Location Managers Guild International | |
Founded | December 2, 2003 |
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Headquarters | Hollywood, Los Angeles, California |
Location | |
Website | www.locationmanagers.org |
The Locations Managers Guild International (LMGI) is a professional organization of location managers, location scouts, assistant location managers, and affiliated business members, such as film commissions, location services, vendors, and filming venues. [1]
Founded in 2003 as the Location Managers Guild of America, the membership voted to rename the organization as the Location Managers Guild International in 2016 to recognize the global aspect of film-making and reflect the growing international presence of its membership. [2]
The LMGI is not a labor union in that it does not represent location managers in wages or working conditions, leaving this responsibility to the respective local unions such as Teamsters Local 399 in Los Angeles, [3] Teamsters Local 390 in Miami, and the Directors Guild of America in New York City and Chicago. [4] The organization has both union and non-union member professionals.
While the majority of the membership of the LMGI are based in Los Angeles where the guild was first established, many members began traveling to secondary production centers such as Atlanta, New Orleans, and Vancouver with the increasing dependence of production incentives, [5] introduced their crews to the guild, and developed local location professional communities who in turn were invited to become members.
Foreign membership followed the increasing recognition of international locations such as New Zealand, [6] Iceland, and Jordan through films such as The Lord of the Rings , Zero Dark Thirty , Interstellar , The Martian , and Star Wars: The Force Awakens . The merger of the former LMGA partner organization in the United Kingdom, Guild of Location Managers, into the Production Guild of Great Britain, [7] also resulted in a number of British location managers seeking an organization that represented the craft exclusively.
Active membership is limited to professional location scouts and managers. Business membership consists of affiliated businesses with professional references.
The LMGI regularly mounts large-scale, educational art projects in partnership with community groups.
Last Looks: The Ambassador Hotel
Over the weekend of March 20, 2005, just before demolition began on the Ambassador Hotel, the LMGA organized an outreach event wherein location scouts could photograph the historic location one last time, while mentoring students from Jefferson High School (located in the Central-Alameda neighborhood of Los Angeles) in the skills of script breakdown and location scouting. The student photographs were judged by a jury that included respected Hollywood luminaries Shane Black (writer, Lethal Weapon ), Alice West (co-executive producer, Ugly Betty ), and Missy Stewart (production designer, Good Will Hunting ). The awards ceremony was held in June 2005 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. [8]
In 2006, the LMGA produced a photographic exhibit of images from the Ambassador Project at the Los Angeles City Hall, in the Office of the City Attorney. Student photographs were hung side by side with those of the professionals. The exhibit was featured on the front page of the Los Angeles Times calendar as an article accompanied by four full-color images. [9]
Concentric Circles: Metro L.A. Revealed
In 2008, the LMGA, in conjunction with the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority, produced a photo essay entitled "Concentric Circles: Metro L.A. Revealed," exhibited at Beady Minces Art Gallery in Venice, California. [10] Accompanied by Metro personnel, dozens of scouts rode bus and train lines across the city during the course of several weeks capturing unique images of Metro properties.
The resulting images provide a "scout's eye" view of various aspects of the Los Angeles Metro in the early 21st century. A book-bound catalog of film-friendly locations was created from this project as a marketing piece for the industry.
The LMGA held their inaugural awards show in March 2014 [11] with honors going to location managers Robert Boake for Game of Thrones and Ilt Jones for Iron Man 3 , the Albuquerque Film Commission for Breaking Bad and Lone Survivor , and honorary awards to Haskell Wexler for his efforts in creating a safer working environment for below the line filmmakers, and the Eva Monley [12] award to Alexander Payne for his masterful use of location as another character is films such as Sideways , The Descendants , and Nebraska . [13]
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is a professional honorary organization with the stated goal of advancing the arts and sciences of motion pictures. The Academy's corporate management and general policies are overseen by a board of governors, which includes representatives from each of the craft branches.
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A production assistant, also known as a PA, is a member of the film crew and is a job title used in filmmaking and television for a person responsible for various aspects of a production. The job of a PA can vary greatly depending on the budget and specific requirements of a production as well as whether the production is unionized.
The Ambassador Hotel was a hotel in Los Angeles, California. Designed by architect Myron Hunt, the Ambassador Hotel formally opened to the public on January 1, 1921. Later renovations by architect Paul Williams were made to the hotel in the late 1940s. It was also home to the Cocoanut Grove nightclub, Los Angeles’ premier night spot for decades; host to six Oscar ceremonies and to every United States President from Herbert Hoover to Richard Nixon.
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Location scouting is a vital process in the pre-production stage of filmmaking and commercial photography. Once scriptwriters, producers or directors have decided what general kind of scenery they require for the various parts of their work that is shot outside of the studio, the search for a suitable place or "location" outside the studio begins. Location scouts also look for generally spectacular or interesting locations beforehand, to have a database of locations in case of requests.
The location manager is a member of the film crew responsible for finding and securing locations to be used, obtaining all fire, police and other governmental permits, and coordinating the logistics for the production to complete its work. They are also the public face of the production, and responsible for addressing issues that arise due to the production's impact on the community.
In the cinema of the United States, a unit production manager (UPM) is the Directors Guild of America–approved title for the top below-the-line staff position, responsible for the administration of a feature film or television production. Non-DGA productions might call it the production manager or production supervisor. They work closely with the line producer. Sometimes the line producer is the UPM. A senior producer may assign a UPM more than one production at a time.
The Art Directors Guild is a labor union and local of the International Alliance of Theatrical and Stage Employees (IATSE) representing 3,200 motion picture and television professionals in the United States and Canada.
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Kent Matsuoka is an American born independent producer and location manager of Japanese (nisei) descent. Born in Sacramento, California, he studied film and photography at the California Institute of the Arts.
Association of Film Commissioners International(AFCI) is worldwide network of more than 360 commissions from 40 countries on every continent except Antarctica. The AFCI represents trained, experienced and professional Film Commissioners and their offices and staff, sets standards and provides professional education, offers training and business services in the field of Film Commissioning, and provides regular marketing and network opportunities in Hollywood and around the world for Film Commissions.
Eva Monley was a Kenyan location scout, production manager and film producer. Monley, an expert on filming in Africa, helped many of Hollywood's best known film directors and producers film on location throughout the continent, including Steven Spielberg, Otto Preminger, John Ford, and David Lean.
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The Location Managers Guild International Awards are awarded at an annual show honoring outstanding contributions to location scouting in the film and television industries. The Location Managers Guild held its inaugural show in March 2014 at the Writers Guild Theater in Beverly Hills, with honors going to Location Managers Robert Boake (Game of Thrones), Ilt Jones (Iron Man 3), David Doumeng & Charlie Love (Nike), and the Albuquerque Film Commission (Breaking Bad).
Klaus Darrelmann is a Germany-based location manager, who received the 2015 Location Managers Guild of America Award for his work on The Grand Budapest Hotel in the category "Outstanding Locations in a Period Film".
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