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
54 • LMGI COMPASS | Spring 2025 DAVID FLANNERY/LMGI – LOCATION MANAGER (SHRINKING, BASED ON A TRUE STORY, DAVE) JN: I met up with David Flannery/LMGI at the site for Jazzy Jams, an event birthed out of the Eaton Fire Collaborative that allows teens who lost their high schools to participate in a stylized prom experience. I asked how he was compelled to get involved in so many different community efforts after the fire, all while filming a hit show for Apple TV. DF: I got connected to the Eaton Fire Collaborative through my connections to the Rose Bowl, so I was able to meet and organize other people around the Pasadena area with the relief efforts. The Eaton Fire Collaborative is a group of organizations that came together to understand what each group is doing, which is huge in disaster relief. We got them to support each other, make connections and amplify the message of our voices. My role here for Jazzy Jams is just to lift the message and their mission. This will be the best—and in many cases only—experience for high school seniors who have been affected by the fires. For this particular event, each teen will be connected to a union costumer/stylist as a personal shopper who will help them pick out their look. The event itself will be a high-style velvet rope experience. It's a lot of people coming together: the local community, the churches, the fraternities, the grassroots organizations and those that have been doing community projects for 80 years. Even the entertainment industry crafts and guilds are getting involved. In the days that followed, I was in shock. I'm now doing these firefighter certification classes just to be more prepared for these kinds of events. Besides fire, earthquakes, as you know, are the next big thing in LA. Being a member of a Community Emergency Response Team is a lot like being a location manager. When something goes wrong, you just shake it off and keep going forward, hopefully, on the right path. I've always had respect and reverence for the police and fire on set because of their experience in situations like this and their mind for safety. I apply that safety perspective to my drone business as well, which is why when I was interviewed on news radio, I couldn't resist doing a quick "PSA" warning drone pilots to stay away from the firefighters during an emergency like this. I never thought I would be fighting a fire myself. I was grateful for our safe outcome—and while I did have some post- traumatic stress from this event, it reminded me to cherish my family. The state of California and the city of Los Angeles gave those of us who contributed that night a Certificate of Recognition. It's large, all underlined calligraphy with every City Council member signing, I still joke it would have been nicer if LADWP just gave us a year off from our power bills. All of this furniture was sourced by set decorators and provided by a studio for free. Racks were donated by Quixote Studios. Everything that has been brought into the bare space—studio supplies, furniture, mannequins—came from volunteers and donations. The costumers' union will be staffing, and we are sourcing the world's best at what they do. This is their area of expertise. Plus, all the signs have been made by the art department. Similarly, the contribution of the location professionals is the website and database project we put together for scoutphotos. org. That got started as I was scouting for my show Shrinking. A few days after the fires had started, as the wind was finally beginning to settle a tiny bit, I realized, with a strange curiosity, that I had taken the last photographs of the Wellema Hat Company, a building that has been filmed many times. Now burned to the ground, it occurred to my team and me that we probably had the insurance photos they would need for their claim. So, I texted the owner, "Would you like these?" Of course, he did. From there, we thought, "How many other locations; homes, churches and businesses do we have photos of that may need our help?" We started building a Google document. In the beginning, it was raw. People were dealing with tremendous grief. They evacuated from their houses, thinking they were coming back the next day, and they didn't pack anything. They didn't take photos and videos when they were fleeing for their lives. Through the scoutphotos.org project, they now had photos for FEMA and insurance claims. They could engage with architects and, in many cases, just sentimentally remember what was in their house. This program works by creating a database for scouts to find out which addresses they can contribute to and send those photos directly to homeowners. There are a lot of consent and privacy implications, and we have kept a tight compliance policy. Scoutphotos.org is public facing, where the community submits their info with a consent form. Then for people who had their houses scouted, we have to keep them separate to protect privacy. Basically, it's word of mouth to the max. From there, we are empowering LMs and others to look through their scout files and reference documents to get photos to homeowners and business owners directly. We also engaged the Art Directors Guild to assist with plans and blueprints, and the Local 44 set dressers, because they have a tremendous library of photos, too. Beyond that, we were able to coordinate with Film LA, the main Los Angeles permitting authority, and they gave us addresses and data for every house that had been filmed in affected areas such as the Palisades, Topanga Beach, Altadena and the like for the past three years. So, someone has those photos! Other groups had the same idea at the same time, but we built the operational capacity and framework to be compliant with the privacy stance. When we could explain the website that LM Ian Rutherford had built, people were like, "Okay, let's put our efforts together in one place."