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| LMGI Board President Mike Fantasia |
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W
e're
still basking in the glow of the Sixth Annual LMGI Awards held in September.
I
've spoken with countless members and business partners who agree it was our best yet. The nominees, venue, presenters and attendees combined to make for an incredible evening. Be sure to keep track of the best productions you're seeing now and submit them for next year'
s awards. And if you weren't
able to attend this year, we look forward to seeing you at next year's celebration. You'll have a great time meeting peers from around the world.
Our 2020 LMGI membership drive is in full swing and we'll be able to reach our goal if each of us brings in just one new member.
I
'm excited to have gotten some location pros and business partners to join while working on the east coast on a short project I just completed. After showing them our website and Compass Magazine, and describing the LMGI Awards, they were excited to join. You can do the same - speak with your co-workers and vendors about joining. Direct them to the 'Join Now' tab at the
LocationManagers.org
website.
Members in New York, Atlanta and Los Angeles held incredibly successful events in the last quarter, which you can read about below.
In
addition, we had a presence at The Location Guide's Focus in London, the premier production-related event in Europe.
We
'
re
continuing to work with film commissions internationally on upcoming fam tours in New Jersey,
Belize,
Canada,
Guatemala, Chile, Colombia, Tunisia, Finland, Turkey, Poland and Mongolia. If you want to be considered for a fam tour, go to your personal profile on the
LocationManagers.org
website and update the fam tour section.
The LMGI needs help in achieving our goals and as such, we welcome your contributions by having you participate on a committee. View the committees on our website and join the one that inspires you. It's a great way to meet your fellow location professionals and help the Guild promote excellence on location worldwide!
A special thanks to this year's LMGI Awards volunteers: Baron Jay Enterprise, Carole Murphy, Chance Mafoua, Donavan Moye, Erin Francesca, Isaac Moody, Jack Denny, Jill Naumann, Joan Aguado, Julie Hannum, Lexington Graham, Paulina Salazar, Randy Ranz, Roderick Dior Mack, Sonny D
and Valerie Schultz. And thanks to the volunteers who helped compile our new LMGI Film Commission Database: Ana Ibanez, Andrew Wilson, Aviv Surkin, Clint Fumanti, Don Stewart, Duncan Jones, Evan Chan, Geoff Juckes, Heather MacLean, Ian Rutherford, Jay Horne, Joel Sinderman, Ken Brooker, Kent Sponagle, Lugdy Cueva, Michael Reft, Miguel Tapia, Perri Pearson, Peter McClafferty, Peter Orth, Phil Lobban, Ravi Dube, Roberts Jones, Robin MacDonald, Russ Gladden, Ryan Schaetzle and Velvet Graves.
Mike Fantasia, LMGI Board President
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The Winter 2020 issue of the LMGI Compass Magazine features articles on Greta Gerwig's "Little Women," and the edgy powerhouse "Mayans MC," spotlighting Location Professionals Doug Dresser, Snappy Oliver, and Dan Cooley. Members Jason Wisch, Aine Furey, Greg Chiodo, Georgette Turner, and Russ Fega are also celebrated in this issue.
If you are interested in contributing stories and images for our columns
,
click here
to contact our Editors or call (310) 967-2007. Click here to see back issues.
To reach the location pro community with your advertising message, contact Advertising Director Dan Dodd at 310-207-4410 X 236 or
click here
to send an email.
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FOCUS: the Meeting Place for International Production
took place in December and broke all of its attendance records, a 30% increase over 2018. The Guild was front and center. LMGI Board Member Georgette Turner spearheaded the event, staffing the booth with a dedicated group: Tom Howard, Mick Ratman, James Davey, Tom Davey, Jessica Wright, and Aliya Parvez. The expanded conference schedule, networking events, and panels were all well attended. Over the course of two days, more than 3,400 production professionals from more than 80 countries filled London's spacious Business Design Centre.
