Location Managers Guild International

Summer 2018

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 | Summer 2018 • 39 ALM on We Are Marshall and X-Men: First Class. "X-Men was such a giant movie," he says. "We shot it four hours from Atlanta, not any- where I work regularly. When you're shooting a movie that big, it's very compartmentalized. I had specific locations that were mine. Most of the other stuff I didn't have to deal with. I was training for managing bigger things." Holley has always liked working on location. "To me, that means shooting out of town, and it always has the potential to be a wonderful experience," he says. "Usually, you're somewhere that's not a hub. Everyone is happy to have you because you're bringing money to the town." H e fell into location work by accident. "I was in college in a nor- mal degree program, in risk management and insurance," he says. "I decided I wanted to become a filmmaker. After gradu- ating, I got a job helping to open an Outback Steakhouse and met this guy working there. He also wanted to be a filmmaker. After work, he'd go to my place and we'd write. After we put a bunch of stuff together, we said, 'What now?' One of the counties in Geor- gia had public-access channels without programs. We paid $50 to buy this book, which was useless. There were 'six courses' that covered camera, lighting, editing, truck/field management—the full run of production. It was very rudimentary. You take those courses and then you have to volunteer on six half-hour programs doing whatever they'll have you do. Then you pitch a show. As long as it's not smut or porn, it's public access and anything goes. We did a little sketch comedy show for 18 months until we broke the camera. That ended that career. "Along the way, I met this guy who was a director on a student film/teaser/sizzle thing. He remembered me a year or so later, when he was working at an advertising firm on this industrial spot for Novo Nordisk, a biotech corporation. He said, 'There are a series of spots for their annual convention, and the company I would normally use can't do it. Do you want to produce it?' I said, 'Hell, no. I don't know what I'm doing in too many fields.' He said, 'Here's your budget. Hire the people on things you don't know. That's what producing is.' I took the job, and I took the person I'd met at The Outback, Alex Orr, who's now the producer of Atlanta. He and I have been friends for 20 years. I hired out all the crew, found an editing house back home and put it together. At the end, I had $20,000 in my pocket. I'd done what I'd been trying to do my whole life. I quit my day job and said, 'I'm in the film business. Somebody please hire me.' At that time, there was no production to speak of in Atlanta. The first movie I got on was Bobby Jones: Stroke of Genius, as a location assistant. Someone I went to college with was the production coordinator. She said, 'The location man- ager needs somebody. Do you want it?'" That was 14 years ago, and Holley has never looked back. "I love solving the puzzle a script presents when you first read it," he says. "Every filmmaker plays a part in the collaborative process, and to be able to contribute in some way, often a crucial one, is very rewarding. I love being a bridge between the project and the community. The relationships we build, inside and out of the pro- duction office, matter more to me than the credit, the paycheck or the payoff seeing the work come to life on the screen. "From the very beginning of Stranger Things, I've been able to help tell a fantastic story that continues to unfold. It's been the most fulfilling experience I've ever had." STRANGER THINGS LOCATION TEAM: Tony Holley, LMGI, LM Kyle Carey, LMGI, Key ALM Tim McClure, LMGI, Key ALM Haley Billue, Key ALM/Coordinator Luke Welden, LMGI & Jay Elgin, ALMs Michael Slack, Liza-Anne Cabral, Roderick Davis, Nick DaLonzo Location Assistants Hawkins Lab was formerly a state-run psychiatric hospital. tt

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