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LMGI COMPASS
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Fall 2026
Daniels watched, learned and quickly realized that for him, the
Location Department was a really good fit. "I liked the unique
balance of being on set, being in the community and being in the
office," he says. "Nothing against the camera guys, grip or electric,
but they show up to set, they're on set all day and then they go
home. I would see the Location Department guys coming and
going, wearing collared shirts, and walking right up to the director,
pointing stuff out and showing them stuff and I just thought, that's
the job you want. You can come and go. You can still interact with
the world and I love that. I really love that."
From 2007 on, he worked his way onto whatever came to Texas,
earning location experience as a scout or key assistant location
manager on shows ranging from Friday Night Lights and The
Leftovers to Fear the Walking Dead.
Daniels' first experience with Sheridan was in 2017 when a
select group of Austin location professionals were summoned to
Utah and Montana to help rescue a new series that was struggling
to secure its essential locations. Daniels was among that group
and about to get his big break. The earth-shattering success of
that project would become the root system for everything that
followed … creating a television empire and steady work for Texas
location professionals. The series was called Yellowstone.
Daniels worked on all five seasons of Yellowstone between
2018 and 2024, starting as a manager and eventually becoming
its supervising location manager. He would go on to work on
Sheridan's limited series 1883, which eventually led him to
Landman. The Madison would soon follow.
Drilling Down: Making West Texas in
Fort Worth for Landman
Landman is rooted in the Permian Basin and the culture of Midland-
Odessa, but most of the series is made around Fort Worth and, for
those who have never been to or worked in Texas, the geographic
cheat is not automatic.
West Texas is mostly flat, treeless, industrial and dry; Fort
Worth is greener and more varied. The search became one of
finding pockets where the landscape could carry the right visual
vocabulary.
Weatherford and the ranch land west of Fort Worth provided
the necessary openness. Tan buildings, dry grass, long roads
and unobstructed horizons could be linked with second-unit
material captured in the actual Permian Basin. Cinematographer
Rob McLachlan's warm, low-angle photography and production
High stakes rescue
