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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46 • LMGI COMPASS | Winter 2023 1914 for an Italian winemaker. In 1937, revered film director and choreographer Busby Berkeley purchased the Italian Renaissance-style mansion. The exterior location of the mansion, however, was jeopardized when unexpected set dressing was proposed. The Tudor-style brick mansion built in 1928 on affluent S. San Rafael Avenue in Pasadena is one of the most filmed houses in the L.A. area. It's appeared in movies like Stand by Me, Dead Again, Rush Hour, Bowfinger and Bridesmaids—along with scores of '70s and '80s television shows. It's arguably most famous as the exterior of Wayne Manor from the wonderfully campy 1960's Batman TV series. Dea Brawley, an L.A.-based location agent who represents the house, says she doesn't show the San Rafael property that often. She goes off instinct, depending on the people involved and whether the nature of the project is a good fit for the owner. In this case, Brawley says that Foulkes was key. "He's just lovely to work with. I trust him. To help him, I'd bend over backward," says Brawley. "He's smart, he's kind and he's thoughtful." The house had already been secured for filming when the idea sprouted to install a topiary swastika in the middle of the home's circular driveway. Brawley says, "When they asked me, my stomach sank to the floor. I didn't quite know how to make this happen for them. So, I took a long pause, maybe for 12 hours or so, before I even broached the question to the property owner in the most thoughtful manner I could." Wei says, "Robert and I spoke about that swastika for weeks on end. It was always evolving. Robert really had to work his magic to get approval for that." "There were a lot of back-and-forth emails," says Foulkes. "I have emails in which the owner wrote back saying, 'I do not want this.'" "It's a big thing, and I don't know how they convinced the owner," says Becker. "This is basically a story about the American Nazi movement and bringing that to light and informing people about it." "We definitely made it clear the story is completely antifascist and not celebrating this," says Foulkes. Brawley explained to the property owner the era in which the film took place, saying, "They need to do it because they need to establish the emotional, impactful drama of the story." The homeowner eventually agreed, but there was a limited window in which the offensive shrubbery was allowed on the property, and it had to be covered when the camera wasn't rolling. "It's a complicated greens thing to do. It was live brush, but we built it on a plywood base, so we didn't have to dig into the grass," says Wei. "There was a short window of time between cutting the brush, assembling it and still having it last for the shoot." The result is a haunting, high angle shot void of people with the world's most reviled hate symbol situated in front of a long-established filming location that is instantly transformed into something a far cry from Wayne Manor. "It was huge," recalls Daoussis about the shrubbery drama and the sensitive Pasadena neighborhood as a whole. But he is proud of what they were able to accomplish. "Looking back," he says, "I'm happy that we did it. It's kind of like La La Land. At the time you're going, 'What have we gotten ourselves into? What are we doing?' Then, years later, people go, 'Ohhh, that freeway scene…!' So, in the end, it's all worth it." FINDING EUROPE To film 1918 Europe, production moved to the San Gabriel Valley. RSI—Lanterman, in Pomona, the site of a former state-run developmental disability center that closed in 2014 after 87 years in operation, is a today a sprawling, 800-plus acre, film-friendly campus just an hour out of Los Angeles. The facility opened in 1927 as an asylum meant to segregate the "feeble-minded," a term the state defined as those who were mentally deficient or couldn't care for themselves. Perhaps most disturbing about the facility's early history is its dealings in eugenics and sterilization, a subject that is broached in Amsterdam during a scene filmed at the location. In the 1960's, it reorganized into the Lanterman Developmental Center and refocused its efforts into the research, treatment, rehabilitation and reintegration into society of the developmentally disabled. "Some buildings had been renovated to some degree over time and some buildings had just clearly been abandoned," says Wei. "You can definitely find buildings that have never been touched and are pretty accurate to their original time." "It's like you're on a studio lot, but there's nobody there to bother you," says Daoussis. "It's pretty creepy," adds Becker. "There's these little old playgrounds and a little swimming pool and everything's deserted." In some cases, Foulkes says there's the potential of sacrificing aesthetic at a one-stop shop, but Amsterdam was able to successfully get six solid looks at Lanterman. They include the French front lines—ilmed during a rare rainy day in Southern California—an office interior, and a few settings that didn't make it into the film. Maria De La Rosa at the "Charmed house," Angelino Heights