Venture into the reality of film production where stakes are high and the unexpected becomes the norm. Jay recounts tales of uninvited "bogies," homeowners navigating the invasion of their personal space, and the art of keeping cool when tempers flare. We reflect on the personal evolution found in the face of on-set trials, the satisfaction of scouting the perfect location, and the delicate balance required to weave the work we love with the lives we live—reminding us that the accolades and the action are but fleeting compared to the relationships we forge and the experiences we cherish.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 2 (00:00):
Welcome to.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
I Am Me Podcast.
I'm your host, liz Bachman, andon this podcast I want to
celebrate you for being you.
I'm super excited to sit downwith my guests each week and
talk about their journey, theirexperiences and where they came
from.
So, without further ado, let'sdive into this week's episode.
Hey everybody, welcome back toI Am Me Podcast.
(00:21):
Today, I'm excited I'm sittingdown with Jay Monson.
He is a locations manager, sohe primarily does locations for
commercials.
So if you're interested inhearing what's going on behind
the scenes of the camera, ifyou're curious about how kind of
locations works, I think thiswill be a great episode for you.
But, with that being said, howare you doing today, jay?
Speaker 2 (00:43):
I'm doing great.
How are you?
Speaker 1 (00:44):
I'm good, I can't complain.
It's a really pretty day andI'm going to go for a nice
nature walk after this.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Oh fantastic.
My partner and I were thinkingabout doing the same thing.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
Do y'all have any dogs or anything like that?
Speaker 2 (00:56):
We have four cats.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
Okay, okay, cats.
I met Jay through his reallygood friend, john, and John is a
cat person also, so cats aregreat.
I don't have any issues withcats.
I've always had dogs.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
I was raised with dogs and then I met her and I
was introduced to cats and theyact like dogs.
They come and cuddle with you,they come to the door when you
get home from work.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
Okay, all about how you raise them, but yeah, yeah,
I like cats that have a dogenergy about them.
We've had a couple cats, butwe've always had more dogs, so
but dive in right in, tell meabout your journey.
We're here to talk about you.
So tell me how you got intolocations or film in general,
how that happened for you.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
Sure, yeah, it's kind of a long and winding story,
but that's what we're here for.
So my father was a biginfluence.
He is a photographer and aarchitect, builder just kind of
artsy in general and I rememberin high school I was taking this
art class and they were like,okay, we want you to take some
photos.
(02:02):
I was like, I'll do you onebetter.
I've got all my dad's equipmentfor a dark room.
So I built a dark room and Ihad so much fun just kind of
like taking photos, developingthe film, and it was a great
experience and I thought, hey,this is a way, because I never
really mess with cameras before.
I mean, I did, but not on athat kind of level.
(02:22):
So I found it a great way toexpress myself as an angsty
teenager or whatever.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
And so after that, so that was like okay, my
introduction into oh, you cantake photos and go anywhere, and
so I am a location manager, butI'm also a location scout and
so that is one of the main as ascout, that's one of your main
jobs is to take great photos ofplaces right, right, and then
(02:52):
really make sure you're, youknow, doing the location justice
.
That's right.
And you got to sell it to the,to the client and to the
director and the executiveproducer, who are all looking at
your photos.
So, that being said, kind oftook off on that journey.
But my parents got divorced soI went to live with my
grandfather and he lives on well, he used to live on Lake Lanier
(03:15):
, which is in North Georgia, andso I got to live with him and
he would go out of town a lotand I would throw a wild and
crazy parties and this and thisViking in this Norse Viking Hall
that my dad and his father andhis brothers built.
It's like this big, great meathall, you know.
So, like every football game, Iwould invite everyone back to my
(03:39):
place to party, and I didn'tknow it at the time, but I told
the story a few times on set.
They're like well, what got youinto it?
I'm like I was actually being alocation manager without even
knowing it, because I wouldcheck every room, make sure
everyone was cool.
They were kind of like you cando what you do, but just don't
do crazy stuff, don't breakanything, don't hurt anyone,
right?
And I would constantly be goingfrom room to room in different
(04:02):
social groups, because we'd havethe jocks, we'd have the nerves
, we'd have the skaters, we'dhave everyone kind of brought
together as a peaceful zoneAnyway.
So that's part of my job as alocation manager.
Once we find the location andwe do the permitting and hire
all the people, I have to takecare of the location with big,
(04:23):
heavy hot lights.
We've got a hundred people inthe house for a day or two and
so I have to maintain.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
I was going to ask you so is that really stressful
for you having to make sure thata location is staying you know
how you found it essentially, orit's going to return to how you
found it?
Speaker 2 (04:43):
It will return to how we found it and if it doesn't,
then we remedy that problemthrough insurance, or I think
it's up to $5,000.
The production has to pay forit.
It's rarely gotten to thatpoint where insurance takes over
, but we have them sign apaperwork that basically says
hey, we'll cover anything thatyou know.
Sometimes things get scuffed,you know, but everyone on set is
(05:04):
very professional.
They don't mean to do it, it'sjust you have a lot of people,
things are going to happen, andwe warn the homeowner, we try to
tell them a little bit about itbefore we enter, if they're
brand new.
We've had some new people butwe have like over 350 homes in
the Metroland area and locationsand they've had shoots at their
(05:26):
house so they know what toexpect.
But if they don't, we give thema heads up like, hey, we got
you covered if anything were tohappen.
And they're like, okay, great,so no, in the beginning it was
when I first I've been doingthis for about nine years,
locations, that is.
But at first I was like, oh,don't touch this, don't do it.
But then I realized we're ateam.
(05:48):
Production is a whole, in frontof the camera, behind the
camera.
We're a team, we have a goal,we want to get the shot
completed, whether it isremoving stuff or adding stuff
like big furniture.
So I kind of relaxed a littlebit and was like, hey, these
people know what they're doingfor the most part, and if they
don't, then we remedy it.
(06:09):
So there were some mistakes inthe beginning where I'm like you
can't do that and they werelike whoa, yes, we can, and so
it was a learning process.
But now it's kind of everyonekind of knows me in that world
and I found that as a locationmanager you're juggling a lot of
balls.
You have to make productionhappy.
(06:31):
You have to make the homeownerhappy.
You have to make the neighborshappy.
You have to make the police orcity officials if you're
shooting on the street happy.
You have to make everyone kindof happy, and someone's not
going to be happy.
And the way you deal with thatis to be respectful and kind and
practice a term that I learnedon set by a police officer that
(06:51):
I had hired because I had thisguy screaming at me.
He was a neighbor, he's likeI'm the city's royalty.
I was like, oh, should I curtsy?
I don't.
I've never been in front ofroyalty before.
And so he was cussing me up anddown and the police officer saw
it.
So he started walking towardsme and he was about to fight our
second AD like fist fight.
(07:13):
I got out of lunch and he wassquaring off with a second AD
from LA.
I was like whoa, whoa, whoa,what's going on?
And someone had parked in frontof this man's house like a
truck on accident.
I was like but I deescalatedand I use this, this wordage or
this, this terminology, from abook called verbal judo.
And so with judo, the martialarts, you take someone's
(07:36):
attacking momentum and you useit against them to push them
away or get them subdued.
And verbal judo is the sameconcept, but you're using words
rather than actions.
And so, going back to thatsituation, I got the guy calm
down.
He actually apologized to meand the other guy and once he
(07:57):
had left and I calmed down thesituation, the cop looks at me
and goes you know what you justdid?
I was like calm down thesituation.
He's like I deescalated.
He's like well, you use verbaljudo.
And I was like what is that?
He's like read this book.
They used to teach it.
So it was a nonviolent tacticthat the police would use, and I
wish they still taught it.
But yeah, another subject.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
Right.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
But they would.
They would teach it inrecruitment school for police.
And so I read the book.
It's kind of outdated, it usesa lot of stupid terms, but for
police, but they keep.
They teach it in the corporateworld.
They teach it in just how tomake sure the person that is
really heated gets calmed down.
(08:37):
But you both get kind of yourway and you walk away in a
peaceful manner.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
Well, I bet too, because you're right, you're
juggling a lot of balls, butyou're also juggling a lot of
people and a lot of emotions,because everybody in their
opinions, everybody has theirthoughts, opinions.
And then you add that extralayer of putting yourself in a
neighborhood, and I just thinkabout just being in a
neighborhood with an HOA howthat is crazy.
(09:04):
So then you have an entire filmcrew trying to get a job done
in somebody's neighborhoodresidential.
So it sounds like youdefinitely have a good, even
tone and you're able to handlethose situations.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
And you're absolutely correct about that, because we
do shoot in a lot of high-endneighborhoods with HOAs and even
without.
But you'll get angry, angry,wealthy people that think that
they you know the HOA presidentof the universe and they're
going to call the governor andeveryone's going to, you know
they're going to end it rightnow.
It's like, well, we've actuallyalready paid all those people.
So I'm talking to you now.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
Do you ever have anybody who tries to get on set,
Like they think, becausethey're in the neighborhood if
they want to see what's going on?
Do you ever have anyone that'slike oh, I know such and such,
Let me.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
Oh yeah, they walk right on to set.
If I like, if I'm not there,I'm handling some other putting
out some other fire, they'llwalk right on set.
And they were like Jay, you'relike what?
Who was this?
Speaker 1 (10:02):
person.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
I'm like, oh yeah, so I got to go talk.
I'm like, no, no, no cameras.
Like you can't, yeah, because alot of these things we have to
sign NDAs for because they are,you know, for these companies
that have, you know, famoustalent or they have a, they have
a product that hasn't come outyet.
So if someone were to take apicture and then put it on
(10:24):
social media, that would bedevastating to the whole
production.
Speaker 1 (10:29):
Yeah, most film sets are.
You know you have to have NDAson them.
Anything that's legit.
I've always had to sign an NDAto be on that set.
Speaker 2 (10:37):
Absolutely.
So yeah, I have had.
We call them bogies.
Just wander up out of nowherelike oh, I know the homeowner
like.
Well, the homeowner's not here.
Speaker 1 (10:43):
They're at Airbnb.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
You're not allowed on this property, right, like
please leave, and most of thetime they're pretty chill.
We've had a few unstablecharacters walk up and if you
just I've noticed whether you'rerich or you're poor or middle
class or whatever, when youappeal to people in a chill mode
(11:05):
, they react calmly.
And I say that I am a six footkind of big guy, that you know
that I put off a aura like don'tmess with me, please.
I'm peaceful, but you don'twant to mess with me.
So it might be different forother people.
Speaker 1 (11:25):
I'm trying to think of myself.
So I usually meet people prettyeven killed.
I think what I get in troublewith is a lot of times I'm a
little too over nice, oversmiley, and that can get me in
trouble, because then it's like,oh, we can take advantage of
her, but then I have no BSfilter about me where I'll take
and take and take, but once myfuse runs out, like I'm done,
(11:47):
and so I think it's funny for mePeople see when that switch
gets flipped.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
I had the same thing my partner she calls it the
Viking eyes Like when I turn,like from hey, it's all good
until, like, you need to leavenow.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
Oh, you do.
You have the Viking eyes.
Yeah, you got the Viking eyes,the Viking hair.
You're tall, you're blonde,like you got the whole vibe
going on Like Thor's brother.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
Play with the axes.
Speaker 1 (12:15):
Yeah, I was going to ask you so just as acting, I've
had some experiences on setwhere people who own the
property run the property.
Most recently, it was a churchthat they had the location.
At a church that I we wereshooting on, I'd got cast in
something and I was wondering ifyou ever have people who own
(12:35):
the location, if they work withyou, to stay and see what's
going on like want to watch it,because a lot of people get
excited by that.
Speaker 2 (12:44):
That's pre COVID.
That was one of my favoriteparts.
They would be like, hey, my kidloves this NBA star that's
going to be at my house.
Can you, can you get like, canwe get a meet and greet?
I'm like got you.
So, like you know, that wasreally cool and I would show
like kids that are interested,like their teenage kids or even
smaller.
They'd be like well, what doesit look like?
I'm like, all right, she's gotto be quiet because we're
(13:06):
rolling.
So, we'd sneak up behind one ofthe monitors and they'd watch it
and they're like this is socool, this is so cool.
That was.
That was really a highlight.
But during COVID and I meanCOVID is still going on, but,
like they now generally put thehomeowner and the homeowner's
kids or family up in a hotel orAirbnb because for safety, for
(13:31):
you know, we had COVID officers-and in all that, and so they
wouldn't allow everyone had tobe tested, etc.
Etc.
Like rigorous, you know,background.
All that to make sure no onewould get sick, especially the
talent that's their.
Their massive concern is talentgets sick, you know, I'm sure.
Speaker 1 (13:48):
Hence the sag strike right now.
You know, actors are on strikeand now everything is stopped.
Speaker 2 (13:54):
Yeah, you can't do it without talent.
It's imperative, but now it's.
They're letting some people inand I'll generally.
If a location really wants tosee the production, I will give
them a small tour.
I'll let everyone know and I'llmake them wear a mask if that's
what production wants, If we'reinside, but they generally
(14:20):
don't stay the whole time.
Speaker 1 (14:22):
They burn out too.
