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LMGI COMPASS
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Spring 2023
A TEAM OF PROFESSIONALS
While the team filmed primarily in California, a small unit
did travel to Saguaro National Park based on Leann's
drone footage of a scenic two-lane highway she had shot
while scouting in Arizona—shots that Spielberg then
asked Oscar-winning DP Janusz Kaminski to emulate.
"We'd be sending shots back to Steven in L.A. and he'd
go, 'no, no, look at Leann's shot. That's what I want it to
look like.' I got a lot of grief from Janusz for that," Leann
laughs.
The majority of the desert work was lensed back in
California, in Lancaster, and Leann called KALM Brittany
Petros/LMGI to wrangle those sequences. Brittany didn't
even ask what the project was before she agreed to come
aboard.
"My wanting to do the film was down to working with
Leann more than anything else," Brittany says. "I just
really like her. Some SLMs may get stressed and frustrated,
but Leann isn't like that. She's always kind, always nice,
always happy. No matter what you throw at her, she is
even-tempered, and she just has this great energy."
Peter Gluck/LMGI who ran the high school scenes at
Dorsey High School—among others—agrees. "I like her
work ethic and she's calm, nice and reasonable. She
makes it a good environment to work in." Gluck also
loved working with what he referred to as "the cinematic
Holy Trinity of Spielberg, Kaminski and Carter."
Of Brittany and Peter, Leann says, "They're both
excellent communicators who can just spearhead a
neighborhood and come out with glowing reviews from
the residents and business owners. And it wasn't just
Britt and Peter. My whole team was just fantastic, every
one of them. Total pros."
Looking back, Leann realizes that working with Spielberg
on The Fablemans was an exceptional undertaking. "It
meant so much to him on a deeply personal level and
it meant so much to all of us. Interestingly, that might
