Few individuals outdoors the insular movie and TV manufacturing neighborhood know or care what location managers do, however it’s quite a bit — from scouting websites, acquiring permits and negotiating with property homeowners to coping with quite a few challenges on a shoot day (parking, noise, and many others.) and ensuring every little thing is restored to its unique state when a present departs.
That’s why the Location Managers Guild Intl. (LMGI) is holding the twelfth annual LMGI Awards gala on Aug. 23 on the Eli and Edythe Broad Stage in Santa Monica.
“If you need recognition, you wait a very long time for another person to offer it to you, so that you may as effectively attempt to give it your self,” says LMGI president John Rakich, who, in true location supervisor vogue, is talking by cellphone from the facet of a highway in rural Morocco in 115 diploma warmth, on his approach to an deserted salt mine an hour and a half south of Marrakesh, the place he’s capturing a sequence for Amazon.
One of many methods the LMGI attracts consideration to its craft is by honoring high-profile figures who depend on their skills. This 12 months, it’s Kevin Costner, who will likely be receiving its Eva Monley Award, beforehand given to Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, Wes Anderson and Danny Boyle. It acknowledges his dedication to storytelling although the lens of areas, mainly these within the American West, which he’s obsessively explored as each an actor (“Wyatt Earp,” “Yellowstone”) and filmmaker (“Dances With Wolves,” “Open Vary” and his epic “Horizon: An American Saga”).
The LMGI’s Lifetime Achievement Award honoree, Ilt Jones, isn’t a family title like Costner, however he has a towering repute within the trade. Over the course of his 30-year profession as a location supervisor, the Welsh-born Jones has traveled the globe, from Canada to Cambodia, engaged on huge tentpole options together with “The Darkish Knight Rises,” “Inception,” “Kong: Cranium Island,” “Black Panther: Wakanda Perpetually,” “Captain Marvel” and the “Transformers” franchise.
Jones discovered his manner into the enterprise nearly by chance. He had moved to L.A. to run a messenger service, which gave him an excellent understanding of native geography. When the corporate was bought, he determined to take a number of months off and work out his subsequent transfer. That was when he obtained a fateful name from a good friend who labored for London Weekend Tv.
“She stated, ‘We’re doing a present, set half in London and half in California … and another components of the world. You’re a good novice photographer. Are you able to see if you will discover locations that appear like Beirut, Geneva, south of France, San Diego and Tokyo in L.A. or within the L.A. space?’” remembers Jones. “So I did.”
His good friend confirmed Jones’ pictures to the director, Paul Greengrass (“United 93,” “The Bourne Supremacy”), who was making his American debut with the mission, a 1993 episode of the NBC sequence “Crime Story,” and he advised her he needed Jones to be his location supervisor.
“I stated, ‘It might have escaped your consideration, however I’ve by no means finished it earlier than,’” laughs Jones, who retired in 2023. “She goes, ‘Oh, particulars, particulars.’ The primary couple of days had been a bit chaotic as a result of I didn’t know what I didn’t learn about — little minor particulars like maps, parking, catering areas, crew parking and so forth. However I quickly picked it up and most of what I discovered about location managing, which stood me in good stead for 30 years.”
Hosted by actor and producer Rachael Harris (“Goosebumps,” “The Hangover”), this 12 months’s gala can even embrace honors for achievements in TV and movie (each modern and interval), tv anthology/TV film/restricted sequence, commercials and movie commissions, in addition to its Humanitarian Award, introduced to the Make-A-Want Basis.
TipsheetWHAT LMGI AwardsWHEN Aug. 23WHERE Eli and Edythe Broad Stage, Santa MonicaWEB locationmanagers.org
