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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44 • LMGI COMPASS | Summer 2026 Created by Reservation Dogs showrunner Sterlin Harjo and starring executive producer/actor Ethan Hawke as Lee Raybon—bookstore owner, self-described "truthstorian" and reluctant investigator digging into Tulsa's hidden corruption—The Lowdown is a shaggy underdog noir that rejects polished backlots and CGI skylines to root itself in the layered emotional geography of Oklahoma itself. For SLM Chris Kucharski/LMGI, whose professional relationship with Harjo includes the three seasons of Reservation Dogs, local collaboration and historically informed location work forges the visual lodestones of a phenomenal new FX crime drama. "Sterlin really cares about the way in which he's making art and the people he's making it with. And the people who work with me are all from here and care about the locations that we're filming," says Kucharski. "Sterlin makes Oklahoma film interesting because he understands what makes Oklahoma interesting on a very meaningful level—it's the confluence of Native culture, African American history and the Western settler attitude. He doesn't feel the need to sit down and tell you a lesson, it just comes through." Place of Paradox Oklahoma is a place of paradox shaped by overlapping and often conflicting elements—diverse communities, oil wealth and American expansion—nuances that are woven into The Lowdown's environments. "The great thing about Chris is he is very steeped in Tulsa history and Oklahoma in general, and has a long-standing relationship with Sterlin," says production designer Brandon Tonner-Connolly, who also worked with Kucharski and Harjo on Reservation Dogs. "If Sterlin knows specifically where he wants to set something, that's a reference that Chris knows. Chris has the benefit of years of being here, he understands how important authenticity is." Harjo, who loosely based Lee's character on his friend and citizen journalist Lee Roy Chapman, envisioned a classic neo- noir mystery inspired by films such as The Long Goodbye and Chinatown, where audiences could follow detectives drifting through richly textured worlds in pursuit of the next clue. "He had this idea of taking a detective story and putting it someplace where you haven't ever seen it before," says Tonner-Connolly. Instead of Los Angeles or New York, The Lowdown unfolds across the distinctive history and landscape of Tulsa, creating a dreamy noir odyssey rooted in Oklahoma's unique identity. That personal geography is written into the script, embedding the story in the living fabric of Tulsa's downtown corridors, historic districts, roadside diners, ranchlands and neighborhood bars. Every location builds a visual language shaped by the team's creative bond and the city's contradictions—resilience and corruption, history and reinvention, beauty and violence—that becomes part of the show's moral architecture. "Every time we get to collaborate is special because we get to continue to grow our Tulsa film family that we've been growing L to R: Waylon (Cody Lightning), Cousin Henry (Jude Barnett) and Lee Raybon (Ethan Hawke) outside Lee's Hoot Owl Bookstore. Photo by Shane Brown/FX.