The Secret Life of Walter Mitty and Game of Thrones earned distinction as Outstanding Location Feature Film and Outstanding Location Television Program, respectively, at the first annual Location Managers Guild of America (LGMA) Awards held last night at the WGA Theater in Beverly Hills.
Additionally, Game of Thrones earned Robert Boake the LGMA Award for Outstanding Achievement by a Location Professional-TV Programs. His theatrical feature counterpart for Outstanding Achievement by a Location Professional was Ilt Jones for Iron Man 3.
David Dourneng and Charlie Love won Outstanding Achievement by a Location Professional-Commercials based on their work for Nike.
And the Outstanding Film Commission honor was bestowed upon the Albuquerque Film Commission for its work on the TV series Breaking Bad and the feature film Lone Survivor.
Safety First
Billy Crystal presented the Humanitarian Award to two-time Oscar-winning (Bound For Glory, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?) cinematographer Haskell Wexler. Crystal recalled directing the HBO film 61* (about Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle’s chase of Babe Ruth’ single-season homerun record), which was shot by Wexler. Beyond Wexler’s work as an artist, Crystal said that “Wexler the man” implored him to make sure that the production of 61* was “really safe,” without any crazy long hours.
This concern about safety was a focus of the Wexler-directed documentary Who Needs Sleep? which showed the tragic consequences of sleep-deprived crew members. In accepting the Location Managers Guild’s Humanitarian Award, Wexler called for “more human conditions in the way we work” throughout the entertainment industry. Concerns for crew safety should be paramount he said, asking, “Are our priorities human or to feed the bottom line?”
Later during the awards ceremony, presenter Harry Bring, producer of the TV series Criminal Minds, said that he recently met Wexler for the first time during the International Cinematographers Guild’s candlelit walk and memorial earlier this month for 27-year-old Sarah Jones, the assistant camerawoman who was tragically killed on Feb. 20 when a freight train crashed into a production team and its equipment while shooting footage for the film Midnight Rider while on location in Savannah, Georgia.
Bring shared that he first hired Jones as an intern and that her death has had a profound impact and will prove to be a lasting influence on the industry, leading to safety being the priority it needs to be.
Eva Monley Award
The Humanitarian Award was one of four honorary awards presented at the Location Managers Guild Awards ceremony. Director Alexander Payne (Sideways, About Schmidt, The Descendants, Nebraska) was named the first recipient of the Eva Monley Award, named after the location manager on such motion pictures as Lawrence of Arabia, The African Queen, Exodus, The Man Who Would Be King, Empire of the Sun and Out of Africa. The Eva Monley Award recognizes a person who has demonstrated “above and beyond” support of the work of location professionals.
Though Payne wasn’t at the awards proceedings, a video of his acceptance remarks was shown to the audience. Payne said that he regards location manager John Latenser V “as a key creative member of my team.” Payne noted that editing and location scouting are his two favorite undertakings as a director, adding that when he, the production designer and location manager are in the car scouting locations, he feels happy because that’s a juncture when the trio are shaping the perfect conception of a film. Payne said that he feels location is as “germane to a film as the story itself.” He regards “a sense of place” as vital to storytelling.
The Lifetime Achievement Award was presented to commercial location scout/manager Scott Dewees who has some 700-plus spots to his credit. And Sheri Davis, director of the Inland Empire (Calif.) Film Commission, received the Trailblazer Award.