I, anyone I've ever seen on setthat is excited to be on set,
that has no idea what it is.
They're there for like 30minutes tops.
And then there the shoot that Iwas talking about, the guy that
I guess he was the pastor ofthe church or whatever and they
had worked out where he couldkind of see what was going on
(14:42):
that day.
And he came to set and he camelike in the middle of one of the
scenes that I was doing and hejust, like you know, pulled them
in, put them behind camera,behind monitors, just kind of
watch us act.
And we did, I think we did likefour takes and then they're
moving the cameras next setup todo the next.
But after he's seen like two orthree, he was like, okay, all
right.
(15:02):
And then you know, I, if youhave that edge of like and you
know I'm not famous but by anymeans, and the actors I was
working with weren't eitherwonderful people, but none of us
were famous, and so I think ifyou have that edge of like
having famous people there, it'smore exciting.
But if you just see theseactors, these people you don't
know, in this crew performance,kind of like ah, okay, so that's
(15:24):
what that is.
Speaker 2 (15:26):
Yeah, yeah, they get bored real.
It's not what they imagine everyou know, they think it's all
excitement and explosions andit's like nope, all right,
that's not a circle.
Take, do it again.
Yeah, do it again.
Speaker 1 (15:40):
Exactly One more Moving on.
Yeah, circle it moving on, yeah, all right, sorry, it's so fun
to talk to you.
I love how this is going allover the place.
What I was going to say is Iinterrupted you.
I know we were talking aboutyour start, but so when did the
transition happen where youactually started doing locations
, or how did you actually getyour foot in that door?
Speaker 2 (16:01):
So, yeah, to finish up that story through parties
love photography and thentraveled the world a little bit
didn't go immediately touniversity and I got to
experience life outside of NorthAmerican suburban culture and
that was an eye opener.
I lived on a lot of off thegrid islands.
I was building like sustainablehomes and tree houses and stuff
for like people, because my dadis a builder, so I would, I
(16:23):
would join him and experienced alot of people with wealth but
experience a lot of poverty,like at one point in time.
I know one of your other guests.
He said he was homeless.
I was living out of my car for awhile working construction or
being a bartender, whatever.
And then I was like, all right,I need to go back to school.
Oh, I need to go to school.
(16:44):
And so I was like, but what for?
I'm like?
Oh, film, I'll do film.
And so I got a masscommunications to go back, a
four year degree, a mass comm ata private university in North
Georgia.
And then I met people there.
Some were part of the program,some were not, but they knew
people here in Atlanta and so Igot brought into a small feature
(17:06):
, like super small feature, andI was working pro bono.
So I was a PA getting peoplecoffee and setting up tables and
stuff like that, and I wentfrom a PA to a key grip in one
month.
Speaker 1 (17:17):
That's really cool.
I was going to sit, throw inreal quick PA.
I know you mentioned AD earlier, second AD, so that's your
second assistant director.
And then PA if anybody'slistening doesn't know is your
production assistant.
I'm trying to catch when theshow.
I feel like most people wholisten to this are in the
industry, so they'll know.
But yeah, I've done that too.
I've been a productionassistant.
I've worked behind the cameratoo.
(17:37):
So, yep, getting coffee,getting gear, breaking it down,
setting it up, all that jazz.
Speaker 2 (17:43):
Yep and so, and then I made a lot of friends in the
first AD, which is the firstassistant director.
He was like hey, you want to dothis for money?
I'm like yeah resound them.
Yes, he was the one I didschool for and he's like OK,
cool, we'll get you on.
So I started PA-ing and Iworked a lot of jobs with him
and I remember this one.
I'm full of stories, so I loveit.
(18:05):
I remember that we were shootingin South Georgia, in South of
Atlanta, in this big place wherethey shoot a lot of features
and it's a big grassy, they gotbarns and it's like a bed and
breakfast and we were doing thisthing for this TV show and this
photographer from LA.
(18:25):
There's one gravel road.
In one gravel road, it's oneway.
So we had all these truckslined up and I'm kind of, if
anyone doesn't know, and thiskind of feeds into one of your
other questions later on- likehow would.
If someone wants to get intolocations, this is how you do it
, or any department behind thecamera.
As a PA, you help out thatdepartment, whether you want to
(18:46):
work camera locations directing.
You buddy up with them, youmake friends with them, you chat
it up and then you're like, hey, I'm interested in doing what
you do.
And they're like, ok, let's seewhat you got, and you'll
usually do it on set.
That's my experience.
So I was hanging out with thelocation manager who was the
(19:08):
first AD on that feature wayback when and this guy, he
stopped his truck when there wasa bunch of tractor trailers
behind him and everyone'shonking it's very obvious like
hey, don't stop in the middle ofthe one lane gravel road.
He's like man, go tell that guyto move his truck.
I was like all right, cool, Ididn't think anything about it.
So go out in the field.
And this photographer I didn'tknow at the time was a
photographer.
He was talking to someone elseand I let him get down with
(19:30):
their little talk.
I was like, hey, is that yourtruck?
He's like who the eff is asking?
I'm like, well, you hear allthat honking like kind of
blocking up the only road in andout.
He's like eff, you Just lacedme up and down with a bunch of
curse words, like you know who Iam, you know how much money I
make a day.
I make $80,000 a day.
I don't give an eff about you.
And I just took it.
(19:51):
I was like huh, my future bosswas watching this from the bed
and breakfast and he was justlike very animated, waving his
arms, screaming, stomping updown.
I just took it.
I was like still going to needyou to move that truck though.
And he was like ah, he stompedoff and he moved the truck.
And later on that day, myfuture employer was like how do
(20:12):
you feel about location?
So that's how I got into it andI am freelance, but I generally
work with one company for themost part when it comes to
locations, and yeah, that's kindof like the origin stories of
me as a location manager.
Speaker 1 (20:28):
So what about you getting cussed out and being
chill about it Made your bossthink he'll probably be good at
locations.
What do you think of that?
What is it about you being ableto be calm when someone else is
?
I guess kind of what youexplained earlier about having
to handle a lot of people.
But what do you think it wasspecifically that your boss saw
(20:49):
you and saw you getting cussedout and you were just relaxed
and like, OK, I still need youto do this thing.
What about that makes you makeit like locations?
Speaker 2 (20:58):
A lot of people when they're getting cussed out or
yelled at, in general they fightor flight, right.
So oh are you going to cuss meout?
I'm going to cuss you out, ok,and you don't get the results
that you want.
Or you just freak out and leave.
You still don't get the resultsyou want.
So the other option is tocalmly just reintroduce the idea
(21:20):
of what you want and why youwant it, and in a manner of hey,
I'm not going to back down, Idon't care how much money you
make, we're all in this together.
And you're blocking all theother trucks that need to get to
the site, so you need to doyour job and move that truck.
Speaker 1 (21:39):
Right.
Speaker 2 (21:39):
So results and not freaking out on someone because
a lot of people have told me andI thought they were being
facetious or just kind ofsucking up to me but directors
have come up to me and producersthroughout the years and
they're like you, jay, you havethe hardest job on set.
I'm like that here and I stilldon't believe I do have the
hardest job.
(21:59):
You will get screamed at forsomething that is not your fault
, that you didn't create thisissue.
But this issue is beingpresented to you in a very
verbally violent way and youneed, as a location manager, you
need to calm that down and thenget to solving that problem.
(22:21):
And so it's like rolling withthe issues that arise, which I
really really like because it'sproblem solving on your feet.
You got to get it now becausethe sun's going down, we don't
have the money to do another dayat this location, et cetera, et
cetera.
It's not in the budget, so howdo you fix this now?
And all of these problemsolving skills kick into play
(22:42):
immediately.
Speaker 1 (22:43):
Right, you seem like.
So you seem like a person whoobviously is very good under
pressure, and I'm curious if itwas always that way.
If you've learned more asyou've gone on with this job, or
if you've been a person likeeven if you think back to your
teenage years or youngadolescents if you were just
someone who could, because somepeople just naturally have that
(23:06):
in them that in crisis situation, or if there's any type of TIF
or argument whatever, they justare good at remaining calm and
handling it.
So I'm curious if that's grownfor you through being in this
job or also it's just somethingthat's naturally within you.
Speaker 2 (23:23):
You know, I would like to say it's naturally
within me, but I've been in highstress situations before, like
with accidents on job siteswhere you had to make a turn a
kid because someone's bleedingout.
There have been in my life likereally crazy times where people
have gotten into fist fightsand so you learn it through life
(23:46):
experience not to freak outbecause it makes other people
freak out.
So I think it's life thatgenerally made me Because you're
anyone maybe you've met otherpeople, but anyone that's
getting screamed at your initialreaction, my initial reaction
is to scream back, but that'snot helpful.
Speaker 1 (24:07):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (24:08):
It's not so, I would say, on the job, training and
life training.
Speaker 1 (24:14):
Life training.
We talked about some of thehard moments and the rough stuff
.
What's some of your favoritestuff about doing locations?
Speaker 2 (24:23):
So I like that question, basically my favorite
part about location managementand scouting I like the freedom
of that, this framework of thefreedom of scouting.
They're like go find this.
If you don't have it in yourrepertoire, ok, cool, well, I
(24:43):
know this place and this placeand this place, maybe they'll
like it.
All right, go out there.
You have a whole day just to gosnap photos.
You have the freedom to roamand find it, finding really odd
locations, not just house andbucket or something like that.
But they want something reallyweird and like OK, this is fun.
(25:03):
You get to do urban exploring,you're getting paid for it and
you're taking awesome picturesand just having a day, and a lot
of times you're outside whenthe weather is beautiful.
Speaker 1 (25:15):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (25:17):
And that's my.
I really enjoy that andeveryone that wants to do
locations.
They just see the scoutingaspect.
They're like, oh, I'd love todrive around and photograph that
and it's like that's one aspectof it.
Speaker 1 (25:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (25:30):
As my dad says, that's a sexy job.
The not so sexy part is thestuff we just discussed where
you have to deal with iratepeople.
What was the second part of thequestion?
Speaker 1 (25:42):
I was just asking you what the good parts, the
favorite parts, of being alocation manager is, but I was
going to say every job that,especially when people have a
job that they love, there's thefun part, and then there's the
not so fun part.
So this podcast I love sittingdown and talking to people like
you.
The not so fun part is theeight hours of editing that I
(26:03):
have to do per each episode.
Acting love acting.
Love getting to be in an actingclass.
Love, love, love, love, love.
Getting to work with my scenepartners, as the best freaking
thing in the world Not alwaysexcited to sit down and read a
100 page script In one night.
Speaker 2 (26:20):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (26:22):
Or if it's an episode of 40 page script, whatever it
is.
So there's the research and thehomework, but everybody's got
that Every thing that you end upturning into a job is going to
have things that you just partsof it that you don't love Of
course, and then so that's ascouting aspect that I really
like the management aspect.
Speaker 2 (26:43):
It is difficult Long hours.
I work like generally I work 16to 17 hours a day.
When I'm on set I'm the firstto there, the last to leave, and
if there's anything that goeswrong you have to deal with that
afterwards.
But when everything is flowingand everyone's getting along on
set and you just I get like afeeling of success, a feeling of
(27:09):
accomplishment, like this iswhat I was made for, because
everyone's like oh, my goodness,this location is so beautiful
and you're taking care of it andyou're helping other teams out,
and it's like, yep, that's whatI do, and I derive a great
feeling of accomplishment whenthe job is just flowing.
Speaker 1 (27:34):
Yeah, that flow that you're talking about, when you
get on a set that has that wherethe people are just
everything's working togetherthe crew, the cast, everything,
the environment it is.
I mean, it is so much funBecause it doesn't matter if,
for me, if I'm in front of thecamera or if I'm behind hanging
with a crew member, we're justhaving a good time and that's
(27:57):
wonderful.
I was going to ask you.
So you talked about going andfinding weird locations.
What is the weirdest or themost weird location?
Not the weirdest, craziest orlocation that you remember?
Just being like this is soexciting.
This is really cool that youfound.
Speaker 2 (28:14):
I don't get to do that often.
I would say that's more thefeature location scouts or
television, but when I have beenthere was this there's this one
place called the Gnome home.
It's in like near Milton,alpharetta area, and I was asked
to go scout that.
So it's this castle with a moat.
There's gnomes all over it.
(28:35):
That was interesting.
The guy that owns it is arecluse.
He just made it in the 90s Hisodd, odd character Fascinating.
I love meeting odd characters,but that was an interesting one.
Some let's see what else youknow, seeing how the other half
(28:58):
lives when they're like we needyou to go and shoot this like
$20 million mansion, like tophotograph it for production,
for the location scout.
And then I go in and the peopleare generally very, very cool,
very chill, relaxed and justlike I take notes in my head of
(29:20):
like oh, I like that or I don'tlike that.
You know of what they have, theaesthetic of their house.
That's really fun to go intothose homes that you normally I
would never go into if I didn'thave this job.
And then going into massivewarehouses where they have just
(29:40):
really odd things that youwouldn't think that they have in
an industrial warehouse Becauseother productions have been
there.
So they'll build like some kindof crazy set and just leave it
because it costs too much todeconstruct it.
They'll just leave it.
