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/1225284
LMGI COMPASS | Spring 2020 • 19 Stevie: ARE YOU A NEW MEXICO NATIVE? HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN WORKING IN LOCATIONS? HOW DID YOU START & WHAT DO YOU PRIMARILY WORK ON? CLAY PERES: I was born in Douala, Cameroon. My father worked for petroleum companies overseeing their construction projects, from pipelines in Africa to offshore drilling rigs in the North Sea. His work gifted me with the most amazing upbringing. After Africa, we lived in Holland, Belgium, Peru, Korea and Scotland. Growing up in an adventurous family afforded me experiences I would have never had otherwise. We toured East Berlin in the '70s, traveled throughout Peru at the dawn of the Shining Path—my father was never one to let war or revolution slow down a family vacation. This was all pre-internet, and if we were lucky, one or two TV stations had the occasional show in English. In my teens, we settled in Texas, and we started to vacation in New Mexico. The first time I visited Santa Fe, I knew it was where I wanted to live. The city offered a cultural and historical richness that I'd been missing since living overseas. I loved the historic plaza, the cold crisp fall air, the smell of green chili roasting and pinon wood smoke, the fiery yellow aspens changing color up on the mountain. In 1990, I went to the theater and saw Dances With Wolves. Having already spent time in the Southwest, this movie touched me deeply. The story of a man alone on the frontier, the Native American culture, the epic landscape, made for the perfect movie. I saw it three times opening weekend, I knew at that very moment that I wanted to make movies … so I jumped in headfirst. It didn't matter what it was, from art house cinema to blockbusters, I was hooked. Looking back, I see that movies and television were not part of my childhood simply because of the limited access to them in foreign countries. Years ago, I had the pleasure of working with Dean Semler, cinematographer for Dances With Wolves. I shared with him how important that movie was to me, he shared stories about the production, it was one amazing moment that I will always cherish. When I decided that film was what I wanted to do, I looked around Houston to see who was doing anything film related. There was little to no film or television work, so I looked into commercial production. Director Gary Lankford was shooting spots on 35mm and he offered me an internship, which lead to a full-time job. I spent my 20s traveling around Texas, New York and California working for Gary, all while dreaming of Santa Fe. I started out researching photo books for reference images for the commercial boards. Gary would go through my selections and pull the ones he most connected with. He would deconstruct that image, remaking it more relevant to the project. It was perfect—I got paid to spend hundreds of hours studying photographic images by Henri Cartier- Bresson, Atget, Brassai, Doisneau, Walker Evans, Robert Frank, William Eggleston and Lee Friedlander. Gary started to feed me boards in the mid-'90s to direct. I had a good run doing regional spots, along with one or two national clients. I still look back in amazement at the money spent on ad campaigns in the '90s. The nomadic world of a TV commercial director finally gave me the opportunity I had been waiting for, the chance to move to Santa Fe. In 2002, I became a full-time NM resident. While still directing the occasional spot out of state, I took on the role of director for the Santa Fe Film Festival. After doing this for several years, my contacts with the NM film community grew, so when I was looking to make a change, I was in a good position. In 2005, someone mentioned that the Billy Bob Thornton movie, The Astronaut Farmer, was looking for a scout, so I assembled a portfolio of stills and scheduled a meeting with the location manager. The meeting went well because the manager had me on the road scouting that same day. My previous experience directing commercials was a All photos by Clay Peres/LMGI, except as noted. Top: Santa Fe National Forest; Middle: San Cristobal Ranch, Bonanza Creek Ranch; Bottom: Plaza Blanca Photo courtesy of Clay Peres/LMGI Stevie Nelson checks out the Santa Fe area with global member Clay Peres.