LMGI COMPASS
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Winter 2021
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15
A
even as an electrician
on something or other. I
even had a job throwing
tumbleweeds at Neil Young
all day long during additional
photography for Human
Highway. My fellow PAs and I
were paid very little, but were
given motorhomes to drive.
Naturally, we partied like rock
stars. This madness went on
for a couple of years, until I
was fi nally able to get a job
on a union show.
That show was The Man
With Two Brains. I was hired
as one of many production
assistants. For some reason,
the UPM didn't want to hire
a DGA trainee, and when the
DGA rep came around asking
us what our positions were,
we were instructed to say
we were location assistants.
Of course, back in those
days, there was only one
location manager, even on
a big feature fi lm, with NO
assistants. Fortunately for
me, Fred Baron (credited
as "location coordinator")
took a liking to me, and I
learned a lot about how to be
a location assistant without
technically being one. After
that, I spent some time as
a location sitter (what's now
known as a site rep) and
occasional scout for Cast
Locations, a successful
location service company still
thriving in Los Angeles.
One day I got an opportunity
to scout for bars for a
commercial, and came
back with 11 options for
the producer client. He
was so impressed that
when his girlfriend, a
television producer, needed
an additional location
manager for double-ups,
he recommended me.
Andrée Juviler, the location
manager, accommodated
the suggestion, making it
possible for me to step into
location managing without
ever having been a "real"
assistant.
Early in my career, I had
the great good fortune to
work with two production
designers who had been
active in the classic days
of the studio system. One
of them was Ted Haworth,
whose credits are particularly
mind blowing—he worked
on Some Like It Hot, Marty,
Jeremiah Johnson, Strangers
on a Train—even directing
the 2nd unit—the credits go
on and on. The other was
Bill Creber, the youngest
production designer ever
to be nominated for an
Academy Award. Creber and
Haworth taught me my craft;
how to see cinematically, and
how to translate that vision
to production designers,
directors and producers.
Both of these mentors
further spurred my interest
in architecture, opening
my eyes to the incredible
diversity of residential
styles in Los Angeles. At
some point, I acquired
David Gebhard and Robert
Winter's invaluable An
Architectural Guidebook to
Los Angeles. For years, I
insisted that scouts acquaint
themselves with this
resource, particularly if the
locations they were seeking
needed to be a specifi c
style. From those early days
of "scouting" robber baron
mansions near the Rockaway
Hunting Club on New York's
Long Island with my father,
to visiting New York City
Leslie Thorson/LMGI and John Pazarella at the Formosa Cafe (LA Confi dential) in Los Angeles.
Me and my dad