Board Members John Rakich and Lori Balton joined Turner and LMGI Members Harriet Lawrence, Ben Ahmed and Markus Bensch on a number of SRO panels, including the LMGI Panel "A Tale of Four Cities," "Perception: the Politics of Locations," "Scaling up: the impact of a streamer in your local territory," and the Bectu Panel "Meet the Supervising Location Managers." Lawrence additionally held a Masterclass with the Designer (BIFA winner) Cristina Casali, on The Personal History of David Copperfield, as well as a short presentation about the need to train the next generation and the re-boot of her Assistant Location Managers Training course, sponsored by the UK Location Collective.
The LMGI booth had a consistent crowd throughout both days of the show, with a good number of new member and business partners excited about joining. Members Trish Gray (New York), Jonas Spokas (Lithuania), Kristofer Piir (Estonia), and many of our UK members packed the meet and greet social. Many film commissions are planning FAM trips with us in countries new to incentives, and we hope to work out some educational seminars as well.
It was great to meet so many of our Business Partners here, including Film Fixer, Ready to Shoot (Portugal), Panorama Films (Italy), the Valencia Tourism, the Polish Film Institute, Central Athens (Greece), the Western Norway Film Commission, the Production Service Network, Babieka (Spain), Panda Films (Turkey), Family Film (Romania), Film In Iceland, Finnish Lapland Film Commission, the Trinidad and Tobago Film Commission, and the Good Film Company.
Kudos and endless gratitude to our partners at the Location Guide for making this dream a reality. It was a testament to our solidarity, growth, and bringing attention to the fact that we are truly ambassadors to the world, celebrating excellence on location! For more images, check out our website LocationManagers.org.
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The California On Location Awards (COLAs) celebrated their twenty-fifth anniversary this year! The ceremony was held in December at the Hilton Hotel Los Angeles in Universal City. Produced by the Film Liaisons in California Statewide (FLICS), the awards were created to celebrate and honor the work of location professionals, production companies and public employees for feature, TV, commercial and print projects filmed either all or in part in California. Nominee finalists were selected by film commissioners, production executives and location manager COLA award winners from the past 12 years. Click here to see this year's winners.
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The UK and LA holiday gatherings were both joyous events. The London party followed on the heels of a successful FOCUS expo, so many international members and business partners were able to attend and mingle. Held at Sink Pong in Shoreditch, this year's Location Extravaganza was attended by over 180 Location Pros and vendors. Ten new members and five new business partners joined us in the best sense of the word!
Event organizer and LMGI Board Member Georgette Turner commented, "We are delighted with this year's attendance. The LMGI truly is an incredible organization. We had members at the party from Trinidad and Tobago, Poland, Canada, USA, UK and Barbados. We are so lucky to have the support of our wonderful suppliers and continue to grow thanks to the efforts of all our members and business partn
ers.
Party sponsors include: Autotrack, Film Fixer, Film Floor, Location Collective, The Movie Lot, On Location Hire, On the QT, Sp Location Rental, Spotless H2O, Supply 2 Location, and 2 InTents.
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Chris Catalfamo, Rick Schuler, Dave McKinney and Marty Cummins |
Meanwhile, across the pond, the LA LMGI holiday fete featured fantastic j
azz,
cocktails, and c
amaraderie
in the beautiful reception lobby of One Culver in Culver City, across from the Sony lot. Our Administrative Manager Erika Howard reported hobnobbing with her predecessor, Marc Blackbird, and chatting up LMGI co-founder and former Board Member Beth Tate, skipping down Memory Lane with her and member Bonnie Sills. One Culver is represented by our host and Business Partner, The Location Portal. Thanks to them, and to co-sponsors Magic Rentals, Reel Security, and Reel Waste!
We wish all our members near and far a happy new year!
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| LMGI 2019 Awards |
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Thank you all for your support of the 2019 LMGI Awards which were held in September at the Broad Theatre in Santa Monica, California. Our precursor to the Emmys was an amazing success with nearly 500 attendees that included location professionals from around the world, as well as producers, production designers, and studio executives, all gathered in celebration of our craft. Top honors went to the location teams of Mission Impossible, Roma, Chernobyl, Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan, Nat Geo's Nujeen, and to the Otago Southland New Zealand Film Commission. Honorees included iconic director Peter Weir, the Hidden Empire Film Group and veteran Location Manager Michael Meehan. The prestigious LMGI Award recognizes our creative contribution to production and as such, we are all winners!
Click here for details on this year's event.
