed all footsteps with some effort, but I will never get back the 10 years of my life I lost on that very morning. OUR INTENDED CAMERA ANGLE THIS DEFINITELY SHOULD NOT BE THERE! The interloping nature lover shown in his Facebook video (right) taking a bath on our set.