Speaker 1 (29:56):
That's crazy.
That's going to ask you to.
I know you primarily docommercial locations over film
and television, but we talkedprior to doing this interview.
I think it's worth mentioningbecause if people are interested
in doing this, commercial keepsyou closer to home, yeah.
Speaker 2 (30:15):
So we did discuss that and I'll repeat it because
it's worth repeating.
So I realized early on in mycareer I call it the cool kid
card and everyone's working onMarvel or they're working on
Walking Dead.
They were.
And I was like but I noticedtheir lifestyle because you need
everyone talks about a worklife balance but they don't
(30:38):
practice it that often in ourindustry they just grind and
they hustle because they'retrying to make it and I get that
and no shade on that.
But I realized I have a partnerand I do like my sleep when I
can get it.
And I realized I saw all thesepeople.
They had social lives, likeafter the rap and all that, but
(31:02):
they would never keep like asteady partner going on or they
both be in the industry andthey'd always break up in a
horrible way.
And I saw that in the featureworld and the TV world and I was
like, okay, commercial is abalance.
You work really hard whileyou're doing it but then you
have a little rest period andhalf the time I work from home
(31:23):
so I'm able to cook dinner formy partner and I'm able to like
you know when we want to go tothe high museum of art or go on
a nature walk.
We can, because I can workremotely.
A lot of the people in thefeature world that are location
managers, that's their life, soit's not a balance.
But they're like oh well, I'mgoing to make my millions and
then get out.
I'm like, huh, and how longyou've been doing this?
(31:45):
20 years, when are you?
Speaker 1 (31:47):
getting out.
Yeah, I think that it isinteresting that you kind of
become a part of that world andI'm grateful for people who do
that.
But it does become your entirelife and it makes it hard to
have, I would say, primarilyfriends and family balance
outside of it.
That becomes very challengingand that's a big sacrifice
(32:11):
because friends and family andthose parts of life are
important.
So I wanted to mention thatbecause I think there are ways
for you to be able to be in thisindustry and still have some
type of similar I don't know ifI'm saying that word right
whatever of you know normal lifeand having you know a partner,
(32:36):
kids and stuff like that outsideof it.
Speaker 2 (32:41):
And I have seen some people that are both in the
industry.
They have children.
I don't know how they do it.
They have family taking care ofthe kids, because if they're
both on set for 12 hours, likewho's taking care of the kids?
But they do it.
But it's rare and whether youwant to become famous or rich or
both, there's nothing wrongwith that.
But I think to me what is mostimportant is experience.
(33:04):
So you know and they've donestudies I was just reading a CBS
Nobel Prize winning economisttalking earlier this year like
in America, if you make morethan 75k, your happiness level
does not go up.
If you have all your basescovered and you're a
multimillionaire.
It actually adds more stress,and I'm not.
(33:26):
I'm not beating up people whowant to become rich and famous
that's your goal than more powerto you.
But my goal is life experienceand going places, traveling,
enjoying this life that we have,because a lot of people
squander it by getting into thequote, unquote rat race and just
(33:48):
I've met so many bitter peoplethat are a bit older than me and
all they did was work.
They didn't get to see theirkids.
You know ballet or or liketravel, and now their body is so
from this industry.
Their body is your body getsbeaten up.
Those long hours heavy lifting,especially behind the camera.
Speaker 1 (34:09):
Of course.
Speaker 2 (34:10):
Parties.
You know it, it takes a toll onyou.
And then they get older andthey have a little bit of money
saved up, but they're too brokento go and do the things they
want to do.
Speaker 1 (34:24):
Right.
Speaker 2 (34:24):
I say do it right now .
Speaker 1 (34:27):
I think it's so important and I love what you
said.
I'm going to butcher this quote, but the Jim Carrey quote about
I wish everybody's dreams couldcome true so they see it still
wouldn't make you happy orsomething.
It's a he said it.
Google some version of that andthe right quote will come up.
But it's so true.
And I think when I startedacting I just so desperately
wanted to be famous and be seenand really having to learn and
(34:54):
grow through that and recognizethat it wasn't going to matter
what part I booked, how big itwas, the, the emptiness that I
was trying to fill with thisidea, which I am not famous but
that I was trying to fill with,that was just wasn't going to
happen.
So I think then shifting toactually just enjoying what I'm
doing, and then I've had a lotof actors and mentors just say
(35:18):
you got to find happinessoutside of acting.
It can't.
And a lot of actors and I'msure behind the camera it's the
same because it's not an easyworld to get into and then
you're always grinding to getyour next job but they were just
like you have to find somethingoutside of this.
Acting is not who you are, it'sa thing that you do and there's
(35:38):
got to be more to you than justacting.
And so then trying to find thatbalance of okay, and I really
felt like I lost myself for awhile just thinking like I'm Liz
, I'm an actor, you know.
Anyway, sidebar diving into menot talking about you.
Speaker 2 (35:55):
No, you're absolutely right, because when we work in
the same industry, you're infront of the camera, I'm behind
the camera, but it's that samementality.
And there's a quote by someonethat says have you ever seen a
hearse with a trailer sketch?
Speaker 1 (36:09):
That's okay, can't take that stuff with you.
Yeah, you can't.
Speaker 2 (36:12):
You know, no, you can leave it to your kids.
You have kids, but I don't havekids.
Yeah, no plan on having them.
And I understand, you know,once again I understand the
other side because I, early onin my career, I was desperate to
.
I was trying not to be a PA, aproduction assistant, the lowest
guy on the totem pole.
Yeah, you know, I was trying to.
You know, do what?
(36:34):
Do a bunch of different thingsand locations is one of them.
But I had to.
Once I was somewhat set, I hadto tell people.
You know what?
No, I need a break because I gofrom job to job to job,
sometimes two jobs at once, thenthe next job, no break, Just
(36:54):
burning the candle at both endsand you get worn out, you get
stressed out, you get worn out.
No sleep, coffee through theroof, just like go, go, go, go
go.
And you will get burnt out realquick if you don't give
yourself time for yourself, foryour family and your friends,
(37:15):
like you know you will.
You will hurt relationships ifyou just work, work, work, work,
work, work, work, work, work,work, work, work, work.
Speaker 1 (37:23):
And I had to learn to say you know what?
Speaker 2 (37:25):
Yeah, exactly.
So I had to say you know what,even though this is a big job
right after my other big job,I'm good.
Give me like a few days.
I need to decompress.
Speaker 1 (37:35):
And I think there's this fear that if you say no,
something else won't come, butit does, it comes.
I had a I still she's still amentor, but I won't say her name
, but she, she's doing very wellright now Well, not right now
because of the strike, but she'sdoing.
She's doing very well in heracting career.
And I was so surprised becauseI was talking to her one day and
(37:59):
she's someone that I'm like man, if I could have success like
you, that'd be amazing.
And she was like, yeah, I tookshe's in her fifties, I think
she took a seven year break fromacting, I think in her thirties
or late twenties.
And I was just shocked and I waslike seven years and and I and
I've had a couple of friends oractor acquaintances that take
(38:20):
breaks and they're like you can,you can take a break.
I don't know if it works.
That's a good question.
I don't know if it works thesame on the backside as a person
on the crew.
That's actually a good question.
For me it's like I can stop andI can take a break and I might
lose my agent in the process.
But the skill of acting isthere and I know I've gotten an
(38:40):
agent before I know how to getone again.
I don't know if that would bethe same for you.
Speaker 2 (38:47):
No, that fear is still the same, that you will
become irrelevant becausesomeone will replace you, which
the fear is legitimate, becauseif you don't continuously show
yourself on set, they're likewhere did so?
And so go, I don't know, butI've got someone else to replace
them, so that's there.
It's just once again findingthat balance.
(39:08):
And then people know whenyou're just, you know completely
just tired and need a break,and I would say take.
I've seen people take a monthor two off, but after that they
will replace you, because itnever stops.
The show must go on.
Speaker 1 (39:29):
Of course, and yeah, and the show will go on.
Yeah, I am curious about kindof a completely different topic,
but still about you.
What was the time that you justreally failed or just messed up
Cause I'm sure that that hashappened and how did you recover
(39:49):
from that?
What did you do to overcomethat?
Speaker 2 (39:52):
Right, so early on in my career I think it was like
my first or second job.
I remember this vividly and Istill shake my head like, oh,
that was so dumb.
They put me out on my own andit was early in the morning.
We were at a house somewhere inAlpharetta and it was for a big
company and I was nervous, youknow, I hadn't had all this
(40:16):
experience.
So whenever you go into a newjob, you're always kind of like
trepidatious, like oh, okay, howdo I do this?
How are this?
You're in your head a lot.
So I get there and I it's likesix o'clock in the morning and I
knock on the homeowner's doorand she answers in like an eye
count.
I'm like, hey, we're supposedto be filming at your house.
And then trucks are pulling uplike right now, like right now,
(40:37):
and she's like, oh, okay, that'sfine, but you can't come into
my house.
I'm like, well, well, we'resupposed to be shooting in your
house, filming in your house, sowe need to talk about that and
she would not let us in.
And I told the, told theproduction manager, who's like
kind of, she is higher than me,she was higher than me in the
(41:00):
hierarchy of of it and she waslike what are you?
She didn't know me for anyoneand we're really good friends
now.
But she was like what are youtalking about?
She's like get out of my way.
And she walked into thiswoman's house and this woman's
like screaming, like what areyou doing in my house?
She's like we rented your housefor the day.
We are going to film here.
And I didn't, I didn't takecharge like she did, and I told
(41:22):
her no, you can't do this,because the homeowner told me
that and I had gotten badinformation we were allowed to
film in our house and we didfilm in our house, but it was so
embarrassing for me, you know,because communications had
gotten mixed up and then, likemy mentor he was, he's the one
that got me the job and he wason a different location at the
(41:44):
same job and he's like man,don't sweat that stuff.
He's like he's like, yeah, it'sa rookie mistake, but we're
doing what you thought at thetime was correct Like the
homeowner shows up in hernightgown just like, blurry eyed
, like what are you doing in myhouse?
Well, we just gave you a lot ofmoney to be here for the day.
You knew about it.
You know, I wasn't on the, Iwasn't on the tech scouter or
(42:05):
the previous scouts to to tellher, to to kind of meet her and
tell her what was going on.
So no one did because I wasthrown on this job Just like
well, all right, you go do youronset location manager.
And so that that's where Iscrewed up.
Speaker 1 (42:19):
I am curious about that.
Real quick, Ask a furtherquestion.
Well, I have two.
One, why was this lady at herhouse or not letting y'all in at
six AM?
And then the other question Ihave is I mean, people sign
contracts and then are paid whenyou, when you are using their
(42:39):
house, Like it's a pretty bigthing to be, like I mean I, it's
just so explained and usuallyin my well, I don't do locations
, but just what I've witnessedand seen, there's a contract,
it's explained, they're usuallycompensated very well.
So I'm very like, does thathappen?
Often where someone's like,actually no, you can't come into
(43:00):
my house, and it's like, well,we have a contract that says
otherwise.
And if they refuse, how doesthat work?
Did the cops get involved?
Speaker 2 (43:08):
or Well, they're breaking the contract and they
the production company could suethem.
At the time I did not have thecontract.
Like I said, I was on anotherjob and I got someone got sick,
so I got thrown into this thelast moment.
So she had already got home onher head, you already got paid.
She already had the check.
Usually I come with the checkon the morning of like if we
(43:30):
have a prep day, I'll give themthe check.
or if we, if we just have astraight up shoot day, I'm the
first person there with thecheck and I have the contract,
but that no one that thatincident has never occurred
again, because usually I'm I gofrom prep the pre-pro, just like
pre-production, all the waythrough to the, to the rap and
(43:52):
so, I'm in communications withthe homeowner and everyone else
like, hey, this is what you're,because a lot of times they
don't read the contract.
Speaker 1 (44:00):
They hear the money.
Speaker 2 (44:02):
Yeah yeah exactly, and a lot of people just don't
like legalese.
I get it, you know.
But if they say, hey, you can'tdo this, I'm like, well,
according to the contract we can, and they don't like that, I
don't try.
I'm like I try to make it alittle bit more soft, like, well
, you know, we had conversationsthat this is what we were gonna
do, and I'd hate to go back toproduction and say that we're
(44:24):
not gonna do this, so let's tryto work something out right and
usually there they get it prettyquickly.
I didn't have the contract in, Ididn't have money, she had
already gotten paid, and so shewas just Sending like mixed
messages to everyone and shefinally calmed down like, oh
yeah, that's right, I did havebooks.
You know this production herethis day, like I was telling, I
(44:47):
was telling the productionmanager she had to set up her
production office outside in thecold, and she was looking at me
like I was the craziest personon earth.
Speaker 1 (44:54):
She was like I think not, sir.
That's funny.
So this is not thisprofessional all but I always
think about, because I justthink about different jobs and
people and I promise I willcircle this back.
But I think about nursesdealing with the general
population and what you know I.
I know how I handle myself,like how I Keep myself clean,
(45:16):
how I come into a hospital, evenan emergency.
There's just a level.
But I like me trying to besomewhat respectful, kind,
whatever.