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| NYC Council Meeting on Filming |
Various NYC Council Members spoke their mind in September at a meeting focused on current filming regulation. The Council challenged the Mayor's Office of Media and Entertainment (MOME) with respect to their performance and policies. MOME Commissioner Anne del Castillo, Deputy Commissioner Dean McCann and the MOME legal counsel were questioned on many subjects. The Council is currently proposing an increase in permit fees and number of advance days required for posting notices in neighborhoods and interface with community boards.
MOME did an admirable job of defending production, the permit process and First Amendment rights. Filming permit and neighborhood notice lead time were vigorously debated. LMGI Board Member
Les Fincher defended the hard work of location professionals, pointing out their common practice of making donations to Neighborhood Associations, renting out churches and community centers as holding areas, spending locally for 'walkaway' lunches and being good guests by maintaining sidewalks and street passages. Mr. Fincher also noted the respectful efforts of the MOME to monitor neighborhood filming activity and maintain a fair use status list.
Teamster Local 817 President, Tommy O'Donnell spoke in representation of local film unions, noting the increased number of industry workers and positive economic impact of production in New York City. He finished with comments supporting the MOME and the NYPD Movie-TV Unit, encouraging an increase in staffing and officers.
Representatives from Edge Auto, AICP, Radical Media, New York Production Alliance, Broadway Stages and others spoke in support of small businesses and the broad range of industry related services.
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| LMGI Location Focus Atlanta: Be a Part of the Bigger Picture |
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Another successful Atlanta event was held in October, this time at Pinewood Atlanta Studios, our lead sponsor and event host.
With close to 100 location professionals in attendance, participants gave this day high marks for the wide-ranging tour of Pinewood's extraordinary property, day-long networking opportunities and quality panels and round tables where top scouts and managers shared their expertise and secrets to success: LMGI President Mike Fantasia; LMGI Directors Mac Gordon, Ryan Schaetzle and Matt Chamberlin; Kyle Hinshaw; Andrea Kenner and Erin Fuller.
Set on 700 acres, Pinewood Atlanta has quickly developed into a premier one-stop shop for the filming of screen entertainment including television, film, music, commercial and video games. Pinewood Atlanta offers purpose-built sound stages, nearly 50 on-site vendors dedicated to servicing the screen industries and a wide variety of filming locations from a 2-acre poured concrete visual effects pad to over 300 acres of forests and fields to the town of Pinewood Forest - located adjacent to the studio.
Click here for more information on Pinewood Atlanta.
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| LMGI Raises a Glass to Napa |
Event hostesses Nancy Haecker and Stevie Nelson were joined by Bay area location pros including LMGI members Frances Reyes Bolinger, Saisie Jang, Kelly Tom, Ehrin Davis, David Weber, Rashod Edwards, Daniel Branson and Daniel Lee. Raffle prizes were generously sponsored by local production security companies Overall Security, Golden Bay Security and Anderson's Scuba Diving.
LMGI membership in the San Francisco Bay area has quadrupled in the last two years. This was the first event for Northern California LMGI members but certainly not the last.
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| Fulton Film Atlanta FAM Tour |
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In October, Fulton County, Georia's
Fulton Films Division
partnered with LMGI Atlanta Chapter to execute their first Familiarization (FAM) Tour; providing a diverse group of film industry pros an entree into the County's portfolio of filming sites. Guests included the City of Atlanta Office of Film & Entertainment, the Georgia Film Office, elected officials from several of Fulton County's fifteen-member cities and location professionals. All gathered at downtown Atlanta's Fulton County Government Center's sky view patio, the same location Marvel Studios had filmed just a few weeks prior. Following a brief introduction by Commissioner Liz Hausmann (District 2), registrants received helpful information about State tax incentives and community relations while loading up on a Waffle House 'To Go" breakfast prior to tour departure.
