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
Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/924095
LMGI COMPASS | Winter 2018 • 47 told them I want to be a producer, to which Kathleen replied, "Why don't you go into locations," talk to Dick Vane. I did and he offered me a job as an assistant location manager in the Teamsters union. I was able to reactivate my Teamsters membership for 50 cents. We worked on a nighttime soap opera called Bare Es- sence. We did 13 episodes, all on location, no stage. Seven days per episode, 91 days on location, just the two of us. Our backlot lot was the Biltmore Hotel and the Greystone Man- sion, then we would go to a restaurant or yacht or whatever. He laughs. And it was hard work! I went on to do a lot of television, Nightrider, Airwolf, Matlock, but I wanted a new adventure. My buddy Dick Vane set me up on Back to the Future Part 2, a big epic saga. Location manager Paul Pav hired me and I was scouting for about a week and a half, and Paul comes to me and says, "Sweetheart, they're shut- ting the movie down. Universal said it's too expensive, we can't afford it." Thankfully, director Bob Zemeckis went to Universal and said, let's cut the script in half and make Back to the Future Part 2 & 3 back-to-back. So we weathered the storm. They kept us on the whole time for close to an entire year. Then we did Lethal Weapon 3, and hey, the phone just keeps ringing. Jill: YOU GOT TO DO SO MANY MODERN-DAY CLASSICS LIKE CASINO AND EDWARD SCISSORHANDS, WHICH BROUGHT YOUR SCOUTING FULL CIRCLE TO SUBURBICON, LOOKING AGAIN FOR THE QUINTESSENTIAL NON-FOLIAGED '50S-STYLE BRAND-NEW STREETS. Mike: Finding the perfect setting for Suburbicon was very dif- ficult. I did some of the scouting for the movie but a large part was done by Ken Haber, LMGI. He looked all over Southern California. We needed two streets without trees to recreate the first suburban tract developments, post World War 2, with a period-correct look which means no additions or modern improvements. After scouring various counties in SoCal, it took a neighborhood in Carson, a neighborhood in Fullerton and terrain in Canyon Country to ultimately be merged for the perfect suburban neighborhood. A last-minute predica- ment required me to find a new location, which ultimately became an amazing build with thousands of feet of clay pipe and tons of gravel for roads. We also constructed six house facades, and additional skeletal frames in background, on a clear horizon creating a past/present reality for the sto- ryline. Next was the demanding task of restoring a closed shopping plaza back to its original 1950s look. Our team han- dled 30 storefronts and oversaw renovation that included replacing windows for a "shop ready" look that fooled the public so well, they needed extra security. Everyone wanted to shop at the "new antique stores." Jill: HOW UNCOMFORTABLE WAS IT FOR YOU TO FILM RACIAL RIOTS ALL NIGHT IN A QUIET NEIGHBORHOOD? Mike: The 1st AD had to yell divisive racial language in the megaphone to rile up the crowd. In the movie, they had to say very ugly things. In reality however, these folks dressed in period wardrobe with their neighbors out there laugh- ing and giggling and the AD warned me, Mike just so you know—the 150 background guests of this neighborhood are nice people but I'm going to have to whip them up into a racial frenzy. I'm going to have to yell things to give them the freedom to do and say things they would not normally do. We had to tell all those around the neighborhood "just so you know, you are going to hear some pretty nasty things for two nights." They were adults, they understood the con- text of the scene, which was based on a real-life incident and they "got it." We were very open about what we were doing and the neighbors appreciated it. Jill: JIM BISSELL, YOUR PRODUCTION DESIGNER, WAS IMPRESSED WITH THE EFFORTS OF YOUR TEAM. AND I QUOTE: "HOUSES HAD TO BE PAINTED, LANDSCAPING AND SET DRESSING COORDINATED, AND THE LOCATIONS HAD TO BE SOLIDLY ONBOARD FOR BOTH DAYTIME AND NIGHTTIME FILMING OR ELSE EVERYTHING WOULD FALL APART. MIKE AND HIS TEAM WALKED A THIN, BUT CONFIDENT LINE, COORDI- NATING VARIOUS DEPARTMENTS, MUNICIPAL NEEDS AND NEIGHBOR- HOOD CONCERNS, ALL THE WHILE KEEPING ENTHUSIASM FOR THE PROJECT HIGH BY KEEPING HOMEOWNERS ENGAGED AND EXCITED ABOUT OUR MOVIE. IT WAS A LOT OF WORK, BUT MIKE AND HIS TEAM MADE IT LOOK EFFORTLESS." Tropic Thunder Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen White Sands Missile Range