A Set decorator works closely with a location manager, especially if a TV show or film is location heavy. What that means is that there are more shooting days on location then built sets on a soundstage. When I tech scout a location the location manager, producers, production designer and director have usually seen the location and have the details of how the scene will play out. My interaction with the location manager is that of: seeing when we can get in to prep the location, how are we getting the dressing in, can I make holes in the walls for art, and what is the time we have to wrap the set.
Most of these questions are asked by my leadman, Patrik Alven, he’s coordinating the trucks and the manpower to get this all done. I, with all certainly, would never want to be a location manager. It’s a hard gig. You have to not only smooze the people at the location, sometimes asking people in their own homes to basically move out for 3 days, you also have to deal with almost every department head to coordinate how you will shoot this location, where are the trucks going? Where is the cable running? Where is crafty setting up? The Actor trailers, dealing with L&D after shooting…. It’s so much, plus making sure the entire crew knows where they are going and what time they can get in and out of the location. And the dreaded hours...you gotta get up EARLY! But the payoff is the contribution of giving the project the value of the location to tell the story. Think of a film like Roman Holiday without all the sites of Rome! Or as I’ll talk to location manger Caleb Duffy, the cities being characters like in Traffic or Ocean’s 11.
In this episode I talk with Location Manager Caleb Duffy. I have been working with Caleb Duffy for the past 3 years on the show #VEEP and #TheGoodPlace, He’s a super chill guy that no matter how rearranged the schedule gets and flying minute by minute he always keeps his cool. And believe me on #VEEP things changed every thirty seconds sometimes. I know how hard he worked on #VEEP to get the locations every episode… some episodes as many as 20 or more. In preparing for this interview I looked him up on IMDB, which I don’t think I had before, and I had no idea the resume this guys has, and actually how many people we know in common. Caleb started in the early 2000’s and as assistant location manager on projects like #ErinBrokovish, #Traffic, #Oceans11, #Terminator3, And location manager on #SupermanReturns, #IntotheWild, #TheArtist, #BehindtheCandelabra, #Thor, and #WineCountry. He’s location managed TV shows including #Greek, #TrueDetective, #TheGoodPlace and #VEEP.