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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a certain height can't use it, so they would have to be re-routed through the city. Then we had to have a maritime exclusion zone because we would be using helicopters and drones to shoot the action in addition to the cameras on the bridge itself, and lastly, both ends of the bridge obviously had to be closed off not just for cars but to keep pedestrians away as well." "We spent two months working out every single moment of it," says Barry, "which meant going to a huge parking lot and literally taping out the full scale of the Harbour Bridge so that, on the day, everyone knew their place." On the morning of the shoot, 50 picture vehicles, camera cars and essential support trucks were ready to caravan to the start of the bridge. The hero trash skiff, stunt drivers and precision drivers would lead the way, along with a city bus—which is where Leitch, McCormick and Barry would hide during filming, following along beside the action. Gosling would actually perform the bulk of the stunt. "I must say it was really well organized," says Roope. "All the production vehicles were really close behind the camera at one end. And there's a freeway that goes off at the other end, so the entire unit was right there next to us, and that was part of the plan." On the morning of the shoot, production had gotten about 11 takes running the full span of the bridge with Gosling hanging onto the skip bin the whole way, and things were going extremely well, but as the minutes wound down, things got a little tense. "We were getting close to our cutoff, and the Transport people were getting edgy and moving closer, and we could see trucks starting to appear at the back of our unit," says Roope. "There were some telephone calls and a bit of chatter over the walkies to remind Paul Barry that we were coming up on 10 minutes to10 and there was no wiggle room." That's when Leitch walked out onto the bridge to have a chat with Gosling. "It was like time stood still," laughs Scope. Barry reassured everyone that, as per the plan, the shot would cut after one more run. At the end of the span, the picture vehicles would simply drive off the other end with the support vehicles following so the bridge could open. And that's exactly what happened. Though there's some question as to when it happened. "I think we were off by 10:03," says Roope. "I thought it was a couple of minutes after 10 because I felt like I was going to have a heart attack," adds Scope. Watts believes they rolled off the bridge at 10:01. "I was the last one off the bridge and I'm pretty sure that was it." Barry is inclined to agree with Watt. "It was close," he says, "but it wasn't by more than a couple of minutes after 10!" "Paul Barry," says Roope, "was our captain. He steered the ship with professionalism, humanity and humor and was a true friend of the Location Department." The bookends of the bridge sequence required them to control and "destroy" a huge swath of the city's financial district— including the street just outside of the aforementioned Bligh Street building. In total, the Location Department would employ some 80 traffic controllers and 80 security guards for the sequence. INTO THE HISTORY BOOKS Early on, there's a sequence where Colt is shooting a scene for the film within the film—Metalstorm, a real Universal sci-fi movie from the '70s—in which he needs to race an SUV down a On the morning of the shoot, 50 picture vehicles, camera cars and essential support trucks were ready to caravan to the start of the bridge. The hero trash skiff, stunt drivers and precision drivers would lead the may along with a city bus—which is where Leitch, McCormick and Barry would hide during filming, following along beside the action. Gosling would actually perform the bulk of the stunt. Sydney Harbour and The Sydney Opera House, Photo by David Watts/LMGI