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/1535985
46 • LMGI COMPASS | Spring 2025 PREP AND SCOUT TIME Mark Freid: The most marked difference between commercials and films/TV series is prep time. For the former, it's often a tight turnaround. I don't pee, don't eat, just drive hundreds of miles in my car, taking pictures of locations, upload them and get the permit process started. It's nail-biting, white-knuckle work. By comparison, working on films [doing 2nd unit work] is almost like being on vacation. I can actually breathe, take my kids to school and make dinner. Lisa Gunning: With TV series, you get a much bigger lead time, as long as you get your scripts early [although that doesn't always happen, especially toward the end of a show]. You then do a lot of scouting over a couple of months and get a sense of what the world of the show is gradually over a much longer period of time. Whereas in commercials, like Mark says, it's a sort of scramble to search for and find all the locations in a shorter space of time, often considering several options at the same time. We then have to go to all these places, make sure they're not too far apart, so we can fit them into the schedule, and do casting at the same time, while you're driving. It's like a Rubik's cube, getting everything to fit together. Factoring in, how far is each location? How long do we have to shoot? How many of the locations can we have? How many hours do we need to shoot to squeeze in another location that day? You have to be really clever about it and can often get more locations in than you think if you're in a very good company, as we were on the Toyota shoot. Paul: On films and TV series, you get the prep time to discuss a plan of attack, where you're going to shoot, and how you're going to work. With a commercial, you don't have the window to do that to the same extent. There are some commercials where it's like, 'We only have five days for you from scouting to prep to the tech scout to the shooting days. It's crazy. You have to work so hard. There are things happening all the time, problems to fix and you just grab people to help out. It's like triaging. But in the current state of the industry, you'll take the work when it comes. For the Ford Bronco commercial we worked on, it was a series of vignettes that visually stitched together a compelling narrative and that really tugged on a completely different set of emotions from the Toyota commercial, but quite similar in terms of interlacing vignettes to tell a story. You never really know how each and every single shot you are prepping on the commercial will end up getting stitched together in the edit, but having good direction helps complete the vision especially when there is only a commercial treatment vs script pages when prepping the commercial. The key is managing expectations and trying to get out front of problems. A lot of them that seem impossible can actually be solved. That's also the case in the film industry. But anticipation is doubly important in the commercial world. It sounds goofy but sometimes I sit down for about half an hour and kind of meditate on all the variables and permutations that might happen when it comes to the process. It's not just about what the commercial is going to look like on camera, it's about everything on the back end too. We have to be able to work side-by-side with other members of the production to solve all the problems. It's about setting yourself up for success. COMMUNICATION/COLLABORATION Mark: The car commercials are hardcore for about four weeks, but you become really intimate with everybody, chatting loads on the car journeys and at the tech scouts. Whereas on features, you go into a production office, you're surrounded by all the departments busy doing their things. You're committed to being part of that hive of activity, elbow to elbow with the production designer. P aul: On a feature or TV series, we'll work with producers, the director and production designer for the locations. For a commercial, you're working a lot more closely with the director and the AD because there's a lot of managing the process and movements and ensuring everything works quickly and efficiently. The director makes the decisions, but the ad agency is often hands-on too and involved in the decision-making process. This is especially the case post-COVID, where I'll be brought into a meeting with the ad agency, often at the initial stage of scouting, because they want to be involved in choosing the locations and molding the commercial. This is because, unlike in films or TV series, they often provide the script. TEAM SIZE Paul: On a feature or TV series, there'll often be a big location team, the supervising location manager, location manager, key, assistants, etc. But on a commercial a lot of the time it'll just be one location person doing everything. Mark brought me on for the Toyota commercial because he trusts me and wanted an extra pair of safe hands who understands the pace and gets things done. BRANDING Paul: Unlike in films, there's also obviously the brand to consider and how it fits into the commercial. I actually have a bit of a marketing background, and have worked as an agency producer, so understand the importance of branding. I know a Toyota Tacoma commercial is going to be different to a GMC vehicle commercial, in terms of locations, feel, everything. So one of the things that helps me when scouting is trying to understand the brand. I'll actually go back and look at other TV commercials from that brand and get to grips with what they're trying to achieve. This extends to how we get the details of the car in frame—a medium shot, close-up or wide shot all tell different stories. And again, it depends on the type of car commercial—is it about showing off the vehicle or creating a narrative? For the former, the agency might just want us to show off some sheet metal in a sexy light, but for the latter, the car is part of a bigger story. It's a different mindset and approach. Commercials vs Films Paul, Mark and Lisa share their stories of how it differs working on a commercial production compared with a film or TV series.