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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30 • LMGI COMPASS | Winter 2023 your standard romantic drama," says Dayal. "It was a great chance to build the Virgin River world." IT TAKES A TEAM "The creative team is always open and receptive to new and even unconventional ideas about a scene and its setting," says Millar. He feels that the secret to the show's astonishing production value is having a mostly local team who knows the area, loves the outdoors and brings its own experience to bear on anchoring the action against storybook-beautiful backgrounds. "Having directors, producers and a production designer that are familiar with the region really adds more sets of 'eyes' that help speed up the location selection process, even in advance of actual physical scouting," he says. "The North Shore was Ian Hay's backyard growing up. Tony knows these areas as well because he's designed some of the amazing shows—and then to have Stargate series directors Martin Wood and Andy Mikita, Vikings: Valhalla director Monika Mitchell—all these great directors are from Vancouver." "I knew right away that nature was going to be a character in the show," adds Devenyi. "It's a universal thing and it's truly spectacular here in BC, and clearly people around the world in other beautiful places are drawn to it." "I've been mountain biking on the trails and hiking and finding littler corners here for years," says Hay. "I've grown up here and there are times we literally say, 'We went on a dog walk, or my wife goes to this waterfall—do you guys know about it?' There are by-the-way places, small rivers and waterfalls and mountains that we know about, so it's a lot easier. We don't have to have huge dollars to show the beauty of our mainland." "A lot of the amazing transition shots between scenes in Virgin River are shot by our drone team, Action Aerials," Millar adds. "Rob Wood is the aerial camera guy. He and his partner capture shots of mountains, lakes and rivers all across BC." A couple months into filming Season 2, just before Thanksgiving 2019, Season 1 was released to overwhelming critical and popular acclaim. "It was gangbusters, the press lost their minds," recalls Millar. "We were number one on Netflix for so long and I was looking around at my team going, 'What have we hitched our wagon onto now?' It was awesome! "And speaking about the "Location Team" experience itself— it is one of THE most collaborative groups I've had the honour of working with. They really are self-powered perpetual motion machines. I am always in awe of what they accomplish in such a short time frame across many kilometers of real estate. I am incredibly appreciative of their energy and commitment and grateful to be a part of this amazing team!" As season after season was greenlit by Netflix, Millar and his team riffed on the location range, introducing viewers to natural features and buildings as grand and striking as the storyline: Charmaine's baby shower at a stunning golf resort, Paige's bakery truck at the panoramic Cleveland Dam, Mel "Mels Cabin" in Murdo Park