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
Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1415480
58 • LMGI COMPASS | Fall 2021 South Africa at that time had become the darling of international commercials and Robert was working steadily, but he longed to cross over into lm. Luckily for him, he didn't have to wait very long for the opportunity. "In Cape Town, we were new. We were fresh. The locations hadn't been seen," he recalls. "I had a lot of fun scouting, and with my logistics background, I could really gure things out fast." He had worked on his rst feature by the end of '99 as the U.S. equivalent of unit manager. "That rst lm job was tough because I didn't have the knowledge base, but by the second lm, I really had a handle on it—or at least I pretended to. And while most of my peers kept to the commercial world because, frankly, it paid better, I stayed in lm," he says. Better pay in the commercial world may be an understatement. His peers could make more money in a single season than Robert would make all year, but for him, it was never about the money. "I loved lm. I loved taking the script, breaking it down and having those creative conversations to make the director's vision happen," he says. "Gary Player, one of South Africa's most famous professional golfers, once said, 'the harder I worked, the luckier I got,' and I felt that way too. I got some breaks that maybe I wasn't experienced enough to get, but I somehow made them work and I'm grateful to the lm gods for putting me in all the right places at all the right times because this is truly what I love to do." Robert recalls his mother still hoping that Robert—at age 50—would get a "real job." His response: "Mom ... why would I get a real job when I have an unreal job?" On set of Escape Room: Tournament of Champions. Photo: David Bloomer/Sony Pictures Entertainment ROBERT PLOTS HIS OWN ESCAPE Picture this: He is the go-to guy in South Africa, apt to get the first call for any project of note filming there. He has an impressive list of credits on his résumé: Homeland, Chronicle, Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom, Avengers, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and Escape Room: Tournament of Champions. But he feels trapped. Things have become stagnant. And he's looking for a way out. He makes a bold move and uproots his family—including a 19-year-old daughter who is studying to be a human rights lawyer and 17-year-old son who has caught the lm bug—and moves them all to London. For some people, this might sound like a nightmare. But for Robert Bentley, it is an exhilarating escape and a new challenge. "In South Africa," he says, "I specialized in most of the country and even places like Mozambique or Namibia. And moving to the U.K.—where I have no work lined up yet—is a little scary, but I'm looking forward to a new experience. I will still have to pay my dues and learn the system. I won't necessarily know about the obstacles so for me it's like, 'Well, has anyone tried this in the last 10 years?' In other words, I don't know about the 'no.' "Even today, people are calling me from Cape Town asking, 'Where can I nd this?' or 'How can I get permission for that?' And I'm getting out my little black book. I don't have those resources in the U.K. but I will. "Basically, it's a new elaborate puzzle with twists and turns, false leads and obstacles—maybe even ghosts—that Robert is excited to jump into, solve and survive. "I imagine it'll be similar," he considers, "The same stress with a new postcode!"