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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6 • LMGI COMPASS | Fall 2025 CONTRIBUTORS Sasha Alvarez Denisoff/ LMGI Sasha Alvarez Denisoff is a Los Angeles-based location professional with more than 10 years of extensive work in episodic television. Her credits include Spider-Noir, Animal Kingdom, Presumed Innocent and Shameless. In addition to the LMGI, she is a proud member of Hollywood Teamsters Local 399 and the Television Academy. In 2022, she was honored by the California On Locations Awards and 399 Steering Committee with the Assistant of the Year Award for her work as a KALM on Loot. She holds degrees in writing from Pratt Institute (BFA) and Columbia University (MFA), and enjoys contributing her knowledge of the creative process, with a deep understanding of how what is in the imagination gets translated to the page, and later the screen. In her spare time, she enjoys gardening, hiking, beaches, travel and meandering road trips. Laura Hertzfeld Laura Hertzfeld is an Emmy- winning producer, writer and editor focused on bringing impactful stories to life in new ways. She is passionate about helping organizations and audiences connect through creative, meaningful stories— whether on the page, on air or in new digital spaces like AR and VR. A Venice resident of more than 20 years, she writes the popular twice- weekly "Best Things to Do in LA" column for LAist and is a regular contributor to LAist, The Art Newspaper and other publications. Most days, you can find her checking out local theater, discovering new bands, or wandering LA's vibrant gallery scene and calling it work. Laura has held leadership roles at Yahoo! News, Entertainment Weekly, Larry King Now and PBS and is a graduate of Barnard College, Columbia University. Albert Chi/LMGI Albert Chi began his career producing music videos with Paul Thomas Anderson and co-produced feature films The Master, Inherent Vice and Gemini. He served as LM on nonunion feature films until joining the Hollywood Teamsters 399 in 2017. Since then, he has served as a KALM on the feature films Fast & Furious 9, Fast X and the TV series The Offer, American Gigolo, Loot and Paradise. He lives in California and enjoys spending time with his family and announcing play by play for local college football and little league baseball games. Shaun O'Banion Shaun O'Banion is a Gotham Award-winning producer currently living and working in Prague, Czech Republic. He has written articles for MovieMaker Magazine, Filmmaker Magazine and is a regular contributor on Stage32.com Diane Friedman/LMGI Diane grew up in New York and, with a background in art and photography, began her career in San Francisco working in cable and broadcast television. As a Los Angeles-based Local 399 location manager and scout for almost 30 years, she is proud to be a founding Board member of the Guild. For the past several years, she has been the Co-chair of the LMGI Awards Committee for Television and is a co- editor on the LMGI Compass magazine. She treasures all the friendships and working relationships she has had over the years and values every opportunity to promote the work we do. Rachel Llewellyn Rachel Llewellyn is a media journalist, editor and corporate writer from Bakersfield, California—home of Jack Nicholson's freeway piano performance in Five Easy Pieces and near the site of the iconic plane chase in North by Northwest. She's written about arts and culture since college, when she got hooked on movie production after visiting a Tremors exhibit at the Museum of Western Film History. She's written for Girlfriends and Curve magazines, worked as a news producer, and is currently ghost-editing novels, copywriting for C-suiters, and contributing to Book & Film Globe.