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/1504937
LMGI COMPASS | Summer 2023 • 19 Stevie: HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN WORKING IN LOCATIONS? HOW DID YOU START AND WHAT DO YOU PRIMARILY WORK ON? PAUL RUSSELL: I started working in the industry in 2001 on a FOX TV series called Dark Angel. I was attending university on Vancouver Island and studying to be a teacher. A major accident altered my goals and after some extensive soul searching, I decided it was time to change direction in my life. A good family friend of ours was the Dark Angel 2nd AD and I asked him if I could come and spend a day on set to see what he did. I was immediately hooked and moved from Vancouver Is- land to the Mainland to start working in film. The location team on Dark Angel brought me in after my 2nd AD friend told me: "I'll get you your first paid day on set and after that, you're on your own." After a week, I was brought on full time and enjoyed two seasons with that team. I've worked in the location department on all kinds of projects—from TV series The Man in the High Castle and Maid, to feature films in all capacities within the location depart- ment. I slowly worked my way up from production assistant to training LM to on-set ALM and have been location managing for the past eight years. In 2013, I decided to move back to Vancouver Island and the Victo- ria area to try and help build the industry there. I hoped to provide a similar filming experience producers could expect while filming in Vancouver as far as professionalism and presentation goes. Up to that point, there had not been many major productions in the Greater Victoria Area until Gracepoint in 2014. That show was a good launching point for the industry and proved that large-scale production could be accomplished in Victoria successfully. Stevie: WHAT DO YOU THINK IS THE PRIMARY DRAW FOR FILMING IN & AROUND VICTORIA & ITS SURROUNDING AREAS IN GENERAL? WHAT KIND OF "LOOKS" ARE THERE? WHAT ARE YOUR PERSONAL FAVORITES & WHY? PR: Victoria sits at the south end of Vancouver Island and is the capital city of the province of British Columbia. It is accessible by a 90-minute ferry from Vancouver. Victoria's main draw is its natural beauty and phenomenal variety of looks from old castles (Craigdarroch and Hatley) to character homes and modern neighborhoods. Being on the south end of a 460km-long island, the south coast provides some spectacular waterfront opportunities. Urban looks, characterful shopping districts, historic hotels and a thriving harbour mix well with our extensive farmlands, old growth forest, rivers, lakes and mountains. With a population of less than 400,000 people in the Greater Victoria Area, there is a great enthusiasm for the film industry and people like feeling like we've been "discovered." The industry is in its infancy and we have worked very hard to maintain great relationships with the municipalities and residents to keep that enthusiasm going and to build the industry. Filming in Sidney, a district just north of Victoria, is always a pleasure. There is a pier with an old fish market and small restaurant that provides a very quaint and unique look for shows. Stevie: WHAT TYPES OF PRODUCTIONS FILM IN VICTORIA? PR: The industry in Victoria has lately been dominated by smaller MOW projects and lower budget productions. Our lack of dedicated studio space hinders our development in attracting larger productions to the region. Often, we will have movies like The X-Men or Dead Pool come from the Mainland to film at Hatley Castle for a few days. John Wells' limited series Maid, a show so critically acclaimed and beautiful, was a huge production that helped highlight our area. The locations we filmed were stunning and most had never been seen on film before. Stevie: WHAT CHALLENGES DO YOU FACE IN YOUR JOB? PR: I think this is a conversation a lot of location managers are having everywhere. Technology advancements have allowed productions to move at a much more rapid pace recently. Unfortunately, that speed does not always translate into more efficiencies in the real world and truncated prep timelines have been an ongoing frustration for us. A two-week prep for a 14- day block of two episodes of on-location television often isn't enough time to comfortably execute the demands placed on us in series television. We always do our best and pull it off, but the speed with which productions can now move does not Paul Russell/LMGI. Photo: Jeff Downie Stevie Nelson talks to Paul Russell/LMGI about working in Victoria, the capital city of British Columbia, and what it has to offer for locations.