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 | Fall 2017 • 11 On Saturday, September 2, I embarked on an 11-day tour entitled "Seoul-Incheon- Gangwon Location Fam Tour 2017." I have never been to Asia and I was looking forward to the trip. I left Saturday morning and arrived Sunday night. The flight was direct, but we crossed the International Date Line, which made for a weird 12-hour flight. Once in Korea, I met the other attendees, LMGI members Lyall Gardiner from Dubai, Dow Griffith from the state of Washington. Brian O'Neill, James Lin and Peter Gluck were from Los Angeles. We were hosted by the Korea Film Commissions & Industry network, the Seoul Film Commission, the Incheon Film Commission and the Gangwon Film Commission. Sunday, we had a lovely dinner where we met everyone from all four film commissions. Our plan was to tour Incheon Metropolitan City, Seoul Metropolitan City and Gangwong Province during our tour. On Monday morning, we met up with Lee "Lizzie" Jieun, Choi "Han" Hanearl, Lee Jaeseung and Kim Taewoo from the Incheon Film Commission. Our first location was our hotel, the brand-new Paradise City Hotel & Casino which is a world-class hotel/casino facility. I was informed that when this facility is finally completed, the cost will be more than $1 billion. After the hotel, we continued our tour of Incheon Metropolitan City. We saw many different sights, the most striking were the large commercial office buildings and the high-density 30-story apartment houses that dot the landscape. Art is very important to the local community. Almost every office tower had some type of sculpture or work of art on public display, either outside or in the lobby or both. I was amazed that during the day, there was very little traffic in the center of its business district. It was quite unique. Once you left that area though, you would run into the bumper-to- Seoul-Incheon- Gangwon Location Fam Tour 2017 by Michael Burmeister bumper traffic that you expect from any large city. In stark contrast to the modern office buildings, there was a very vibrant Chinatown section of Incheon that was traditional and fascinating. Our next leg of the trip entailed visiting Seoul, Korea. proper notification, dealing with impact of filming on businesses, safety protocols, obtaining proper insurance, respecting sensitive historical sites, dealing with VFX and CGI and what they all look for when hiring personnel; all that and Tommy Woodard's story of his experience with an UFO. This year's panel was generously sponsored by the following LMGI business members to whom a huge thank-you is owed: Reel Security, Park As Directed, Pacific Production Services, Encore Air and Whites Location Equipment Supply. Plans are in the works for next year's panel and based on the number of people turned away from the packed room, it's clear this was our best year to date and next year's event should be even better. We met up with Nina Jung, Erica Ko, Hailie Misung Zo & Bong Cho from the Seoul Film Commission. Seoul is a very busy metropolitan area. This city also has a lot of unique and interesting office buildings. Overall, the architecture in Seoul is very adventurous and unique. Koreans are not afraid to "color outside the lines." I saw building after building with unique shapes, adventurous public art and unique uses of space. Seoul also has "Old World" exterior food vendors and retail stands. These areas were rich in texture, sights, sounds and unique aromas. These very traditional shopping areas were very vibrant and busy. The housing in Seoul is very high-density, hundreds of 30- to 60-story apartment/ condo buildings. The true architectural beauty shines in the aforementioned modern office buildings, the old Buddhist temples and the older housing built into the sides of the mountainous cityscape. The final leg of our journey took us to Gangwon Province where we met with Chun Ah-Reum and Kim Kil-Hwan from the Gangwon Film Commission. Part of our tour From left: Kim Kil-Hwan, Lyall Gardiner, Peter Gluck, James Lin, Dow Griffith, Brian O'Neill, Michael J. Burmeister and Chun Ah-Reum. Photo courtesy of Michael Burmeister/LMGI Photo courtesy of Michael Burmeister/LMGI