I know everybody does notapproach life that way.
And To circle it back tolocations I'm sure people Get
excited about they're gonna gettheir house use.
(45:37):
They're also gonna get somenice money for having their
house use, but you're alsodealing with general population
in their home.
So I imagine that there'sdifferent stories of that and
working with people like that Isthat the craziest one?
You would say.
Speaker 2 (45:56):
No, I've got a crazier one, and it was.
It's somewhat of a mistake onmy part too.
This was further on in mycareer.
We were doing this commercialfor a shoe company and a famous
hip-hop artist, and so wegenerally we discussed with the
art department or the productiondesigner what's gonna happen
that day and we get the okay.
(46:18):
We're like, okay, you want todo this.
So it was in this.
It's like 12 million dollarmansion in Buckhead and they had
a motorbike on a spinningPedestal in the middle of this
mahogany three-story library andyou could go on to the railing,
the walkway of the Stories ofthe library and look down, and
we had cameras pointing down andcameras pointing at the floor
(46:41):
level at the motorcycle and thethe artist the hip-hop artist
was the talent was supposed topretend to start the motorcycle
and when it came down to it,they had Boxed me out.
His people had boxed me outfrom going into the library
because they were gonna start itand I told them they couldn't
Because there would berepercussions if you do.
(47:02):
And then they did start it inthis really nice library with
really old books and then theydumped a 50 gallon Barrel of
glitter from the second story onto, and this is these are
mahogany for wooden floors, withcracks on them right Like right
wooden floors.
So the glitter got you know.
(47:24):
Oh, my god, yeah and I waspretty Upset about that, that
they wouldn't let me in anduntil afterwards and the
homeowner was upset, my boss wasupset, everyone was very upset.
But you know, I kind ofexplained the situation like
they wouldn't let me in.
That that never happens anymore.
I'm just like now I'm going in.
This is my location right.
Speaker 1 (47:44):
I don't care how famous you are, you know, yeah.
Yeah, I imagine dealing withvery talented people, not to,
hmm, not necessarily verytalented, but very famous.
You know, I don't know whoyou're talking about.
You don't have to reveal, butsometimes very famous people are
not the most, always the mosttalented.
But I don't meant that can comewith that and I'm gonna do
(48:04):
whatever the hell I want becauseI'm such and such.
Speaker 2 (48:06):
You know, yeah well, the way that we deal with that
is okay.
You can do whatever as long aswe get okay from the homeowner.
And if the homeowner schoolwith it Wildest dreams, whatever
I want to do.
And if not, let's come to somekind of agreement you know,
Everyone hates the in the in thefilm world, behind the camera.
(48:29):
Everyone hates let's fix it inpost, which means a lot of work,
yeah, so, and we rarely saythat.
Let's say, but they're like,okay, how can we remedy this?
Because we still want you toget your beautiful dreams out.
We're not trying to block youfrom Getting that shot right,
but how can we, you know, judgeit where you don't start a
(48:54):
motorcycle in this mansion andyou don't put glitter everywhere
, like how can we come to anagreement and that's, and we
will have a conversation about aquick conversation and if it's
a must-do, well then you know,well, we'll cross that bridge
when we do cross it.
I think it's it's a mistakewhen they try to lie to you or
(49:14):
Deceive you.
When it comes me, when it comesto what they're going to do,
and they always get caught, it'slike you see the, see what
happens, and it's like, well,this is gonna cost production a
lot of money in the end, a lotof money that's not really
budgeted.
Yeah think about that.
I hate to pull that.
Well, it's gonna cost moremoney card, but we've had to do
(49:35):
that on some occasions wherepeople just wanted to do not
discuss it with us first.
Speaker 1 (49:41):
Yeah, I also think I've thought.
But just be respectful, I'vebeen humbled a lot and I've
worked in the camera and I, youknow I have my dreams of success
that I want as an actor.
But I hope, no matter whatopportunities, dreams whatever
come my way, that I will stay Ahumble and respectful to
(50:03):
everybody that I'm working with.
Speaker 2 (50:05):
Yeah, playing the devil's advocate on that one.
You know, when I'm sure you'vereached a certain level of
Celebrity being an actress oractor where kind of forget, you
know About other people'semotions, feeling their desire
for whatever is happening in theproduction, and and I get it
(50:26):
because you have so much stuffthrown at you as an, as a, as
talent, that you just it's notthat you forget, but you just
you're not thinking about it.
And that's another thingeveryone in the film world is in
their own head because theyhave their Own responsibilities.
So when someone does something,I Try not that's another thing
where I've made mistakes, I trynot to internalize it and go.
(50:48):
You did this on purpose.
Yeah, you drew into this tohurt.
You know it's like.
No, you were in your own head,you weren't thinking you made a
mistake and let's just remedy it.
You know, because once again.
We're here to do a job and tomake this production occur.
Speaker 1 (51:07):
Yeah, I think it's on in that vein.
I agree, because Talent, a lotof times once you reach a
certain level of success, youhave so many people around you
to just Take care of all yourlike little needs.
Like you want a cup of coffee?
Here's, let me go get you a cupof coffee you want.
You know just just littlethings, and so I Under.
(51:31):
I don't understand on a personallevel, but I could see how that
would just start changingthings where you're just not
thinking necessarily as muchabout things outside that.
Also, like you said, you knowone of the One of the moments
first moments I was kind of likehumbled as an actor and like oh
, it's not all about me, was Iam?
You realize I'm hired to do ajob.
(51:52):
Like production didn't hire meto stroke my ego, they hired me
to come in and be an actor, youknow.
So when I get cast it's like beprepared, show up and do your
job.
They're not like you know, thisisn't your 15 minutes of Fame,
having your Hollywood moment.
Like we have a job thateverybody's got, a job we're
(52:13):
trying to do.
So come and do your job too,and I think that's real about me
.
Speaker 2 (52:20):
But people make you feel your.
You know your assistance orwhoever's helping you on set.
They make you feel it, and theyshould, because you're an
integral part of it, One of themost important parts of it.
Speaker 1 (52:35):
And it's hard because you're like that balance of
like the emotions in trying tookay, let's not mess with them,
let's, you know, let's keep itas simple as possible, as low
stress as possible, so they canprep for their scene or whatever
.
So it's really hard, thatbalance.
But I mean it is as soon as youstep on set, what do we could
call actors talent, like italready gives us like this air,
(52:56):
oh, talents here, and it's likebut you're talented at your job,
you know.
You know I just I think it'sfunny, I think about all that
stuff, but I you know myexperience and said it's like do
you want anything to drink?
Can I get you anything?
This is where you're going to be.
You know we'll come and get you.
We'll have like makeup,whatever it is, and it's like so
, from the moment I step on set,check in, I'm being taken care
(53:17):
of, I'm being showed where to go, which is how it has to be.
Understandably, I get why it'sthat way, but it's easy to let
it go to your head and I am infor a fortunate that I have had
my ego checked and I try to keepit like hey, you're, you were
hired to do a job, so like showup and do your job.
Speaker 2 (53:40):
I met many actors in my life and you know you get all
walks of life.
Speaker 1 (53:45):
But there are some that just don't.
Speaker 2 (53:48):
Ego is and they have, they're full of it.
And then there are some thatare just amazing.
You know some of the some ofthe famous people that I've met
on set that are like big time,you know big time.
Or some of those down down toearth chill people that I've
ever met because they work ontheir ego and they work because
(54:09):
they realize, just like what youjust said, like, okay, it is a
job at the end of the day, yes,I'm super famous, yes, I'm super
wealthy, but at the end of theday, I'm here to be professional
and to do this.
You know what I love, what I'vebeen doing?
All my life I've been honingthis, this skill, and the ones
(54:29):
that check in with themselvesreally are very, very cool to
work with.
Speaker 1 (54:35):
That's awesome.
Yeah, and I obviously I am anactor, I love actors, I don't
have any qualms with actors, Ijust think it's.
It's an interesting dynamic,the actor crew dynamic on set.
I've always found it veryfascinating Kind of rounding,
just rounding everything out.
I know I've held you a littlebit longer than an hour, but oh,
you're fine.
Speaker 2 (54:55):
I enjoy this process.
It's really nice.
Speaker 1 (54:57):
Okay, great, do you have.
I know you talked about it alittle bit, but if anybody wants
to do locations whetherscouting manager, not locations
just getting to do any type ofcrew work getting behind the
camera what advice would youhave for people that are trying
to get into that?
Speaker 2 (55:14):
Right, I get pulled aside a lot by PAs or you know,
like, hey, can I talk to youabout locations?
I'm like, yeah, sure, let's.
You know, let's grab some lunchtogether and chat.
It's generally PAs who aretrying to move up, which I have
no problem with.
But when I kind of explain thewhole process, very realistic
(55:36):
and not sugar coated, I'm likethat's a lot of hard work.
It's not kind of yourperception of what I do, cause
if you look at me on set, a lotof times I'm just standing
around and they don't see meworking hard.
Now some people have seen me,you know, get screamed at or you
know, get threatened or workcrazy hard and they get it.
(56:01):
But these people are generallynewer, so they haven't seen.
And a lot of my work ispre-production and scouting and
everyone wants to, like I said,everyone wants to scout because
it's it's really cool and thenit is a lot of work.
It's a lot of stress, a lot ofdriving, a lot of traffic, but
it's very rewarding.
But then I tell them, with theoutfit that I run with, you have
(56:24):
to be both a scout and amanager.
Now, that's now.
That's different.
Probably in the future You'rejust a scout and that's what you
do, but with us it's allinclusive package and so and it
makes you, you know, morevaluable as a, as a manager and
a scout and you get more time,you know.
(56:44):
But I would say, and and one ofyour other interviews I forgot
his name, but he said the samething at the end of the day,
it's a business and I completely, 100%, have to remind everyone
that cause, generally whenpeople are trying to get into
locations, they're kind oftrying to round out their resume
(57:05):
, cause they want to be adirector and with locations you
do a lot of preparations that adirector would, and so they're
trying to hit every departmentso that they can become a better
director or a first assistantdirector or a producer.
Everyone has read or heard ofthese famous directors,
producers that did a stint inlocations, and I get that.
(57:27):
That's cool.
But at the end of the day andthe producers get it it is a
business.
You can be creative, you can bebeautiful, you can do all of
that, but you have to keep itwithin the realm of.
It's not all art.
A lot of it is money and it'smoney driven.
(57:48):
And I hate to say that becauseI don't and I and I preface this
to the kids that come up to me,the people that come up to me
I'm like man follow your dreams,live your dreams.
It's not all about life, is notall about money, but this
business, at the end of the day,it is so wrap that into your
dream.
Speaker 1 (58:08):
Right.
Speaker 2 (58:08):
Don't let it control your dream of whatever you're
trying to do, but just realizeit's a large aspect.
And when you tell someone yourdream of whatever you're trying
to create, figure that into theequation and it's very
eye-opening.
A lot of people are like, ohwell, and it's like it's
sobering, because it kind ofputs some kind of constraints on
(58:31):
a lot of people.
I'm like, no, don't do that,just budget it.
Budget for your dream.
You know, Well, if you want tomake something magical and crazy
, go for it.
That's why we're in thisindustry.
Yeah, that's what we got intothis industry, but also gauge
that and make.
Speaker 1 (58:50):
I think too, like with what you said if you have
something big and magical andthat you want to create, you
might not be making that in ayear.
It might take a little bit.
Sometimes dreams take a longertime and for us to get to it
takes some.
Trying to think of the name ofthe movie.
Oh, a movie just came outrecently called Bottoms and it
(59:15):
was hilarious.
I loved it and I started lookinginto it and I do not remember
the director or the lead, butbasically they had a short
called Shiva Baby that ended upgetting turned into a feature.
Because I was like thisdirector just had like a movie
in theaters.
Bottoms was in theaters and Iwas like she doesn't have a huge
(59:36):
like list, like her credentialsare, but she had made a short
that did really well and won aat a film festival or something
and then got turned into afeature.
But the feature took, like Ithink she because I was then I'm
doing like the Instagram deepdive, you know but it took her
like seven, seven years to makethis feature same title, shiva
Baby.
And then the girl who starredin that feature also starred in
(59:58):
her new movie, bottoms.
But it was just it was.
You can have these huge, crazydreams, but that's just.
Sometimes they take time.
Yes, anyway, but I do like whatyou said about that, because it
is a business.
Speaker 2 (01:00:12):
Absolutely.
And I would say don't give upon your dreams, have patience
and, basically, don't let thiscold world of money and
bickering destroy your dreams.
Continue to follow them, butacknowledge the obstacles that
(01:00:33):
are presented to you and makepreparations to knock those
obstacles out so that you canfulfill your dreams.
Speaker 1 (01:00:42):
Sure, jay, do you have anything else you want to
say in closing?
Speaker 2 (01:00:46):
No, that's pretty much it.
It's been a great experiencechatting with you.
Speaker 1 (01:00:51):
The same you are.
I am so excited that Johnconnected us.
You're very insightful.
I feel like you've given greatlife advice honestly, not just
anything film advice.
I love your demeanor.
You have a very calm demeanor,so I really enjoyed getting to
talk to you.
