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LMGI COMPASS
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Winter 2020
Oliver adds, "Back in the 1880s, people were shorter. In the
real Orchard House, the ceilings and doorways are low. I'm 5'7",
and I could almost hit my head on the ceiling. You can imagine
trying to put a light above the actor. It was not necessarily easy
to fi lm interiors at real locations. We went to the warehouse to
reconstruct the interiors because the ceilings were taller and we
could fi t the lights, cameras and actors all in the same room."
WORKING WITH DIRECTOR GRETA GERWIG
"I enjoyed walking Greta and Jess through some of these plac-
es and getting Greta's take on why something would work—or
wouldn't work," Dresser says. "I liked how her eyes would light
up when she walked into a place for the fi rst time. When they
give you a wink, a nod or a smile, you know it's the place where
it's all going to happen. It's one of the greatest things we have as
location professionals."
Dresser credits Gerwig with inspiring the crew by fi lling her
offi ce walls and the art department walls with historic photos
of the world of Little Women. "It helped set the mood," he said.
You'd go get a cup of coffee and look at the photos and be part
of the world the fi lm is set in. Even when I was scouting, I was
constantly reminded what it would have been like to live in the
1860s. We tried to fi nd locations where you could look left, right
or behind you and there would be no modern buildings."
Dresser, who has worked in locations since the 1995 fi lm The
Demolitionist, is still surprised by his need to be fl exible. "One
of the most amazing things about what we do is that we start
out with the words on the page, and we have creative autono-
my that's open and free," he says. "Then we have to switch our
heads from being creative and scouting to the management part.
We have to create legal documents with these historical build-
ings and make sure all permits for the police and fi re depart-
ments and building codes are completed. And then we have to
clean the locations and make them look in the same condition as
we found them. It's the only job where you start out with creative
autonomy and end with cleaning up horse poop."
The Location Team:
SLM Douglas Dresser/LMGI
KALM Kyle "Snappy" Oliver/LMGI
KALM William O'Brien/LMGI
ALM Colleen Coviello/LMGI
LM Tim Gorman
KALM Tiffany Kinder
KALM David Becker
ALM Sam Gillis
LOCATIONS ASSISTANTS Brendan Flynn, Eric Crocombe,
Frank Ferrari, Christopher Ciotoli, Matt Melia
Above: Meg's house was fi lmed
at the Shaker house on the
Fruitlands Museum ground
in Hanover, MA. Right: KALM
Snappy Oliver/LMGI. Below:
Douglas Dresser/LMGI with his
wife Donya.
