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/1540545
LMGI COMPASS | Fall 2025 • 13 than ever after the fires, and now we're getting a double- gut punch with the ICE [raids]. And people need to know that there's more than that." While Locationland provides a way for locals to rediscover their own city, it's also a great way to boost tourism in L.A.—and that's backed up by the support the show has found from the California Film Commission. "We're looking to work with all the public agencies out here to help boost tourism, because I think that it's been seen in other countries that movie tourism can spark huge amounts of [visitors] whether it's the White Lotus locations, Harry Potter in England or The Lord of the Rings in New Zealand," Pallenberg noted. "And we're definitely seeing it here. When people come here, they want to find out, 'I want to do the Once Upon a Time in Hollywood tour,' or the La La Land tour, where they want to know 'where was that dance sequence near the Griffith Observatory?' 'How do I find it?"' The January wildfires in Altadena and the Palisades created both a storytelling and preservation opportunity. "It's depressing how much is lost," Medved said. "There's a number of homes. Will Rogers State Park, of course, the old mansion there is gone. I think Film LA said something like a couple of hundred movie landmarks are gone, but that's out of thousands. I think there's still plenty of filming locations that were untouched and the whole concept that you can't shoot in L.A. because everything's gone is such misinformation." These setbacks are bringing the community together, the pair agreed. "During hard times, sometimes people get even more fierce about protecting their home turf," Medved said. "And now that we're finally getting some additional tax credits, I think more than ever people feel like we have to do this. It's definitely trickier, and it's harder because of the fires, but I think the sentiment is even greater now to shoot at home." Medved pointed out the work of LM Danny Finn/ LMGI, who is featured in the upcoming Freakier Friday episode and has been helping to document lost film sites in the Palisades and Altadena through the website scoutphotos.org which was launched by LM David Flannery/LMGI. "What Danny has done is he has all the photos of the belongings inside these homes, [because] every time they do a scout for a movie, they've got to put it back the way it was. So, he had photos of all the belongings of the woman who owned the Freakier Friday house and has been able to help her recoup some of the losses. He's helped many, many people recover their losses. It's a small little drop in the bucket but wherever the location managers can help out, they will jump in." Locationland so far has three full episodes out on PBS SoCal, with tours from experts like Diana Wright from the Hollywood Sign Trust and Grease director Randal Kleiser. Veteran SLM Kokayi Ampah/LMGI was with 'the Harrys" on their tour of downtown for an upcoming episode. He has stories for days, from shooting Madonna's La Isla Bonita video to meeting Terry Crews when he was working as a security guard on the Arnold Schwarzenegger movie, End of Days. One of the stories Ampah shared about his day shooting with "the Harrys" was about the impact that location managers can have on the community. "There's a park downtown where we had the final scene of White Men Can't Jump, Lafayette Park. And they loved the park, but it only had one basketball court that was supposed to be for the championship series in the movie and so they wanted two side-by-side courts. We—the film company—built another court and contracted with the contractor, approved by the city to build it to specs," he said. "So, every time I go by there, I see that court and know I had something to do with that court." LM Scott Trimble/LMGI got his start in the industry after studying archeology at UC Berkeley, which seems like a left turn but makes a lot of sense when you think about it! He's passionate about the Los Angeles River and took the Harrys to some of the places made famous in the Terminator films for an upcoming episode. "We filmed at the spot where the big rig truck crashes down into the concrete channel and chases them on the motorbike," he said, name-checking lesser known Los Angeles River spots like Bull Creek in the North Hills. "I personally love the high river and all of the other creeks that empty into it and all the other rivers in town like the Rio Hondo and the Santa Ana River. I've done extensive—not just scouting for movies and TV but scouting for personal interest— I've probably explored hundreds of miles." Medved backed up this claim, "[Scott Trimble] is a river rat. He knows every little entrance to the L.A. River." The Harrys have big plans for the future of the series. While Medved focuses more on the movies that make L.A. memorable and Pallenberg tends to key in on the geography, together, they complement each other well and stress that their hope is to continue to highlight as many key players in the location management industry as possible, with a focus on preservation of these stories before older generations are gone. And Medved said they are just getting started. "I think there are just so many location managers whose stories we've started capturing on film and we want to continue those stories and get them out there." Freakier Friday location manager Danny Finn/LMGI and Harry Medved