Taster, yeah, I love everybodyso much for listening.
(01:01:12):
If you enjoyed this episode, ifyou'll just rate, review the
podcast, follow the Instagram.
It helps me do what I'm doingand I look forward to who I talk
to next.
Welcome to.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
I Am Me Podcast.
I'm your host, liz Bachman, andon this podcast I want to
celebrate you for being you.
I'm super excited to sit downwith my guests each week and
talk about their journey, theirexperiences and where they came
from.
So, without further ado, let'sdive into this week's episode.
Hey everybody, welcome back toI Am Me Podcast.
(00:21):
Today, I'm excited I'm sittingdown with Jay Monson.
He is a locations manager, sohe primarily does locations for
commercials.
So if you're interested inhearing what's going on behind
the scenes of the camera, ifyou're curious about how kind of
locations works, I think thiswill be a great episode for you.
But, with that being said, howare you doing today, jay?
Speaker 2 (00:43):
I'm doing great.
How are you?
Speaker 1 (00:44):
I'm good, I can't complain.
It's a really pretty day andI'm going to go for a nice
nature walk after this.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Oh fantastic.
My partner and I were thinkingabout doing the same thing.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
Do y'all have any dogs or anything like that?
Speaker 2 (00:56):
We have four cats.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
Okay, okay, cats.
I met Jay through his reallygood friend, john, and John is a
cat person also, so cats aregreat.
I don't have any issues withcats.
I've always had dogs.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
I was raised with dogs and then I met her and I
was introduced to cats and theyact like dogs.
They come and cuddle with you,they come to the door when you
get home from work.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
Okay, all about how you raise them, but yeah, yeah,
I like cats that have a dogenergy about them.
We've had a couple cats, butwe've always had more dogs, so
but dive in right in, tell meabout your journey.
We're here to talk about you.
So tell me how you got intolocations or film in general,
how that happened for you.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
Sure, yeah, it's kind of a long and winding story,
but that's what we're here for.
So my father was a biginfluence.
He is a photographer and aarchitect, builder just kind of
artsy in general and I rememberin high school I was taking this
art class and they were like,okay, we want you to take some
photos.
(02:02):
I was like, I'll do you onebetter.
I've got all my dad's equipmentfor a dark room.
So I built a dark room and Ihad so much fun just kind of
like taking photos, developingthe film, and it was a great
experience and I thought, hey,this is a way, because I never
really mess with cameras before.
I mean, I did, but not on athat kind of level.
(02:22):
So I found it a great way toexpress myself as an angsty
teenager or whatever.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
And so after that, so that was like okay, my
introduction into oh, you cantake photos and go anywhere, and
so I am a location manager, butI'm also a location scout and
so that is one of the main as ascout, that's one of your main
jobs is to take great photos ofplaces right, right, and then
(02:52):
really make sure you're, youknow, doing the location justice
.
That's right.
And you got to sell it to the,to the client and to the
director and the executiveproducer, who are all looking at
your photos.
So, that being said, kind oftook off on that journey.
But my parents got divorced soI went to live with my
grandfather and he lives on well, he used to live on Lake Lanier
(03:15):
, which is in North Georgia, andso I got to live with him and
he would go out of town a lotand I would throw a wild and
crazy parties and this and thisViking in this Norse Viking Hall
that my dad and his father andhis brothers built.
It's like this big, great meathall, you know.
So, like every football game, Iwould invite everyone back to my
(03:39):
place to party, and I didn'tknow it at the time, but I told
the story a few times on set.
They're like well, what got youinto it?
I'm like I was actually being alocation manager without even
knowing it, because I wouldcheck every room, make sure
everyone was cool.
They were kind of like you cando what you do, but just don't
do crazy stuff, don't breakanything, don't hurt anyone,
right?
And I would constantly be goingfrom room to room in different
(04:02):
social groups, because we'd havethe jocks, we'd have the nerves
, we'd have the skaters, we'dhave everyone kind of brought
together as a peaceful zoneAnyway.
So that's part of my job as alocation manager.
Once we find the location andwe do the permitting and hire
all the people, I have to takecare of the location with big,
(04:23):
heavy hot lights.
We've got a hundred people inthe house for a day or two and
so I have to maintain.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
I was going to ask you so is that really stressful
for you having to make sure thata location is staying you know
how you found it essentially, orit's going to return to how you
found it?
Speaker 2 (04:43):
It will return to how we found it and if it doesn't,
then we remedy that problemthrough insurance, or I think
it's up to $5,000.
The production has to pay forit.
It's rarely gotten to thatpoint where insurance takes over
, but we have them sign apaperwork that basically says
hey, we'll cover anything thatyou know.
Sometimes things get scuffed,you know, but everyone on set is
(05:04):
very professional.
They don't mean to do it, it'sjust you have a lot of people,
things are going to happen, andwe warn the homeowner, we try to
tell them a little bit about itbefore we enter, if they're
brand new.
We've had some new people butwe have like over 350 homes in
the Metroland area and locationsand they've had shoots at their
(05:26):
house so they know what toexpect.
But if they don't, we give thema heads up like, hey, we got
you covered if anything were tohappen.
And they're like, okay, great,so no, in the beginning it was
when I first I've been doingthis for about nine years,
locations, that is.
But at first I was like, oh,don't touch this, don't do it.
But then I realized we're ateam.
(05:48):
Production is a whole, in frontof the camera, behind the
camera.
We're a team, we have a goal,we want to get the shot
completed, whether it isremoving stuff or adding stuff
like big furniture.
So I kind of relaxed a littlebit and was like, hey, these
people know what they're doingfor the most part, and if they
don't, then we remedy it.
(06:09):
So there were some mistakes inthe beginning where I'm like you
can't do that and they werelike whoa, yes, we can, and so
it was a learning process.
But now it's kind of everyonekind of knows me in that world
and I found that as a locationmanager you're juggling a lot of
balls.
You have to make productionhappy.
(06:31):
You have to make the homeownerhappy.
You have to make the neighborshappy.
You have to make the police orcity officials if you're
shooting on the street happy.
You have to make everyone kindof happy, and someone's not
going to be happy.
And the way you deal with thatis to be respectful and kind and
practice a term that I learnedon set by a police officer that
(06:51):
I had hired because I had thisguy screaming at me.
He was a neighbor, he's likeI'm the city's royalty.
I was like, oh, should I curtsy?
I don't.
I've never been in front ofroyalty before.
And so he was cussing me up anddown and the police officer saw
it.
So he started walking towardsme and he was about to fight our
second AD like fist fight.
(07:13):
I got out of lunch and he wassquaring off with a second AD
from LA.
I was like whoa, whoa, whoa,what's going on?
And someone had parked in frontof this man's house like a
truck on accident.
I was like but I deescalatedand I use this, this wordage or
this, this terminology, from abook called verbal judo.
And so with judo, the martialarts, you take someone's
(07:36):
attacking momentum and you useit against them to push them
away or get them subdued.
And verbal judo is the sameconcept, but you're using words
rather than actions.
And so, going back to thatsituation, I got the guy calm
down.
He actually apologized to meand the other guy and once he
(07:57):
had left and I calmed down thesituation, the cop looks at me
and goes you know what you justdid?
I was like calm down thesituation.
He's like I deescalated.
He's like well, you use verbaljudo.
And I was like what is that?
He's like read this book.
They used to teach it.
So it was a nonviolent tacticthat the police would use, and I
wish they still taught it.
But yeah, another subject.
Speaker 1 (08:16):
Right.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
But they would.
They would teach it inrecruitment school for police.
And so I read the book.
It's kind of outdated, it usesa lot of stupid terms, but for
police, but they keep.
They teach it in the corporateworld.
They teach it in just how tomake sure the person that is
really heated gets calmed down.
(08:37):
But you both get kind of yourway and you walk away in a
peaceful manner.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
Well, I bet too, because you're right, you're
juggling a lot of balls, butyou're also juggling a lot of
people and a lot of emotions,because everybody in their
opinions, everybody has theirthoughts, opinions.
And then you add that extralayer of putting yourself in a
neighborhood, and I just thinkabout just being in a
neighborhood with an HOA howthat is crazy.
(09:04):
So then you have an entire filmcrew trying to get a job done
in somebody's neighborhoodresidential.
So it sounds like youdefinitely have a good, even
tone and you're able to handlethose situations.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
And you're absolutely correct about that, because we
do shoot in a lot of high-endneighborhoods with HOAs and even
without.
But you'll get angry, angry,wealthy people that think that
they you know the HOA presidentof the universe and they're
going to call the governor andeveryone's going to, you know
they're going to end it rightnow.
It's like, well, we've actuallyalready paid all those people.
So I'm talking to you now.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
Do you ever have anybody who tries to get on set,
Like they think, becausethey're in the neighborhood if
they want to see what's going on?
Do you ever have anyone that'slike oh, I know such and such,
Let me.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
Oh yeah, they walk right on to set.
If I like, if I'm not there,I'm handling some other putting
out some other fire, they'llwalk right on set.
And they were like Jay, you'relike what?
Who was this?
Speaker 1 (10:02):
person.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
I'm like, oh yeah, so I got to go talk.
I'm like, no, no, no cameras.
Like you can't, yeah, because alot of these things we have to
sign NDAs for because they are,you know, for these companies
that have, you know, famoustalent or they have a, they have
a product that hasn't come outyet.
So if someone were to take apicture and then put it on
(10:24):
social media, that would bedevastating to the whole
production.
Speaker 1 (10:29):
Yeah, most film sets are.
You know you have to have NDAson them.
Anything that's legit.
I've always had to sign an NDAto be on that set.
Speaker 2 (10:37):
Absolutely.
So yeah, I have had.
We call them bogies.
Just wander up out of nowherelike oh, I know the homeowner
like.
Well, the homeowner's not here.
Speaker 1 (10:43):
They're at Airbnb.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
You're not allowed on this property, right, like
please leave, and most of thetime they're pretty chill.
We've had a few unstablecharacters walk up and if you
just I've noticed whether you'rerich or you're poor or middle
class or whatever, when youappeal to people in a chill mode
(11:05):
, they react calmly.
And I say that I am a six footkind of big guy, that you know
that I put off a aura like don'tmess with me, please.
I'm peaceful, but you don'twant to mess with me.
So it might be different forother people.
Speaker 1 (11:25):
I'm trying to think of myself.
So I usually meet people prettyeven killed.
I think what I get in troublewith is a lot of times I'm a
little too over nice, oversmiley, and that can get me in
trouble, because then it's like,oh, we can take advantage of
her, but then I have no BSfilter about me where I'll take
and take and take, but once myfuse runs out, like I'm done,
(11:47):
and so I think it's funny for mePeople see when that switch
gets flipped.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
I had the same thing my partner she calls it the
Viking eyes Like when I turn,like from hey, it's all good
until, like, you need to leavenow.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
Oh, you do.
You have the Viking eyes.
Yeah, you got the Viking eyes,the Viking hair.
You're tall, you're blonde,like you got the whole vibe
going on Like Thor's brother.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
Play with the axes.
Speaker 1 (12:15):
Yeah, I was going to ask you so just as acting, I've
had some experiences on setwhere people who own the
property run the property.
Most recently, it was a churchthat they had the location.
At a church that I we wereshooting on, I'd got cast in
something and I was wondering ifyou ever have people who own
(12:35):
the location, if they work withyou, to stay and see what's
going on like want to watch it,because a lot of people get
excited by that.
Speaker 2 (12:44):
That's pre COVID.
That was one of my favoriteparts.
They would be like, hey, my kidloves this NBA star that's
going to be at my house.
Can you, can you get like, canwe get a meet and greet?
I'm like got you.
So, like you know, that wasreally cool and I would show
like kids that are interested,like their teenage kids or even
smaller.
They'd be like well, what doesit look like?
I'm like, all right, she's gotto be quiet because we're
(13:06):
rolling.
So, we'd sneak up behind one ofthe monitors and they'd watch it
and they're like this is socool, this is so cool.
That was.
That was really a highlight.
But during COVID and I meanCOVID is still going on, but,
like they now generally put thehomeowner and the homeowner's
kids or family up in a hotel orAirbnb because for safety, for
(13:31):
you know, we had COVID officers-and in all that, and so they
wouldn't allow everyone had tobe tested, etc.
Etc.
Like rigorous, you know,background.
All that to make sure no onewould get sick, especially the
talent that's their.
Their massive concern is talentgets sick, you know, I'm sure.
Speaker 1 (13:48):
Hence the sag strike right now.
You know, actors are on strikeand now everything is stopped.
Speaker 2 (13:54):
Yeah, you can't do it without talent.
It's imperative, but now it's.
They're letting some people inand I'll generally.
If a location really wants tosee the production, I will give
them a small tour.
I'll let everyone know and I'llmake them wear a mask if that's
what production wants, If we'reinside, but they generally
(14:20):
don't stay the whole time.
Speaker 1 (14:22):
They burn out too.
I, anyone I've ever seen on setthat is excited to be on set,
that has no idea what it is.
They're there for like 30minutes tops.
And then there the shoot that Iwas talking about, the guy that
I guess he was the pastor ofthe church or whatever and they
had worked out where he couldkind of see what was going on
(14:42):
that day.
