The Location Manager

What is a location manager?

A location manager is someone that works closely with a production company or advertising agency, and sometimes the director of a film, in order to find a suitable location for a scene in a film or TV show. They will also be part of the decision making when it comes to seeing if the location is pracitcal, in a reasonable distance and effective. The location manager negotiates with the location owner, neighbours and residents, once they have found the suitable location. They would need to also make sure the location has sufficient permits in order to film there, prepare temporary facilites for the crew and production and also arrange parking for trucks and storage.

How to become a location manager?

Firstly, there are certain requirements you need in order to become a location manager. According to http://www.locationworks.com/howto/ they are:

• good knowledge of their own city or region
• a working knowledge of local governmental procedures
• a passable knowledge of architectural styles and periods
• an udnerstanding of the craft and requirements of each of the film unit departments.
• an understanding of Health and Safety regulations
• the ability to work long hours without complaint
• unlimited quantities of patience, tact and good humour

Alot of determination is required and a CV alone will not do. If someone is applying to become a location manager, they would need to send letters, e-mails along with CV's and would need to try and arrange a visit with their recipient.

Generating Ideas, Challenging, Broadening, Surrounding.

Try adapting one of the four strategies to help you be more productive.

Since the lecture, I have made an effort to generate my ideas better and to note down whenever an idea comes to my head. Whether I am on the way to the shop or sitting in the front room, I am now writing down, or at least making note of ideas that come into my head. For instance, just this morning, I thought of an idea for a scene which could happen in a cemetry, as I was walking past one. I wrote it on a text message in my phone, saved it to drafts and when I got back I jotted it down on my notepad. So far I have a few ideas for film scenes in various places.

At the moment I seem to be only thinking about horror films (I haven't a clue why, not even a big fan?!) but hopefully as I write more things down, more ideas and more variety of genre will come into my head. This way of capturing ideas will only help me in the future.

As well as this, I took notice of what Jools said in the lecture regarding the 'broadening' strategy and I have been using this since I have come back to Nottingham from the summer break. I have been watching TV programs that at home, I wouldn't have had an interest in watching. The main program I have been glued to is 'Flash Forward', a program on Channel 5.

My housemates have likened it so far to 'Lost' which I don't have an interest in watching whatsoever. However I thought i should watch it as I may have liked it, regardless of what my first thoughts were. After 10 minutes of the first episode, I was hooked and now look forward to every Monday night it is on. I like the way the program is mysterious and gets you hooked to find out what is the cause of such an event and has given me ideas on future work.

I will be looking to challenge myself and take an interest to my surroundings in the coming weeks, just to help me strengthen my ideas and to help me out on the Coursework.