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LMGI COMPASS
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Spring 2026
Ilt Jones/LMGI, United States
Originally from Wales, Jones has lived in Los Angeles for 37 years. Now
a naturalized US citizen. Ilt has been a location manager for 30 years
but retired in 2023. He's visited/shot/scouted 45 of the United States,
and many countries worldwide, including the Czech Republic, Hungary,
Britain, Vietnam, Egypt, Bahamas and Mainland China. Geing caught up
in exciting and dangerous locations as he's looked for the perfect spots,
including "being rescued by helicopter from the Santa Monica Mountains
aer geing lost and then falling off a ledge and narrowly escaping,
continuing the rest of the way down a 500-foot cliff."
His credits include four Transformers movies, two Chris Nolan
projects, six Marvel films and 90 episodes of The X-Files, which
"was basically like doing feature films at high speed." He's a
member of BAFTA and AMPAS, as well as the LMGI and Teamsters
Local 399.
Inception
Christopher Nolan's science fiction action film stars Leonardo
DiCaprio as a professional thief who steals information by
infiltrating the subconscious of his targets.
"The fact that you are helping create imaginary worlds is
tremendously liberating for a location scout," says Jones, the SLM
on the film. "You can offer up locations that aren't necessarily
called for in the script but will make exotic or eye-catching
backgrounds to stage the scripted action."
For Inception, the original script called for a van to crash off
the roof of a parking garage into the east river of New York City.
"But we don't have rivers in Los Angeles, certainly not next to
concrete multi-storey car parks. So, I suggested a lift bridge in
Long Beach down at the port where the van could crash into the
harbour," says Jones. "The Commodore Schuyler F. Heim Bridge
was distinct because it lifted horizontally upward, so we originally
were thinking about the van coming from the main access road
and heading onto the bridge as it raised and then falling through
the gap into the harbour. Then Chris suggested that the van crash
off the ascending deck of the bridge instead."
But this plan required placing about 25,000lbs in weight on the
bridge, including the vans, equipment, actors and crew, which
meant getting permission from Caltrans, the state transit authority,
to remove the equivalent weight in metal, railings and signs from
"The fact that you are helping create imaginary worlds is tremendously
liberating for a location scout. You can offer up locations that aren't
necessarily called for in the script but will make exotic or eye-catching
backgrounds to stage the scripted action."
–Ilt Jones/LMGI