Once aboard The MTI chartered bus company, the FAM Tour featured nine Fulton County locations including the decommissioned Bellwood Jail, the Charlie Brown Field Airport, the Central Library and the West Fulton Mental Health Facility that are film friendly, but off-limits to the general public. With the help of the County's Department of Real Estate and Asset Management (DREAM), the Public Library System, Public Works, and the Sheriff's Office, the FAM Tour provided a glimpse of Fulton County's vast inventory of more than 200 locations ranging in era from the 1960's to present-day. Location managers were able to scout the facilities while learning about the design history and unique filming policies for each site. Attendees were able to capture each site's architectural design styles ranging from Art Deco (airport and jail), Beaux-Arts (courthouse), Brutalist (library), Contemporary (medical buildings) and even the simplicity of raw, untouched, acres of green space.
The partnership with LMGI is part of Fulton County's larger effort to strengthen ties with the creative industries. Fulton Films manages the County's film permitting process and assists local filmmakers with production projects of all sizes. The office wants to stimulate its pipeline of film requests and leverage County-owned sites to generate revenue "while taxpayers sleep."
"As location professionals, our goals are to always locate spaces that aid in telling the best stories, and it was a pleasure to exclusively visit Fulton County sites that had not been previously scouted," said Jen Farris, LMGI member. "I've worked with a variety of government agencies and the Fulton County Film Office has always been responsive, knowledgeable, and accommodating to my needs. Their film-friendliness continues to help me execute my job more efficiently. The FAM Tour was fantastic!"
The next Fulton FAM Tour will take place early next year and will feature sites throughout Fulton's other municipalities. Click here for
more information about Fulton Films,
or call (404) 612-6456.
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| LMGI Business Partner Spotlight - Skye Rentals |
Founded in 2001, Skye Rentals was created by working producers who know the importance of reliability and budgetary constraints. "What's so important to location professionals is speed, and Skye's team, led by Adriana Henry and Abe Ruiz understand working with the urgency of production. They always get our gear set up fast!" says Mike Fantasia, LMGI President.
With Skye's successful work on top commercials, television shows, blockbuster motion pictures and print, they have earned their reputation as the most service-oriented rental company in southern California, becoming the definitive choice for everything from transportation and communication to products large and small.
Thank you, Skye Rentals, for your generous annual support for the LMGI and its vital mission. Contact Skye Rentals at (323) 462-5934 or email
adriana@skyerentals.com.
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| Carole Segal Memorial Bench |
A park bench honoring beloved LMGI founding member Carole Segal has been installed at Cheviot Hills Park in Los Angeles. Carole was a kind, generous and loving person, an LMGI Board member and a tireless promoter of the Guild. Cheviot Hills Park was one of her favorite places. She worked at the park for many years, and across the street on the Fox Studios lot for many more. Many thanks to Location Manager Kim Crabb for spearheading the acquisition of the bench and to our
members and friends of Carole for their generosity in contributing to this befitting memorial.
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We
would like to take a moment to welcome new LMGI Members Adaixa Fretes, Frances Reyes-Bolinger, Glenn Carter, Rehya Young, Dorigen Lynda Fode, Meredith Hodder, Dan Matthews. Rafael Del Vigo, Sebastian Fuentes Magaña. Karen Myers, Lexington Graham, Michael Campbell, Miranda Carnessale, Mitchell Gutman, Nick Sternberg, Peter Moody, Shaun Cengiz, Simon Daniel, Sophia Segal, Paul Russell, Joseph Formosa Randon, Dan Reilly, Eddy Collyns, Kelly Tom, Kristofer Piir, Manuel Campillo, Michelle Harris, Tom Teotico, Donald Cornelius, Martin Campbell, Nicole Chartrand, Assya Dimova, Paquita Hughes, Tiffany Le, Mark Jarret, Alexander Georges, Daniel Branson, David Warren, Jason Snyman, Jeffrey Spellman, Joaquin Prange, Peter Kelly, Robert Faulkner, Ryan Flynn, Steve Sauthoff, Adam Turk, Caymen Eby, Joanne Harris; new Business Partners: Film With Us, Meet Atlantic City, The MET Atlanta, Creative Trinidad and Tobago, Herc Rentals, IMATS, Sault Ste Marie Film Office and new Industry Partners: Erika Bagnarello, Costa Rica Filmworks.
We look forward to serving you, and if you haven't already, we invite you to create your own page at the LMGI Website by
clicking here
and following the steps.
Not a member yet?
Click here
to see all the benefits membership brings.
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