Location Managers Guild International

Fall 2021

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 | Fall 2021 • 27 the community in Georgia. We laid the groundwork so people would be excited to work with lming again." "Nobody working on The Underground Railroad had it easy," KALM Travell Blake says. "It was a tough show. Working on The Underground Railroad, I was going to all these different towns and hearing stories about what happened back in the day. They were not so friendly to people of color. Some things that happened in the 1850s also happened on the actual show. In the train depot in Macon, which stood in for the Chicago train station, there were signs reading, 'Colored Only.' They left them there for historical purposes. That really opened my eyes and made me aware of history. It was an enlightening moment for me. The crew was obsessed. They respected the history and what happened." Taylor compares The Underground Railroad to her favorite book of all time, Les Misérables, by Victor Hugo. "I nd the Jean Valjean story in so many things," she says. "When I read The Underground Railroad, and it was about this journey of Cora, a runaway slave being pursued by this slave catcher, I immediately thought of Jean Valjean and Inspector Javert. Valjean was a good person trying to live his life, survive and be good, and he just can't. Every time he thinks this is the moment that he gets to relax and be a person, someone is chasing him. When I saw a similar journey with this ctional character Cora, that really struck me. "You never know what happens to anybody. Cora talks about all the people she leaves behind, but those people never leave her. Through ashbacks, she spends the whole series thinking that her mother had run away and left her. She never knew what happened to her. "There's the misery of the plantation and the misery of life off the plantation," continues Alison. "For me, being able to tell that story THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD TEAM: Supervising Location Manager Alison A. Taylor/LMGI Key Assistant Location Managers: Travell Blake/LMGI, David Martin/LMGI, Tim McClure/LMGI, Ryan Wa' erson/LMGI Assistant Location Managers: Ma' hew Beaty/LMGI, Benny Su' on/LMGI, Je" rey Williams/LMGI, James Gavin, Sean Martinez, Kadesha McCastle, Angie Dean Scouts: Angie Dean Morrison, Ben McIver/LMGI, Lee Futch Location Safety Coordinator Mark Redman/LMGI Location Of ce Coordinator (Savannah) Breigh Ard Location Of ce Coordinator (Atlanta) Tammy Brown Location Of ce Assistant Tamara Revis Location Assistants: Chelsey Arnold, Jonathan Bruner, Nick Buck, Max Herrera, Richard Patrick was just amazing because of Cora. It was the journey of someone trying to get free but carrying all that baggage with her. I thought each location served us well to tell the story and I knew making this lm with Barry would mean it would be beautifully done. He was the perfect person to do it. "At the beginning of prep, he and I were the only Black people in the scouting van," she says, "and we felt the weight of our ancestors on our shoulders making sure that we were telling a good story and presenting it well. We wanted to honor them. I think we were all able to do that." Photo by Kyle Kaplan/Amazon

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