And he came to set and he camelike in the middle of one of the
scenes that I was doing and hejust, like you know, pulled them
in, put them behind camera,behind monitors, just kind of
watch us act.
And we did, I think we did likefour takes and then they're
moving the cameras next setup todo the next.
But after he's seen like two orthree, he was like, okay, all
right.
(15:02):
And then you know, I, if youhave that edge of like and you
know I'm not famous but by anymeans, and the actors I was
working with weren't eitherwonderful people, but none of us
were famous, and so I think ifyou have that edge of like
having famous people there, it'smore exciting.
But if you just see theseactors, these people you don't
know, in this crew performance,kind of like ah, okay, so that's
(15:24):
what that is.
Speaker 2 (15:26):
Yeah, yeah, they get bored real.
It's not what they imagine everyou know, they think it's all
excitement and explosions andit's like nope, all right,
that's not a circle.
Take, do it again.
Yeah, do it again.
Speaker 1 (15:40):
Exactly One more Moving on.
Yeah, circle it moving on, yeah, all right, sorry, it's so fun
to talk to you.
I love how this is going allover the place.
What I was going to say is Iinterrupted you.
I know we were talking aboutyour start, but so when did the
transition happen where youactually started doing locations
, or how did you actually getyour foot in that door?
Speaker 2 (16:01):
So, yeah, to finish up that story through parties
love photography and thentraveled the world a little bit
didn't go immediately touniversity and I got to
experience life outside of NorthAmerican suburban culture and
that was an eye opener.
I lived on a lot of off thegrid islands.
I was building like sustainablehomes and tree houses and stuff
for like people, because my dadis a builder, so I would, I
(16:23):
would join him and experienced alot of people with wealth but
experience a lot of poverty,like at one point in time.
I know one of your other guests.
He said he was homeless.
I was living out of my car for awhile working construction or
being a bartender, whatever.
And then I was like, all right,I need to go back to school.
Oh, I need to go to school.
(16:44):
And so I was like, but what for?
I'm like?
Oh, film, I'll do film.
And so I got a masscommunications to go back, a
four year degree, a mass comm ata private university in North
Georgia.
And then I met people there.
Some were part of the program,some were not, but they knew
people here in Atlanta and so Igot brought into a small feature
(17:06):
, like super small feature, andI was working pro bono.
So I was a PA getting peoplecoffee and setting up tables and
stuff like that, and I wentfrom a PA to a key grip in one
month.
Speaker 1 (17:17):
That's really cool.
I was going to sit, throw inreal quick PA.
I know you mentioned AD earlier, second AD, so that's your
second assistant director.
And then PA if anybody'slistening doesn't know is your
production assistant.
I'm trying to catch when theshow.
I feel like most people wholisten to this are in the
industry, so they'll know.
But yeah, I've done that too.
I've been a productionassistant.
I've worked behind the cameratoo.
(17:37):
So, yep, getting coffee,getting gear, breaking it down,
setting it up, all that jazz.
Speaker 2 (17:43):
Yep and so, and then I made a lot of friends in the
first AD, which is the firstassistant director.
He was like hey, you want to dothis for money?
I'm like yeah resound them.
Yes, he was the one I didschool for and he's like OK,
cool, we'll get you on.
So I started PA-ing and Iworked a lot of jobs with him
and I remember this one.
I'm full of stories, so I loveit.
(18:05):
I remember that we were shootingin South Georgia, in South of
Atlanta, in this big place wherethey shoot a lot of features
and it's a big grassy, they gotbarns and it's like a bed and
breakfast and we were doing thisthing for this TV show and this
photographer from LA.
(18:25):
There's one gravel road.
In one gravel road, it's oneway.
So we had all these truckslined up and I'm kind of, if
anyone doesn't know, and thiskind of feeds into one of your
other questions later on- likehow would.
If someone wants to get intolocations, this is how you do it
, or any department behind thecamera.
As a PA, you help out thatdepartment, whether you want to
(18:46):
work camera locations directing.
You buddy up with them, youmake friends with them, you chat
it up and then you're like, hey, I'm interested in doing what
you do.
And they're like, ok, let's seewhat you got, and you'll
usually do it on set.
That's my experience.
So I was hanging out with thelocation manager who was the
(19:08):
first AD on that feature wayback when and this guy, he
stopped his truck when there wasa bunch of tractor trailers
behind him and everyone'shonking it's very obvious like
hey, don't stop in the middle ofthe one lane gravel road.
He's like man, go tell that guyto move his truck.
I was like all right, cool, Ididn't think anything about it.
So go out in the field.
And this photographer I didn'tknow at the time was a
photographer.
He was talking to someone elseand I let him get down with
(19:30):
their little talk.
I was like, hey, is that yourtruck?
He's like who the eff is asking?
I'm like, well, you hear allthat honking like kind of
blocking up the only road in andout.
He's like eff, you Just lacedme up and down with a bunch of
curse words, like you know who Iam, you know how much money I
make a day.
I make $80,000 a day.
I don't give an eff about you.
And I just took it.
(19:51):
I was like huh, my future bosswas watching this from the bed
and breakfast and he was justlike very animated, waving his
arms, screaming, stomping updown.
I just took it.
I was like still going to needyou to move that truck though.
And he was like ah, he stompedoff and he moved the truck.
And later on that day, myfuture employer was like how do
(20:12):
you feel about location?
So that's how I got into it andI am freelance, but I generally
work with one company for themost part when it comes to
locations, and yeah, that's kindof like the origin stories of
me as a location manager.
Speaker 1 (20:28):
So what about you getting cussed out and being
chill about it Made your bossthink he'll probably be good at
locations.
What do you think of that?
What is it about you being ableto be calm when someone else is
?
I guess kind of what youexplained earlier about having
to handle a lot of people.
But what do you think it wasspecifically that your boss saw
(20:49):
you and saw you getting cussedout and you were just relaxed
and like, OK, I still need youto do this thing.
What about that makes you makeit like locations?
Speaker 2 (20:58):
A lot of people when they're getting cussed out or
yelled at, in general they fightor flight, right.
So oh are you going to cuss meout?
I'm going to cuss you out, ok,and you don't get the results
that you want.
Or you just freak out and leave.
You still don't get the resultsyou want.
So the other option is tocalmly just reintroduce the idea
(21:20):
of what you want and why youwant it, and in a manner of hey,
I'm not going to back down, Idon't care how much money you
make, we're all in this together.
And you're blocking all theother trucks that need to get to
the site, so you need to doyour job and move that truck.
Speaker 1 (21:39):
Right.
Speaker 2 (21:39):
So results and not freaking out on someone because
a lot of people have told me andI thought they were being
facetious or just kind ofsucking up to me but directors
have come up to me and producersthroughout the years and
they're like you, jay, you havethe hardest job on set.
I'm like that here and I stilldon't believe I do have the
hardest job.
(21:59):
You will get screamed at forsomething that is not your fault
, that you didn't create thisissue.
But this issue is beingpresented to you in a very
verbally violent way and youneed, as a location manager, you
need to calm that down and thenget to solving that problem.
(22:21):
And so it's like rolling withthe issues that arise, which I
really really like because it'sproblem solving on your feet.
You got to get it now becausethe sun's going down, we don't
have the money to do another dayat this location, et cetera, et
cetera.
It's not in the budget, so howdo you fix this now?
And all of these problemsolving skills kick into play
(22:42):
immediately.
Speaker 1 (22:43):
Right, you seem like.
So you seem like a person whoobviously is very good under
pressure, and I'm curious if itwas always that way.
If you've learned more asyou've gone on with this job, or
if you've been a person likeeven if you think back to your
teenage years or youngadolescents if you were just
someone who could, because somepeople just naturally have that
(23:06):
in them that in crisis situation, or if there's any type of TIF
or argument whatever, they justare good at remaining calm and
handling it.
So I'm curious if that's grownfor you through being in this
job or also it's just somethingthat's naturally within you.
Speaker 2 (23:23):
You know, I would like to say it's naturally
within me, but I've been in highstress situations before, like
with accidents on job siteswhere you had to make a turn a
kid because someone's bleedingout.
There have been in my life likereally crazy times where people
have gotten into fist fightsand so you learn it through life
(23:46):
experience not to freak outbecause it makes other people
freak out.
So I think it's life thatgenerally made me Because you're
anyone maybe you've met otherpeople, but anyone that's
getting screamed at your initialreaction, my initial reaction
is to scream back, but that'snot helpful.
Speaker 1 (24:07):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (24:08):
It's not so, I would say, on the job, training and
life training.
Speaker 1 (24:14):
Life training.
We talked about some of thehard moments and the rough stuff
.
What's some of your favoritestuff about doing locations?
Speaker 2 (24:23):
So I like that question, basically my favorite
part about location managementand scouting I like the freedom
of that, this framework of thefreedom of scouting.
They're like go find this.
If you don't have it in yourrepertoire, ok, cool, well, I
(24:43):
know this place and this placeand this place, maybe they'll
like it.
All right, go out there.
You have a whole day just to gosnap photos.
You have the freedom to roamand find it, finding really odd
locations, not just house andbucket or something like that.
But they want something reallyweird and like OK, this is fun.
(25:03):
You get to do urban exploring,you're getting paid for it and
you're taking awesome picturesand just having a day, and a lot
of times you're outside whenthe weather is beautiful.
Speaker 1 (25:15):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (25:17):
And that's my.
I really enjoy that andeveryone that wants to do
locations.
They just see the scoutingaspect.
They're like, oh, I'd love todrive around and photograph that
and it's like that's one aspectof it.
Speaker 1 (25:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (25:30):
As my dad says, that's a sexy job.
The not so sexy part is thestuff we just discussed where
you have to deal with iratepeople.
What was the second part of thequestion?
Speaker 1 (25:42):
I was just asking you what the good parts, the
favorite parts, of being alocation manager is, but I was
going to say every job that,especially when people have a
job that they love, there's thefun part, and then there's the
not so fun part.
So this podcast I love sittingdown and talking to people like
you.
The not so fun part is theeight hours of editing that I
(26:03):
have to do per each episode.
Acting love acting.
Love getting to be in an actingclass.
Love, love, love, love, love.
Getting to work with my scenepartners, as the best freaking
thing in the world Not alwaysexcited to sit down and read a
100 page script In one night.
Speaker 2 (26:20):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1 (26:22):
Or if it's an episode of 40 page script, whatever it
is.
So there's the research and thehomework, but everybody's got
that Every thing that you end upturning into a job is going to
have things that you just partsof it that you don't love Of
course, and then so that's ascouting aspect that I really
like the management aspect.
Speaker 2 (26:43):
It is difficult Long hours.
I work like generally I work 16to 17 hours a day.
When I'm on set I'm the firstto there, the last to leave, and
if there's anything that goeswrong you have to deal with that
afterwards.
But when everything is flowingand everyone's getting along on
set and you just I get like afeeling of success, a feeling of
(27:09):
accomplishment, like this iswhat I was made for, because
everyone's like oh, my goodness,this location is so beautiful
and you're taking care of it andyou're helping other teams out,
and it's like, yep, that's whatI do, and I derive a great
feeling of accomplishment whenthe job is just flowing.
Speaker 1 (27:34):
Yeah, that flow that you're talking about, when you
get on a set that has that wherethe people are just
everything's working togetherthe crew, the cast, everything,
the environment it is.
I mean, it is so much funBecause it doesn't matter if,
for me, if I'm in front of thecamera or if I'm behind hanging
with a crew member, we're justhaving a good time and that's
(27:57):
wonderful.
I was going to ask you.
So you talked about going andfinding weird locations.
What is the weirdest or themost weird location?
Not the weirdest, craziest orlocation that you remember?
Just being like this is soexciting.
This is really cool that youfound.
Speaker 2 (28:14):
I don't get to do that often.
I would say that's more thefeature location scouts or
television, but when I have beenthere was this there's this one
place called the Gnome home.
It's in like near Milton,alpharetta area, and I was asked
to go scout that.
So it's this castle with a moat.
There's gnomes all over it.
(28:35):
That was interesting.
The guy that owns it is arecluse.
He just made it in the 90s Hisodd, odd character Fascinating.
I love meeting odd characters,but that was an interesting one.
Some let's see what else youknow, seeing how the other half
(28:58):
lives when they're like we needyou to go and shoot this like
$20 million mansion, like tophotograph it for production,
for the location scout.
And then I go in and the peopleare generally very, very cool,
very chill, relaxed and justlike I take notes in my head of
(29:20):
like oh, I like that or I don'tlike that.
You know of what they have, theaesthetic of their house.
That's really fun to go intothose homes that you normally I
would never go into if I didn'thave this job.
And then going into massivewarehouses where they have just
(29:40):
really odd things that youwouldn't think that they have in
an industrial warehouse Becauseother productions have been
there.
So they'll build like some kindof crazy set and just leave it
because it costs too much todeconstruct it.
They'll just leave it.
Speaker 1 (29:56):
That's crazy.
That's going to ask you to.
I know you primarily docommercial locations over film
and television, but we talkedprior to doing this interview.
I think it's worth mentioningbecause if people are interested
in doing this, commercial keepsyou closer to home, yeah.
