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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44 • LMGI COMPASS | Fall 2019 Northern Ireland and Game of Thrones Through the phenomenon of the worldwide popularity of Game of Thrones, Northern Ireland reports there is a proven relation- ship between screen content and tourism growth. Film and TV motivate travel due to NI's unique landscape, culture and des- tinations, and this exposure may result in immediate specifi c travel or affect future destination decisions of those seeking to visit fi lming locations. An entire section of their website is devoted to HBO's most watched show. In collaboration with Tourism Ireland and HBO, they developed creative campaigns to attract fans by addressing popular elements from the show. These include a museum display of an 80-meter tapestry telling the complete story and a "Journey of Doors" passport where visitors collect unique stamps for each location at nearby pubs where the doors are displayed. In collaboration with Northern Ireland Screen, an interactive app was developed that allows users to switch between the A Location Pro's Perspective by Robbie Boake In his 10-year run, LMGI Award winner and Game of Thrones supervising location manager Robbie Boake/ LMGI has had more than his share of fi lm tourism. He con- tinuously seeks creative solutions to manage his respon- sibilities while respecting his location partners and visits from enthusiastic fans. By the time we returned to some locations shot earlier in the series, they became established as major tourist at- tractions, with great increases in visitors due to the "Game of Thrones effect." Ballintoy Harbour (Pyke Harbor and Dragonstone), for example, which we returned to in Sea- son 8, has regular daily tour buses, private minicabs fi lled with GoT tourists, and scene re-enactments with people dressing up thematically and visiting the exact areas where scenes were fi lmed. Revisiting such an area to fi lm new scenes can present issues. Near Larne, we needed police assistance to help with tour buses stopping on a high-speed main road. Tourists would climb out of these buses with a hope to photograph Castle Black and it became very unsafe. We built a very tall privacy fence so that the incentive for tour operators to stop the coaches was removed. We also invested in very large signage to encourage the buses to move on. In other cases, the location is simply no longer workable. The Dark Hedges, for example (where we fi lmed a very brief scene in Season 1), is now fi lled with tour buses and hundreds of people photographing the lane every day. I had to fi nd an equivalent "lookalike" avenue of trees on a private estate so we could get on with our business. In one of our last technical scouts of Season 8, around 200 people arrived on a GoT tour to visit the caves we were working in. It was the weirdest thing hearing these GoT fans and visitors talk through old scenes while we were trying to complete a fi nal scout for our Season 8 plans. The sites themselves did not contribute too much toward making the process any easier for us. There wasn't really too much they could do. It really became a matter of intelligent management and also a sense of coming to the realization that it was going to be tougher as the years went on. Sometimes you just have to get on with it and factor in increased attention as you progress. In public locations in Northern Ireland, for example, a Forest Park where people like to walk, we are encouraged to allow services to continue as much as possible. Your loca- tion plan needs to take public access into account. So, for example, you may need to allow access at certain times or provide ad- Photos by Helen Sloan/HBO