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 • 37 unsuitable modern exterior that was fortunately surrounded by pine trees. We didn't film it, but we patronized it—a lot. Their butter tarts (a Canadian taste treat) are the best in the region. "Eugene and Dan both stated that they really liked this location. Since I was representing the production and was still trying to be practical, I continued to promote the towns off the highway. We visited a few more, but both Eugene and Dan were steadfast and preferred Goodwood to anything else I showed them. The solution to our traffic problem was to shift the workweek from Sunday to Thursday for the location-filming portion of the season and spend Sundays at or near the intersection." Once Goodwood, which is 36 miles northeast of Toronto, was se- lected, Smither went back and photographed the rest of the town. "I got into the Lions Club Town Hall building next to the railway tracks and shot several house exteriors," he says. "The west side of Front Street has houses that are virtually right on the sidewalk with minimal setback. "The east side had several newer houses and big setbacks. As a result, we concentrated on the west side and found the mayor's house and Ray Bhutani's house there. They were the smallest and second smallest houses on that side because smaller is funnier. Next to Ray's house, we placed the motel sign with the big arrow on it. We never revealed that you would be driving up someone's drive- way if you turned where the sign indicated. Most roadside scenes were shot nearby." APPROVALS COME WITH A DOSE OF LAUGHTER The next step involved approaching the Uxbridge Town Council for approval to shoot there. "I contacted Bev Northeast, the town councilor who lived in Goodwood," Smither says, "and we got placed onto the agenda at the next Council meeting." Executive producer Andrew Barnsley, who attended the meeting with Smither, remembers the evening well. "Today, everyone knows the name of the show and it's very familiar," he says, "but when I first started talking about it, I had many conversations with all sorts of people, and a lot of them got a real kick out of the name. When Geoff and I went to the Council meeting to talk about it, they really laughed. But they got onboard with us. We were never embarrassed about the name of the show, but before the level of awareness was high enough, we'd brace ourselves for reactions." One unexpected reaction occurred in Barnsley's own home. "We've been saying the word schitt in my house for six or seven years," he says, "and it doesn't mean what it used to mean. I have young kids, and my daughter got such a kick out of having the free- dom to say it, and we couldn't do anything about it. She got us on a technicality." Uxbridge Town Council members got used to the provocative name much quicker, according to Smither. "When Bev brought forward the motion to allow a TV series to film in Goodwood," he says, "one of the other councilors leaned into his microphone and slyly asked Bev to state, for-the-record, the name Schitt's Creek. The entire Council broke up laughing, and some heavy hubbub ensued with comments about being 'extras' on the show emerging from the racket. "Bev calmly leaned in, keyed the button on her microphone and said, 'I'd like to bring it to the attention of our esteemed Council that two representatives of the series are attending this meeting.' The mayor scooped up her gavel and banged it repeatedly, calling, 'ORDER! ORDER!' A lot of papers got shuffled, and several smirks