Speaker 2 (30:15):
So we did discuss that and I'll repeat it because
it's worth repeating.
So I realized early on in mycareer I call it the cool kid
card and everyone's working onMarvel or they're working on
Walking Dead.
They were.
And I was like but I noticedtheir lifestyle because you need
everyone talks about a worklife balance but they don't
(30:38):
practice it that often in ourindustry they just grind and
they hustle because they'retrying to make it and I get that
and no shade on that.
But I realized I have a partnerand I do like my sleep when I
can get it.
And I realized I saw all thesepeople.
They had social lives, likeafter the rap and all that, but
(31:02):
they would never keep like asteady partner going on or they
both be in the industry andthey'd always break up in a
horrible way.
And I saw that in the featureworld and the TV world and I was
like, okay, commercial is abalance.
You work really hard whileyou're doing it but then you
have a little rest period andhalf the time I work from home
(31:23):
so I'm able to cook dinner formy partner and I'm able to like
you know when we want to go tothe high museum of art or go on
a nature walk.
We can, because I can workremotely.
A lot of the people in thefeature world that are location
managers, that's their life, soit's not a balance.
But they're like oh well, I'mgoing to make my millions and
then get out.
I'm like, huh, and how longyou've been doing this?
(31:45):
20 years, when are you?
Speaker 1 (31:47):
getting out.
Yeah, I think that it isinteresting that you kind of
become a part of that world andI'm grateful for people who do
that.
But it does become your entirelife and it makes it hard to
have, I would say, primarilyfriends and family balance
outside of it.
That becomes very challengingand that's a big sacrifice
(32:11):
because friends and family andthose parts of life are
important.
So I wanted to mention thatbecause I think there are ways
for you to be able to be in thisindustry and still have some
type of similar I don't know ifI'm saying that word right
whatever of you know normal lifeand having you know a partner,
(32:36):
kids and stuff like that outsideof it.
Speaker 2 (32:41):
And I have seen some people that are both in the
industry.
They have children.
I don't know how they do it.
They have family taking care ofthe kids, because if they're
both on set for 12 hours, likewho's taking care of the kids?
But they do it.
But it's rare and whether youwant to become famous or rich or
both, there's nothing wrongwith that.
But I think to me what is mostimportant is experience.
(33:04):
So you know and they've donestudies I was just reading a CBS
Nobel Prize winning economisttalking earlier this year like
in America, if you make morethan 75k, your happiness level
does not go up.
If you have all your basescovered and you're a
multimillionaire.
It actually adds more stress,and I'm not.
(33:26):
I'm not beating up people whowant to become rich and famous
that's your goal than more powerto you.
But my goal is life experienceand going places, traveling,
enjoying this life that we have,because a lot of people
squander it by getting into thequote, unquote rat race and just
(33:48):
I've met so many bitter peoplethat are a bit older than me and
all they did was work.
They didn't get to see theirkids.
You know ballet or or liketravel, and now their body is so
from this industry.
Their body is your body getsbeaten up.
Those long hours heavy lifting,especially behind the camera.
Speaker 1 (34:09):
Of course.
Speaker 2 (34:10):
Parties.
You know it, it takes a toll onyou.
And then they get older andthey have a little bit of money
saved up, but they're too brokento go and do the things they
want to do.
Speaker 1 (34:24):
Right.
Speaker 2 (34:24):
I say do it right now .
Speaker 1 (34:27):
I think it's so important and I love what you
said.
I'm going to butcher this quote, but the Jim Carrey quote about
I wish everybody's dreams couldcome true so they see it still
wouldn't make you happy orsomething.
It's a he said it.
Google some version of that andthe right quote will come up.
But it's so true.
And I think when I startedacting I just so desperately
wanted to be famous and be seenand really having to learn and
(34:54):
grow through that and recognizethat it wasn't going to matter
what part I booked, how big itwas, the, the emptiness that I
was trying to fill with thisidea, which I am not famous but
that I was trying to fill with,that was just wasn't going to
happen.
So I think then shifting toactually just enjoying what I'm
doing, and then I've had a lotof actors and mentors just say
(35:18):
you got to find happinessoutside of acting.
It can't.
And a lot of actors and I'msure behind the camera it's the
same because it's not an easyworld to get into and then
you're always grinding to getyour next job but they were just
like you have to find somethingoutside of this.
Acting is not who you are, it'sa thing that you do and there's
(35:38):
got to be more to you than justacting.
And so then trying to find thatbalance of okay, and I really
felt like I lost myself for awhile just thinking like I'm Liz
, I'm an actor, you know.
Anyway, sidebar diving into menot talking about you.
Speaker 2 (35:55):
No, you're absolutely right, because when we work in
the same industry, you're infront of the camera, I'm behind
the camera, but it's that samementality.
And there's a quote by someonethat says have you ever seen a
hearse with a trailer sketch?
Speaker 1 (36:09):
That's okay, can't take that stuff with you.
Yeah, you can't.
Speaker 2 (36:12):
You know, no, you can leave it to your kids.
You have kids, but I don't havekids.
Yeah, no plan on having them.
And I understand, you know,once again I understand the
other side because I, early onin my career, I was desperate to
.
I was trying not to be a PA, aproduction assistant, the lowest
guy on the totem pole.
Yeah, you know, I was trying to.
You know, do what?
(36:34):
Do a bunch of different thingsand locations is one of them.
But I had to.
Once I was somewhat set, I hadto tell people.
You know what?
No, I need a break because I gofrom job to job to job,
sometimes two jobs at once, thenthe next job, no break, Just
(36:54):
burning the candle at both endsand you get worn out, you get
stressed out, you get worn out.
No sleep, coffee through theroof, just like go, go, go, go
go.
And you will get burnt out realquick if you don't give
yourself time for yourself, foryour family and your friends,
(37:15):
like you know you will.
You will hurt relationships ifyou just work, work, work, work,
work, work, work, work, work,work, work, work, work.
Speaker 1 (37:23):
And I had to learn to say you know what?
Speaker 2 (37:25):
Yeah, exactly.
So I had to say you know what,even though this is a big job
right after my other big job,I'm good.
Give me like a few days.
I need to decompress.
Speaker 1 (37:35):
And I think there's this fear that if you say no,
something else won't come, butit does, it comes.
I had a I still she's still amentor, but I won't say her name
, but she, she's doing very wellright now Well, not right now
because of the strike, but she'sdoing.
She's doing very well in heracting career.
And I was so surprised becauseI was talking to her one day and
(37:59):
she's someone that I'm like man, if I could have success like
you, that'd be amazing.
And she was like, yeah, I tookshe's in her fifties, I think
she took a seven year break fromacting, I think in her thirties
or late twenties.
And I was just shocked and I waslike seven years and and I and
I've had a couple of friends oractor acquaintances that take
(38:20):
breaks and they're like you can,you can take a break.
I don't know if it works.
That's a good question.
I don't know if it works thesame on the backside as a person
on the crew.
That's actually a good question.
For me it's like I can stop andI can take a break and I might
lose my agent in the process.
But the skill of acting isthere and I know I've gotten an
(38:40):
agent before I know how to getone again.
I don't know if that would bethe same for you.
Speaker 2 (38:47):
No, that fear is still the same, that you will
become irrelevant becausesomeone will replace you, which
the fear is legitimate, becauseif you don't continuously show
yourself on set, they're likewhere did so?
And so go, I don't know, butI've got someone else to replace
them, so that's there.
It's just once again findingthat balance.
(39:08):
And then people know whenyou're just, you know completely
just tired and need a break,and I would say take.
I've seen people take a monthor two off, but after that they
will replace you, because itnever stops.
The show must go on.
Speaker 1 (39:29):
Of course, and yeah, and the show will go on.
Yeah, I am curious about kindof a completely different topic,
but still about you.
What was the time that you justreally failed or just messed up
Cause I'm sure that that hashappened and how did you recover
(39:49):
from that?
What did you do to overcomethat?
Speaker 2 (39:52):
Right, so early on in my career I think it was like
my first or second job.
I remember this vividly and Istill shake my head like, oh,
that was so dumb.
They put me out on my own andit was early in the morning.
We were at a house somewhere inAlpharetta and it was for a big
company and I was nervous, youknow, I hadn't had all this
(40:16):
experience.
So whenever you go into a newjob, you're always kind of like
trepidatious, like oh, okay, howdo I do this?
How are this?
You're in your head a lot.
So I get there and I it's likesix o'clock in the morning and I
knock on the homeowner's doorand she answers in like an eye
count.
I'm like, hey, we're supposedto be filming at your house.
And then trucks are pulling uplike right now, like right now,
(40:37):
and she's like, oh, okay, that'sfine, but you can't come into
my house.
I'm like, well, well, we'resupposed to be shooting in your
house, filming in your house, sowe need to talk about that and
she would not let us in.
And I told the, told theproduction manager, who's like
kind of, she is higher than me,she was higher than me in the
(41:00):
hierarchy of of it and she waslike what are you?
She didn't know me for anyoneand we're really good friends
now.
But she was like what are youtalking about?
She's like get out of my way.
And she walked into thiswoman's house and this woman's
like screaming, like what areyou doing in my house?
She's like we rented your housefor the day.
We are going to film here.
And I didn't, I didn't takecharge like she did, and I told
(41:22):
her no, you can't do this,because the homeowner told me
that and I had gotten badinformation we were allowed to
film in our house and we didfilm in our house, but it was so
embarrassing for me, you know,because communications had
gotten mixed up and then, likemy mentor he was, he's the one
that got me the job and he wason a different location at the
(41:44):
same job and he's like man,don't sweat that stuff.
He's like he's like, yeah, it'sa rookie mistake, but we're
doing what you thought at thetime was correct Like the
homeowner shows up in hernightgown just like, blurry eyed
, like what are you doing in myhouse?
Well, we just gave you a lot ofmoney to be here for the day.
You knew about it.
You know, I wasn't on the, Iwasn't on the tech scouter or
(42:05):
the previous scouts to to tellher, to to kind of meet her and
tell her what was going on.
So no one did because I wasthrown on this job Just like
well, all right, you go do youronset location manager.
And so that that's where Iscrewed up.
Speaker 1 (42:19):
I am curious about that.
Real quick, Ask a furtherquestion.
Well, I have two.
One, why was this lady at herhouse or not letting y'all in at
six AM?
And then the other question Ihave is I mean, people sign
contracts and then are paid whenyou, when you are using their
(42:39):
house, Like it's a pretty bigthing to be, like I mean I, it's
just so explained and usuallyin my well, I don't do locations
, but just what I've witnessedand seen, there's a contract,
it's explained, they're usuallycompensated very well.
So I'm very like, does thathappen?
Often where someone's like,actually no, you can't come into
(43:00):
my house, and it's like, well,we have a contract that says
otherwise.
And if they refuse, how doesthat work?
Did the cops get involved?
Speaker 2 (43:08):
or Well, they're breaking the contract and they
the production company could suethem.
At the time I did not have thecontract.
Like I said, I was on anotherjob and I got someone got sick,
so I got thrown into this thelast moment.
So she had already got home onher head, you already got paid.
She already had the check.
Usually I come with the checkon the morning of like if we
(43:30):
have a prep day, I'll give themthe check.
or if we, if we just have astraight up shoot day, I'm the
first person there with thecheck and I have the contract,
but that no one that thatincident has never occurred
again, because usually I'm I gofrom prep the pre-pro, just like
pre-production, all the waythrough to the, to the rap and
(43:52):
so, I'm in communications withthe homeowner and everyone else
like, hey, this is what you're,because a lot of times they
don't read the contract.
Speaker 1 (44:00):
They hear the money.
Speaker 2 (44:02):
Yeah yeah exactly, and a lot of people just don't
like legalese.
I get it, you know.
But if they say, hey, you can'tdo this, I'm like, well,
according to the contract we can, and they don't like that, I
don't try.
I'm like I try to make it alittle bit more soft, like, well
, you know, we had conversationsthat this is what we were gonna
do, and I'd hate to go back toproduction and say that we're
(44:24):
not gonna do this, so let's tryto work something out right and
usually there they get it prettyquickly.
I didn't have the contract in, Ididn't have money, she had
already gotten paid, and so shewas just Sending like mixed
messages to everyone and shefinally calmed down like, oh
yeah, that's right, I did havebooks.
You know this production herethis day, like I was telling, I
(44:47):
was telling the productionmanager she had to set up her
production office outside in thecold, and she was looking at me
like I was the craziest personon earth.
Speaker 1 (44:54):
She was like I think not, sir.
That's funny.
So this is not thisprofessional all but I always
think about, because I justthink about different jobs and
people and I promise I willcircle this back.
But I think about nursesdealing with the general
population and what you know I.
I know how I handle myself,like how I Keep myself clean,
(45:16):
how I come into a hospital, evenan emergency.
There's just a level.
But I like me trying to besomewhat respectful, kind,
whatever.
I know everybody does notapproach life that way.
And To circle it back tolocations I'm sure people Get
excited about they're gonna gettheir house use.
(45:37):
They're also gonna get somenice money for having their
house use, but you're alsodealing with general population
in their home.
