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 | Winter 2018 • 43 could get onto and off of locations efficiently. The sets we built on location were not small. They took time and detail to get right, so there was a lot of pressure on locations to maintain community harmony in often environmentally sensitive areas." Aquaman was the first collaboration between Brzeski and Jones. "Duncan had just finished Thor and came highly recommended," the pro- duction designer says. "We developed a great working relationship and, I like to think, a good friendship too. His knowledge of the local envi- ronment was crucial in making this movie hap- pen. He was always prepared and very digitally organized. Movies like this are always handling a tremendous amount of photography. Duncan always had what we needed at his fingertips. I never had to ask twice where a file was. He also used drones in his day-to-day work. Many of our locations were large and needed a very high perspective. So drones gave us the shots we needed to use with VFX." Brzeski mentions Jones' dolphin experience was important to finding the best locations. "Duncan had a thorough understand- ing of working on waterborne and marine locations," he says. "He understood the ocean element, including tides, weather, swells and how that impacted sets and filming. His love of the environ- ment came through when he was working on locations, caring for the places we filmed in while making sure we could work on sites." Jones adds, "Some of these blockbusters are so large that it's not just environmental impact. Potentially, the social impact can be quite extensive. How do you work in a place and not dam- age what's there? You've got to think about people who have a vested interest in that space and how they daily interact with it. We have to make sure to fit in with that. It's about making sure we leave the place as we found it, if not better environmentally, socially and economically." Nick Smith, Head of Showfilm, says, "Duncan is professional, re- sponsible and well-liked in the film community. He is also ethi- cal, thorough and always engages in best practice when liaising with property owners, government officials and the needs and requirements of productions. He's always balancing the creative vision, access practicality and possible budget limitations. His location management in downtown Brisbane on Thor: Ragnarok was second to none. Closing down streets in the center of the busy central business district during peak traffic periods, whilst generating positive PR, is—as you know—complicated and chal- lenging. His results were excellent." "But I am just a small part of a bigger team and community," Jones says, "and collectively, we work to bring the big film ideas to life on location." Next on the horizon for Jones: he's taking his family camping. THOR: RAGNAROK FULL-TIME LOCATION TEAM: Duncan Jones, Location Manager Damian Lang, Location Assistant Monin Sak, Location Assistant Above: Dirk Hartog's Island (Photo by Duncan Jones/LMGI) is the physical location that is part of the VFX composite of "Odin's Beach," which figures prominently in several scenes in the film, such as the one below.