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 | Spring 2018 • 21 cinematography union. I had no desire to photograph actors. The studios also never saw the PR value of set stills, even though design publications sought out this work, but no one wanted to pay for it. I continue to shoot stills for the portfolios of production designers and set decorators because I enjoy the work, but it's not enough to make a living. Photography has always been my passion; I decided to work primarily as a location scout, no longer location managing whole features. One of my bigger challenges was finding an East Coast 1950s postwar housing development for Suburbicon. Production wanted to shoot in Los Angeles, and they wanted to find a real location rather than building a neighborhood. While there are many postwar housing developments in LA, most of the houses have been renovated and the original saplings have grown into mature 40-foot trees, obstructing clean views of the houses. We also needed both sides of the street for the reverses. I researched neighborhoods on Google Earth and scouted all potential options with production designer Jim Bissell. Miraculously, I found a street in Fullerton, just inside the 30-mile zone. A group of eight adjacent houses had not been fundamentally altered, and the original trees had died and were replaced with saplings. Now, all I needed was permission from the homeowners to paint their homes original period colors, replace their mature gardens with new ones, and film for three weeks of days and nights, which happened to include scenes of race riots. I had my work cut out for me. I knocked on doors and left notes, met personally with all of the homeowners and got the cooperation of all except one. Of course, it was Jim Bissell's choice for the hero location. The house needed a new roof, lots of exterior work and a new paint job. We could do the work plus pay a location fee. Sounded like a win-win to me. The neighbors said that an old lady lived there; she was a loner and no one had any relationship with her. Undeterred, I left notes, called and knocked on her door for days. I left a goodwill plant at her front door, but she never touched it. Finally, I parked across the street over the weekend and waited. After a few hours, I spotted her in the backyard. I went over to introduce myself but she refused to speak with me, demanding that I get off her property. Over the next few weeks, it became clear that she was mentally unstable and even if I got her to agree, I would never be able to get her to sign the location contract. It was time to cut bait and move on, but I had already scouted hundreds of streets in dozens of towns and neighborhoods to no avail. Finding this location was one in a million and I had to start all over again. Another painstaking search of Fullerton on Google Earth: the houses were right, but all the streets had mature trees. I drove the city, street by street, in the hope that I would find something not evident from the air. I marked off streets on my Thomas Guide (old technology, but it works) and after a few hours, I thought I was seeing a mirage. I found a street that was virtually unchanged architecturally since it was built in the '50s, and miraculously, there were no trees on either side of the street for an entire block. Why didn't this show up on Google Earth? It turns out that the city had cut all the trees down three weeks earlier because of complaints from the neighbors that the roots were breaking up the sidewalks. I called the city to find out if there were other streets where the trees were cut down. Apparently, this was the only one. I cleared every house on both sides of the street, 21 in total. The neighbors were incredibly Ken & Rosemary at the 2010 Oscars cooperative and the location ended up being far superior to the original selection. LMGI location manager Mike Burmeister locked the individual deals and, despite the sensitive subject matter, the neighborhood was thrilled with the experience. Everyone has their own stories of serendipity. Unfortunately, those experiences go hand in hand with the fear of not ever being able to accomplish it again. But the next job comes along with new challenges, and somehow we always manage to do it again. Those challenges can be daunting, and the pressure can be excruciating, but the reward of accomplishment for making the impossible, possible, is second to none. Taking a break during Thelma & Louise