LMGI COMPASS
|
Fall 2020
•
47
(and some have said) "punishing," but the potential for a high-
intensity shoot doesn't scare Bay veterans like Ian Bryce, J.J.
Hook or Academy Award-nominated production designer Jeffrey
Beecroft.
Bryce is the unflappable producer known for such films as Saving
Private Ryan, and a quick scan of his résumé reveals eight other
Michael Bay-directed projects and a few that Bay produced but
didn't direct—a clear testament to their collaboration.
J.J. Hook had a similar trajectory as Latella and Crook having
began his career when he left construction work in the UK at just
19 to work on the film Swept From the Sea. "I fell in love with the
whole kind of circus of it all," he said. Several shows later, Hook
found himself working in the Location Department and began to
work his way up through the ranks. He met Bay as an ALM on the
first Transformers film in 2007, served as Bay's location manager
on the second film in the series and by the time the fifth entry
in the massive franchise came around, Hook was moved up to
associate producer, then co-producer on Bumblebee and now
he's frequently an EP and line producer for Bay.
Beecroft has done five films with Bay as director and two others
that Bay produced. In fact, he's already working on another Bay
Photo courtesy of Enrico Latella/LMGI
Films production now. When he joined 6 Underground, he knew
immediately who to call.
Beecroft had met Latella at the 2017 LMGI Awards reception
where Latella was a finalist. "Enrico had worked with a friend of
mine who had given a great recommendation of him and said,
'You gotta use this guy,'" said Beecroft, "and the thing with me is
I really use my location managers a lot. I really work with them
because I like being able to put Michael into a place where he can
shoot 360 degrees instead of just being on a stage. We both come
from commercials so shooting in real places is our preference."
He brought in Latella to manage the first and larger portion of
the shoot with Crook managing the latter half in Abu Dhabi. The
production would ultimately shoot in four countries: the U.S.,
Italy, Hungary and the UAE.
Latella recalled getting the script for 6 Underground and having
a quick follow-up call with Beecroft. "He asked how many
locations I thought they could pull off in Italy," Latella said, "and
I remember telling him that we could do a good amount of the
shoot here. Then I began researching and we were able to find
a key location that made it possible to shoot the majority of the
film here."
