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 | Spring 2020 • 15 A Button, directed by David Fincher and starring Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett and Tilda Swinton to name just a few on which I collaborated. One of my really interesting experiences was Roland Emmerich's White House Down, starring Channing Tatum and Jamie Foxx. We put real grass under an air dome structure to create the front lawn of the White House. It was daring to work in this positive pressure structure with smoke effects and all, but our director of photography, Anna Foerster, loved it as the dome gave her a bounce for light. The structure was so large that we were able to easily park a helicopter under it. I have always enjoyed working with planes—it's exciting. For The Sum of All Fears, we corralled three Sikorskys. I was so touched that when the pilots and their planes were wrapped, they dipped the helicopters' noses to me to salute me, standing in the control tower, before fl ying away. It is not often that a location manager from Montreal gets the opportunity to work outside of his/her country. I was lucky to have two local productions give me this chance. Once in Venezuela, where I got to scout most of the country, for a whole month, before production decided to fi lm on Marguerita Island—a part of Venezuela that lies in the Caribbean Sea. Then I had the occasion to travel to Rwanda to work on A Sunday in Kigali, based on the novel by Gil Courtemanche, set in the era of the genocide. It was a very moving experience. Québecois are not blasé about fi lm and television production. There remains an excitement and engagement with fi lm crews. People are still willing to work with us and our seemingly ridiculous requests. For Denis Villeneuve's Arrival, starring Amy Adams, a farmer in Rimouski agreed to plant oats instead of soy beans in order that we could create the look Denis wanted. We must also be sensitive to specifi c location neighbourhood needs. During the fi lming of Paul W.S. Anderson's Death Race, we shot on Halloween night. The art department recreated a spooky setup to help us appease the parents and children for our invasion over several weeks and we handed out treats for the neighbourhood kids. Montreal winters may be brutal, but we are very adept at making snow 'disappear.' We had a winter shoot for Mark Waters' Bad Santa 2, with Billy Bob Thornton and Kathy Bates. And, yet, we created an 'Arizona' motel complete with palm trees in a sandy grove. And during the David Fincher movie, we had to create a Russian winter in Old Montreal at the end of May! It often seems that we need to recreate the opposite season. These are very noisy and invasive activities that require a lot of legwork, planning and sensitivity from the Location Department. Our city is close to stunning natural beauty—mountains, lakes, forests and fi elds, and so we can easily accommodate productions such as Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan, Season 1, and The Spiderwick Chronicles. We're also close to the architectural gem that is Quebec City. We shut down the historic Place Royale to shoot a scene from Steven Spielberg's Catch Me if You Can, with Leonard DiCaprio, in front of one of the oldest churches in North America, Notre Dame Des Victoires (1687). The tourists loved it. The environs of Quebec City is where we shot Elwood Reid's series Barkskins, which will be seen on National Geographic later this year. That was quite a challenge. The series goes back to the late 1600s to explore the beginnings of Quebec—the immigrants, the indigenous people, the Filles du Roi, the fur traders. It's an amazing and true story. We had to create not only Wobik, a complete settlers' town—everything from a church to a blacksmith's— but we had to do it in a location which captured the vistas of Nouvelle- France, the magnifi cent forests, the crystal lakes, the looming mountains. We also required a location for our Wendat Village and for David Thewlis's characters' 'manoir.' The audience must feel the splendor of the land but also the apprehension of the unknown. We started our scout in the snow—six feet of snow—looking for an area where Wobik could exist. We scouted on snowshoes, in helicopters, by ATVs. This was the beginning of April 2019! The construction start date was June 10. Set built mansion of The Spiderwick Chronicles in Cap-Saint-Jacques Nature Park, Montreal 2006 Scouting on Barkskins 2019. L to R: Pilot Kevin Foumier, LM Michele St-Arnaud, production designer Isabelle Guay, director David Slade, 1st Ad Jay Arthur.