So I imagine that there'sdifferent stories of that and
working with people like that Isthat the craziest one?
You would say.
Speaker 2 (45:56):
No, I've got a crazier one, and it was.
It's somewhat of a mistake onmy part too.
This was further on in mycareer.
We were doing this commercialfor a shoe company and a famous
hip-hop artist, and so wegenerally we discussed with the
art department or the productiondesigner what's gonna happen
that day and we get the okay.
(46:18):
We're like, okay, you want todo this.
So it was in this.
It's like 12 million dollarmansion in Buckhead and they had
a motorbike on a spinningPedestal in the middle of this
mahogany three-story library andyou could go on to the railing,
the walkway of the Stories ofthe library and look down, and
we had cameras pointing down andcameras pointing at the floor
(46:41):
level at the motorcycle and thethe artist the hip-hop artist
was the talent was supposed topretend to start the motorcycle
and when it came down to it,they had Boxed me out.
His people had boxed me outfrom going into the library
because they were gonna start itand I told them they couldn't
Because there would berepercussions if you do.
(47:02):
And then they did start it inthis really nice library with
really old books and then theydumped a 50 gallon Barrel of
glitter from the second story onto, and this is these are
mahogany for wooden floors, withcracks on them right Like right
wooden floors.
So the glitter got you know.
(47:24):
Oh, my god, yeah and I waspretty Upset about that, that
they wouldn't let me in anduntil afterwards and the
homeowner was upset, my boss wasupset, everyone was very upset.
But you know, I kind ofexplained the situation like
they wouldn't let me in.
That that never happens anymore.
I'm just like now I'm going in.
This is my location right.
Speaker 1 (47:44):
I don't care how famous you are, you know, yeah.
Yeah, I imagine dealing withvery talented people, not to,
hmm, not necessarily verytalented, but very famous.
You know, I don't know whoyou're talking about.
You don't have to reveal, butsometimes very famous people are
not the most, always the mosttalented.
But I don't meant that can comewith that and I'm gonna do
(48:04):
whatever the hell I want becauseI'm such and such.
Speaker 2 (48:06):
You know, yeah well, the way that we deal with that
is okay.
You can do whatever as long aswe get okay from the homeowner.
And if the homeowner schoolwith it Wildest dreams, whatever
I want to do.
And if not, let's come to somekind of agreement you know,
Everyone hates the in the in thefilm world, behind the camera.
(48:29):
Everyone hates let's fix it inpost, which means a lot of work,
yeah, so, and we rarely saythat.
Let's say, but they're like,okay, how can we remedy this?
Because we still want you toget your beautiful dreams out.
We're not trying to block youfrom Getting that shot right,
but how can we, you know, judgeit where you don't start a
(48:54):
motorcycle in this mansion andyou don't put glitter everywhere
, like how can we come to anagreement and that's, and we
will have a conversation about aquick conversation and if it's
a must-do, well then you know,well, we'll cross that bridge
when we do cross it.
I think it's it's a mistakewhen they try to lie to you or
(49:14):
Deceive you.
When it comes me, when it comesto what they're going to do,
and they always get caught, it'slike you see the, see what
happens, and it's like, well,this is gonna cost production a
lot of money in the end, a lotof money that's not really
budgeted.
Yeah think about that.
I hate to pull that.
Well, it's gonna cost moremoney card, but we've had to do
(49:35):
that on some occasions wherepeople just wanted to do not
discuss it with us first.
Speaker 1 (49:41):
Yeah, I also think I've thought.
But just be respectful, I'vebeen humbled a lot and I've
worked in the camera and I, youknow I have my dreams of success
that I want as an actor.
But I hope, no matter whatopportunities, dreams whatever
come my way, that I will stay Ahumble and respectful to
(50:03):
everybody that I'm working with.
Speaker 2 (50:05):
Yeah, playing the devil's advocate on that one.
You know, when I'm sure you'vereached a certain level of
Celebrity being an actress oractor where kind of forget, you
know About other people'semotions, feeling their desire
for whatever is happening in theproduction, and and I get it
(50:26):
because you have so much stuffthrown at you as an, as a, as
talent, that you just it's notthat you forget, but you just
you're not thinking about it.
And that's another thingeveryone in the film world is in
their own head because theyhave their Own responsibilities.
So when someone does something,I Try not that's another thing
where I've made mistakes, I trynot to internalize it and go.
(50:48):
You did this on purpose.
Yeah, you drew into this tohurt.
You know it's like.
No, you were in your own head,you weren't thinking you made a
mistake and let's just remedy it.
You know, because once again.
We're here to do a job and tomake this production occur.
Speaker 1 (51:07):
Yeah, I think it's on in that vein.
I agree, because Talent, a lotof times once you reach a
certain level of success, youhave so many people around you
to just Take care of all yourlike little needs.
Like you want a cup of coffee?
Here's, let me go get you a cupof coffee you want.
You know just just littlethings, and so I Under.
(51:31):
I don't understand on a personallevel, but I could see how that
would just start changingthings where you're just not
thinking necessarily as muchabout things outside that.
Also, like you said, you knowone of the One of the moments
first moments I was kind of likehumbled as an actor and like oh
, it's not all about me, was Iam?
You realize I'm hired to do ajob.
(51:52):
Like production didn't hire meto stroke my ego, they hired me
to come in and be an actor, youknow.
So when I get cast it's like beprepared, show up and do your
job.
They're not like you know, thisisn't your 15 minutes of Fame,
having your Hollywood moment.
Like we have a job thateverybody's got, a job we're
(52:13):
trying to do.
So come and do your job too,and I think that's real about me
.
Speaker 2 (52:20):
But people make you feel your.
You know your assistance orwhoever's helping you on set.
They make you feel it, and theyshould, because you're an
integral part of it, One of themost important parts of it.
Speaker 1 (52:35):
And it's hard because you're like that balance of
like the emotions in trying tookay, let's not mess with them,
let's, you know, let's keep itas simple as possible, as low
stress as possible, so they canprep for their scene or whatever
.
So it's really hard, thatbalance.
But I mean it is as soon as youstep on set, what do we could
call actors talent, like italready gives us like this air,
(52:56):
oh, talents here, and it's likebut you're talented at your job,
you know.
You know I just I think it'sfunny, I think about all that
stuff, but I you know myexperience and said it's like do
you want anything to drink?
Can I get you anything?
This is where you're going to be.
You know we'll come and get you.
We'll have like makeup,whatever it is, and it's like so
, from the moment I step on set,check in, I'm being taken care
(53:17):
of, I'm being showed where to go, which is how it has to be.
Understandably, I get why it'sthat way, but it's easy to let
it go to your head and I am infor a fortunate that I have had
my ego checked and I try to keepit like hey, you're, you were
hired to do a job, so like showup and do your job.
Speaker 2 (53:40):
I met many actors in my life and you know you get all
walks of life.
Speaker 1 (53:45):
But there are some that just don't.
Speaker 2 (53:48):
Ego is and they have, they're full of it.
And then there are some thatare just amazing.
You know some of the some ofthe famous people that I've met
on set that are like big time,you know big time.
Or some of those down down toearth chill people that I've
ever met because they work ontheir ego and they work because
(54:09):
they realize, just like what youjust said, like, okay, it is a
job at the end of the day, yes,I'm super famous, yes, I'm super
wealthy, but at the end of theday, I'm here to be professional
and to do this.
You know what I love, what I'vebeen doing?
All my life I've been honingthis, this skill, and the ones
(54:29):
that check in with themselvesreally are very, very cool to
work with.
Speaker 1 (54:35):
That's awesome.
Yeah, and I obviously I am anactor, I love actors, I don't
have any qualms with actors, Ijust think it's.
It's an interesting dynamic,the actor crew dynamic on set.
I've always found it veryfascinating Kind of rounding,
just rounding everything out.
I know I've held you a littlebit longer than an hour, but oh,
you're fine.
Speaker 2 (54:55):
I enjoy this process.
It's really nice.
Speaker 1 (54:57):
Okay, great, do you have.
I know you talked about it alittle bit, but if anybody wants
to do locations whetherscouting manager, not locations
just getting to do any type ofcrew work getting behind the
camera what advice would youhave for people that are trying
to get into that?
Speaker 2 (55:14):
Right, I get pulled aside a lot by PAs or you know,
like, hey, can I talk to youabout locations?
I'm like, yeah, sure, let's.
You know, let's grab some lunchtogether and chat.
It's generally PAs who aretrying to move up, which I have
no problem with.
But when I kind of explain thewhole process, very realistic
(55:36):
and not sugar coated, I'm likethat's a lot of hard work.
It's not kind of yourperception of what I do, cause
if you look at me on set, a lotof times I'm just standing
around and they don't see meworking hard.
Now some people have seen me,you know, get screamed at or you
know, get threatened or workcrazy hard and they get it.
(56:01):
But these people are generallynewer, so they haven't seen.
And a lot of my work ispre-production and scouting and
everyone wants to, like I said,everyone wants to scout because
it's it's really cool and thenit is a lot of work.
It's a lot of stress, a lot ofdriving, a lot of traffic, but
it's very rewarding.
But then I tell them, with theoutfit that I run with, you have
(56:24):
to be both a scout and amanager.
Now, that's now.
That's different.
Probably in the future You'rejust a scout and that's what you
do, but with us it's allinclusive package and so and it
makes you, you know, morevaluable as a, as a manager and
a scout and you get more time,you know.
(56:44):
But I would say, and and one ofyour other interviews I forgot
his name, but he said the samething at the end of the day,
it's a business and I completely, 100%, have to remind everyone
that cause, generally whenpeople are trying to get into
locations, they're kind oftrying to round out their resume
(57:05):
, cause they want to be adirector and with locations you
do a lot of preparations that adirector would, and so they're
trying to hit every departmentso that they can become a better
director or a first assistantdirector or a producer.
Everyone has read or heard ofthese famous directors,
producers that did a stint inlocations, and I get that.
(57:27):
That's cool.
But at the end of the day andthe producers get it it is a
business.
You can be creative, you can bebeautiful, you can do all of
that, but you have to keep itwithin the realm of.
It's not all art.
A lot of it is money and it'smoney driven.
(57:48):
And I hate to say that becauseI don't and I and I preface this
to the kids that come up to me,the people that come up to me
I'm like man follow your dreams,live your dreams.
It's not all about life, is notall about money, but this
business, at the end of the day,it is so wrap that into your
dream.
Speaker 1 (58:08):
Right.
Speaker 2 (58:08):
Don't let it control your dream of whatever you're
trying to do, but just realizeit's a large aspect.
And when you tell someone yourdream of whatever you're trying
to create, figure that into theequation and it's very
eye-opening.
A lot of people are like, ohwell, and it's like it's
sobering, because it kind ofputs some kind of constraints on
(58:31):
a lot of people.
I'm like, no, don't do that,just budget it.
Budget for your dream.
You know, Well, if you want tomake something magical and crazy
, go for it.
That's why we're in thisindustry.
Yeah, that's what we got intothis industry, but also gauge
that and make.
Speaker 1 (58:50):
I think too, like with what you said if you have
something big and magical andthat you want to create, you
might not be making that in ayear.
It might take a little bit.
Sometimes dreams take a longertime and for us to get to it
takes some.
Trying to think of the name ofthe movie.
Oh, a movie just came outrecently called Bottoms and it
(59:15):
was hilarious.
I loved it and I started lookinginto it and I do not remember
the director or the lead, butbasically they had a short
called Shiva Baby that ended upgetting turned into a feature.
Because I was like thisdirector just had like a movie
in theaters.
Bottoms was in theaters and Iwas like she doesn't have a huge
(59:36):
like list, like her credentialsare, but she had made a short
that did really well and won aat a film festival or something
and then got turned into afeature.
But the feature took, like Ithink she because I was then I'm
doing like the Instagram deepdive, you know but it took her
like seven, seven years to makethis feature same title, shiva
Baby.
And then the girl who starredin that feature also starred in
(59:58):
her new movie, bottoms.
But it was just it was.
You can have these huge, crazydreams, but that's just.
Sometimes they take time.
Yes, anyway, but I do like whatyou said about that, because it
is a business.
Speaker 2 (01:00:12):
Absolutely.
And I would say don't give upon your dreams, have patience
and, basically, don't let thiscold world of money and
bickering destroy your dreams.
Continue to follow them, butacknowledge the obstacles that
(01:00:33):
are presented to you and makepreparations to knock those
obstacles out so that you canfulfill your dreams.
Speaker 1 (01:00:42):
Sure, jay, do you have anything else you want to
say in closing?
Speaker 2 (01:00:46):
No, that's pretty much it.
It's been a great experiencechatting with you.
Speaker 1 (01:00:51):
The same you are.
I am so excited that Johnconnected us.
You're very insightful.
I feel like you've given greatlife advice honestly, not just
anything film advice.
I love your demeanor.
You have a very calm demeanor,so I really enjoyed getting to
talk to you.
Taster, yeah, I love everybodyso much for listening.
(01:01:12):
If you enjoyed this episode, ifyou'll just rate, review the
podcast, follow the Instagram.
It helps me do what I'm doingand I look forward to who I talk
to next.
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