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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LMGI COMPASS | Spring 2026 • 45 the bridge. "Fortunately, they were up for it," laughs Jones. "I must name-check JJ Hook, my location manager (now producer), who helped sort the permitting nitty gritty on a daily basis. "It was quite a complex experience, shooting these particulars in LA instead of NY, heading off a bridge instead of an elevated structure and into a port rather than a river, but the director and production team were really happy with the resulting scene, which looked spectacular in slow motion," says Jones. The X-Files For an episode of the popular TV series, The X-Files, called "First Person Shooter" (Series 7, Episode 13), the two main characters, Scully and Mulder, were supposed to be trapped inside a video game, in which hoodlums were roaring around a city neighbourhood at night on high-powered motorbikes brandishing machine guns. "I told the production team that's not going to happen. We would be unlikely to get permission to disturb a neighbourhood with machine gun fire and racing motorbikes all night for at least six or seven nights. So instead recommended a surreal industrial area in Downtown Los Angeles with a series of cube-shaped warehouses and alleyways in between with fire escapes, which would look cool and we'd be able to shoot machine guns all night because it's an industrial district with nobody around, and the production team said 'great,'" says Jones. The consensus was that it worked out better because doing it in and around these geometrically boxy buildings made it look more like a game, and the team could light up the fire escapes, which proved really effective. "It's about being thoughtful, creative, thinking outside the box, and coming up with alternatives that can work," says Jones. "That's why The X-Files producers trusted our department and included us in the process, right from the start with the writing, asking us what we thought of ideas and if we had any suggestions." Thanks to this trust, Jones and the production designer were given license between seasons to drive all over California and find interesting places to shoot. "So, we went all out. I remember going to a hydro-electric power station inside a mountain up in the western Sierra Nevada mountains. It was this gigantic cavern full of cool-looking machinery, and a tunnel network that allowed you to drive huge trucks in and out, like something straight out of a Bond movie," says Jones. "Again, the production team loved the site, so it was used for the final episode of that series." Although it wasn't all plain sailing. Ilt admits the team had to work hard with the Southern California Edison power company to figure out ways of shooting safely and sensibly inside the power station. One of the stumbling blocks was managing the deafening generators. "We had to switch the power off while we filmed, then turned it back on again. But it meant working partly in darkness inside a mountain where you couldn't see your hand in front of your face. It was like being down a coal mine. All the crew had to carry flashlights, but the final footage was incredible," attests Jones, who returned to the site for Captain Marvel (on which he also offered up a sand quarry in Simi Valley, which had "very cool topographic shapes that proved perfect for the surface of a planet in the film"). Another unusual site Ilt found on The X-Files scouting mission was up the coast near Santa Barbara on an offshore oil rig. "That was a fascinating and terrifying experience because I'm scared of heights and had to go up onto the helideck about 200 feet above water with no railings. I was shitting myself," laughs Jones. "Boarding the rig was also terrifying. The boat captain pulled up alongside the oil rig leg, and I had to swing across on a Tarzan rope to a catwalk where a guy caught me. It was an interesting way to get to work." Another great example of Ilt's ability and artistry in finding (and stitching together) the perfect, unexpected locations was on Marvel's Black Panther movies. "The scouting on those films was as much fun as the shooting because I got to go all over South Africa for four weeks (Black Panther) and Puerto Rico (Black Panther: Wakanda Forever) looking at the most beautiful beaches and getting paid for it!" laughs Jones. He managed to combine the beaches in South Africa with South Korean cityscapes and even a horse ranch outside Atlanta, Georgia, "which looked just like Golden Gate Park in South Africa" to create the fictional homeland of the movie. Ilt Jones and Batmobile from The Dark Night Rises. Photo courtesy of Ilt Jones/LMGI