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 | Winter 2023 • 41 Throughout his career, a few of his own locations have made indelible impressions on audiences. He's perhaps most often asked about closing down a major freeway interchange to film the vibrant opening musical number of La La Land. Foulkes thinks his passion for film is key for directors and designers that keep hiring him. He's reteamed with directors like Karyn Kusama, Martin McDonagh, Miguel Arteta and Ryan Murphy. "You get that great feeling when you're in a car with Martin McDonagh and you reference some movie and he says, 'Oh, yeah!' and we can have a conversation," says Foulkes. "Being able to chat about movies is not a requirement for the job, but it makes it great when you can have those conversations." Foulkes has worked two times with the Oscar-winning husband-and-wife team of production designer David Wasco and set decorator Sandy Reynolds-Wasco (Seven Psychopaths, La La Land). His multiple collaborations with the Oscar-nominated Becker (Feud, Ratched) are fueled by a love of cinema. Wei says Foulkes and Becker will often reference movies, even the most obscure, as a way to communicate the creative needs of a particular show. "They're just sort of always talking in what, to some people, might seem like a code. Judy will say, 'Oh, halfway through on this movie, the camera goes down and we see the ceiling. We need a ceiling like that,' and Robert will know exactly what she needs," says Wei, laughing. "It takes people like Judy—and he also has a great relationship with director Karyn Kusama—to understand the power of having a guy like Robert who is a real filmmaker," says KALM Alyjoe D. Valdez/LMGI. "He'll photograph a location like a director. He'll put a lens to it and visualize what a shot might be," says Wei. Foulkes finds joy in scouring real estate sites or news articles to find something out of the ordinary he can show a production designer or director. He has an immense, personal computer database of locations he's photographed over three decades. "I've had a lot of location managers who just show me the usual places, which we've all seen a million times. So, I'm having to educate them about architecture, and forget about cinema because that's not even on the plate," says Becker, who, along with Wasco, successfully sponsored Foulkes' invitation into the Designers Branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) in 2020. "Robert cares about movies and has a knowledge of cinema and a knowledge of architecture. Obviously, he knows L.A. really well, but he cares, he really cares." A CLOSELY GUARDED SCRIPT Russell's conspiracy-fraught murder mystery, loosely based on real-life historical intrigue, shot in L.A. from mid-January through mid-March of 2021. It opened in theaters on October 7, 2022. It is now available to stream on multiple platforms. With friendships forged on the French front lines of WWI, in a Belgian infirmary and during heady post-war bohemian-fueled months in Amsterdam, the three main characters meet up again in 1933 New York and discover the truth behind a disturbing, dark money plot to install a fascist dictator in the White House. Christian Bale, John David Washington and Margot Robbie—with a brief appearance by Taylor Swift—are among the star-studded cast. The script was kept under tight wraps. At first, even Foulkes wasn't given a copy. "I was slipped a script early on from Judy. I was like, 'I've got to read the thing.' And she realized, 'Of course you have to read the thing.' That's what you would normally do as a location manager!" says Foulkes, laughing at the absurdity. One of the biggest challenges for Foulkes was sifting through the scout photos from Massachusetts while considering the limitations of period, film-friendly locations in L.A.—while also having to deal with the strict COVID protocols that were now in place. Wei recalls, "When we started shooting in January of 2021, that's when COVID was really spiking in L.A. SAG was urging all productions to shut down. We were one of the few, if not the only one, that just stayed the course. There's one location that we