Location Managers Guild International

LMGI COMPASS | Fall 2021 • 37 demolished apartment complex was found in central Bangkok to play as the killer's base of operation. Sobhraj rented a two- bedroom place on a high floor overlooking another building with a swimming pool between them. Young travelers were charmingly lured here before being drugged, robbed or killed. Neighbors could see each other from the balconies and would eventually piece together what was going on in Marie and Sobhraj's apartment. Knippenburge House Exhausted in his fruitless search for the killer, the Dutch diplomat pulls up lotus flowers from the embassy to transplant in his own pond. Lotus represents purity, enlightenment, and self-regeneration and by surrendering to his frustration, perhaps his spirit and resolve can be restored. The sprawling house was depicted by one found in the northern part of Bangkok and recreated by referencing actual family photos. Kumari House Marie visits Kathmandu Durdan Square to contemplate her actions as Sobhraj's girlfriend and accomplice during a ceremony for Kumari Devi—the "Living Goddess." The location signifi ed the power of religious ceremony and ritual to express a serious moment of truth for the character. Paris The pandemic necessitated a move to the UK to complete production. The Wrest Park Country Estate in Bedfordshire was used to depict the streets of Paris in the 1970s, as well as Sobhraj's mother's home and the plush hotel he and Marie stayed in while in Paris. A Parisian skyline was added to the scenes and could be seen through the windows. STEPHEN KING'S THE STAND SLM Matt Palmer/LMGI LM Mitchell Gutman/LMGI Scout Courtney Ashforth/LMGI In this post-apocalyptic story of survival amid an otherworldly clash of good vs evil, survivors from across the U.S. are mysteriously drawn to either Boulder, Colorado, by Mother Abigail or to Las Vegas and a man with unspeakable powers: Randall Flagg, the Dark Man. Four are chosen to embark on a journey of biblical proportion to face Flagg in "New Vegas." Except for a small plate unit shot in the Nevada desert, this epic panorama of U.S. locations plays out in Canada's British Columbia. What the locations say about story: Locations invoke both the poetry of the mundane, but also inspire a steroid symphony of the spectacular. Events draw some characters to Boulder with locations grounded in Americana. Those that are called to Las Vegas, enter a vision of hell in a hotel that architecturally mimics Dante's Inferno. The four who go to confront Flagg in New Vegas embark on a purifying walk into the wilderness that recalls the biblical wandering of Moses. They traverse mountain, snow and harsh desert landscapes, while enduring the suff ering of Job in an arduous test of courage and resolve. What the location managers say: "The locations are central to the multi-character story that starts in various locations across the United States and follows the survivors as they are drawn to either Boulder or Las Vegas. Vancouver and its surrounding areas had to play many diff erent geographies to give the story the necessary scope to reflect the characters' physical and spiritual journeys and the ultimate battle for the soul of humanity." Locations to watch for: Inferno Hotel The interior of the vacant fi ve-story Pacifi c Inn in Surrey, BC, was a fabulous location fi nd to play for the center of the evil Flagg's power. The functioning glass elevator inside the atrium allowed the camera to go up and down fi ve stories to capture the carnage and depravity taking place on each floor, an architecturally designed Dante's Inferno. The location cleverly defi nes the diff erent levels of society, with Flagg at the top and slaves fi ghting to the death at the very bottom, where the drained swimming pool has become a gladiator death pit. New Vegas Las Vegas and the Planet Hollywood Hotel on the strip are augmented with VFX to show Flagg's all-encompassing influence on the city. The exterior of the Inferno Hotel needed to look imposing, striking terror in the hearts of whoever should dare to venture into New Vegas. Boulder, Colorado Mother Abigail's Boulder home, which was destined to be blown up, was built on a vacant property in a cul-de- sac in a modest neighborhood in Delta—a part of Greater Vancouver. The Free Boulder Town Center was also created at The Gathering Place/Leigh Square Community Arts Village in the historic seaside town of Port Coquitlam. Mother Abigail's Farmhouse The remote Nebraska location was found in BC and production THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD SLM Alison A. Taylor/LMGI Scout Angie Morrison The Underground Railroad follows Cora Randall's harrowing escape to freedom from a Georgia plantation in the 1850s. While the underground railroad was a system of abolitionists, safe houses and routes to the north for escaped slaves, Cora boards actual trains hidden beneath the Southern soil, with real tracks, stations and conductors. She travels through fi ve states pursued by a brutal slave hunter—without leaving Georgia. What the locations say about story: There's the misery of the plantation and the misery of life off the plantation. Elements of fantasy and magic realism deepen real-life atrocities without resorting to scenes of gratuitous violence. Anachronistic references interject a litany of injustice from a future time, adding a surreal layer to Cora's journey. A skyscraper with an elevator, for instance, houses research for experiments and the sterilization of Black women. From the slave quarters, cotton fi elds and swamps of Georgia, through the eerily burnt-out forests of "Tennessee," into a creepy cultish community in "North Carolina" and a Black utopian community in "Indiana," the railroad covers the breadth of U.S. topography all found in Georgia. The mood is often heavy planted the cornfi eld where dreamscape conversations could be had. Corn crop circles were created to puncture reality. The mythology of the corn was important to the plot and for evoking a quietly menacing mood. The South American Village Flagg appears to the natives as a god in what was once a working BC gravel pit. Lush plants and vines were added to the existing foliage to create the illusion of a tropical paradise. Stephen King's The Stand

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• 18-27 Cover-Story_Underground Railroad
• 50-59 Escape
• 62-63 Martini shot