Location Managers Guild International

LMGI COMPASS | Fall 2021 • 41 through the world of international espionage on a mission that unfolds in the U.S., the United Kingdom, Estonia, Norway, Denmark, Italy and India. What the locations say about story: Tenet fi nds the biggest and the best locations possible for this action-packed, futuristic thriller. Backdrops provide insight into the characters and set the story's tone; brutalist architecture in Estonia roots bold action scenes; a modernist harbor in Oslo, Norway, introduces futuristic technology; and the Amalfi Coast serves characters with status and power. It's a dizzyingly complex adventure involving heists, fi st fi ghts, gunfi ghts and car chases— often in reverse—all wrapped up in the idea of time inversion. What the location managers say: "The fi lming locations motivate the action and visually move the story. I come from movies where you went everywhere and did it all practically, so working on that scale is very exciting to me. The plane sequence is probably the most amazing thing we were able to do. The Amalfi Coast is beautiful, the building in Mumbai was great, bringing Linnahall back to its former glory on screen, all incredible. Crashing an actual plane into a hangar? That's extraordinary." Locations to watch for: Kiev Opera House Linnahall, an abandoned seven-acre concrete complex built for the 1980 Olympics, was found in Tallinn, Estonia. The brutalist exterior housed a gigantic auditorium that was in an advanced state of decay. The property underwent massive repair and mitigation work to play as the site for the fi lm's opening scenes where a group of armed men take over a concert hall full of 4,300 extras— and then blow it up. Highway Heist Parnu Highway, a four-lane, three-mile highway carved into limestone, lined with blocks of Soviet-style apartments, was the setting for a long and exciting heist scene. This arterial highway runs through the city of Tallinn, Estonia, and was closed for two weeks for fi lming an eyeball- popping, time-bending chase with explosions, a shoot-out and vehicles moving in reverse. Mumbai Hi-rise The agent enters the architecturally stunning 23-story Neelam Vardhan Tower by rappelling up it to the 20th floor. Permission from the military was obtained at the last minute to capture just one shot of the spectacular scene from a helicopter—at sunset. A key meeting takes place in a luxury apartment on the 17th floor. Oslo Freeport The fortifi ed warehouse housing priceless pieces of art that the agent had to infi ltrate was pieced together using four locations: The Paljassaare Port and stunning Kumu Art Museum in Tallinn, the rooftop of the opera house in Oslo and the Victorville Airport in California. To create a diversion, an airplane is crashed into a hangar there, unleashing a spectacular fi reball. To secure a 747 jumbo jet and do the stunt at a working airport was a coup and gives an already over-the-top thriller its most astonishing set piece. Stalag 12 Tunnels, a military camp and a ruined town were found at a defunct iron mine in the desert ghost town of Eagle Mountain, California. Once Southern California's largest iron mine, it has abandoned homes and a town that once served its 4,000 workers and their families. dust storms plague the country. 1930s New Mexico stands in for Texas in this Dust Bowl era outlaw romance. With the family farm on the brink of foreclosure, Eugene Evans sets out to catch Alison, a fugitive bank robber, and collect OUTSTANDING LOCATIONS IN A PERIOD FILM the bounty on her head—until he decides to join her. What the locations say about story: The images of voluminous dust and dry barren fi elds of the small town and the lonely Evans farm are bleak. The land has turned on the people who had counted on its promise of eternal bounty—the waves of apocalyptic sandstorms leave inhabitants emotionally desolate in the dust's ravaging wake. They have become tiny and trapped in the wide-open landscape that once inspired them. The apple orchard provides the perfect setting for two people who are desperate to fi nd beauty in an ugly world, even if it's only for a few stolen moments. What the location manager says: "Authenticity to the period required that all locations were built no later 1930. They had to evoke an eerie, melancholy, parched and destitute feel to set the right tone. It had to feel like the locations were occupied and lived in, but slowly shriveling up and dying. Like someone who knows that death is knocking on the backdoor but wants to keep fi ghting. This story is about hardworking people who didn't want to give up. That's what it felt like to me when I was out scouting locations to fi t the Dust Bowl era." Locations to watch for: Evans Farm Found outside Stanley, New Mexico, this tiny residence was built in 1911 and has been in the cattle ranching Hill family for generations. No longer occupied and set on fi ve dusty acres at the end of a long dirt road, it was Dreamland carefully restored by production to convey the isolation and poverty of the Evans family. Bismark, Texas Rural Texas in the 1930s Great Depression was a pitiless place. Over-grazing and severe drought had degraded the great South Plains and its agricultural heartland. The tiny New Mexico town of Wagon Mound (pop. 314) perfectly captured the essence of a once- thriving town now fi ghting for its life. Once a critical landmark on the famed Santa Fe Trail, Wagon Mound experienced its heyday a century ago and has long faded into a ghost of its former self while retaining much of its great period architecture. Apple Orchard While the script called for an apple orchard and a river, logistics landed production at the Four Daughters Land & Cattle Company Pecan Ranch for the pastoral scenes where Eugene and Alison fi nd a brief respite and enjoy a clandestine swim. Pecan trees were "dressed" with apples for camera and the ranch's picturesque pond enticed the director to reset the scene there instead. Bank 1 The bank robbery that propels the narrative into high gear was fi lmed at the Belen Hotel, in Belen, NM, redressed into a period bank for the fi lm. Noted artist Judy Chicago and her husband, photographer Donald Woodman, painstakingly transformed the derelict Victorian-style former rooming house into their home, studio and gallery. Built in 1907, historic preservation rules dictated that the long hallways of the DREAMLAND LM Ashley Valdez/LMGI ALM/Scout Clay DeVelvis The land is drought-stricken and

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