Register

    Location manager John Panzarella named recipient of LMGI Life Achievement Award

    By SHOOTUpdated:No Comments868 Views
    John Panzarella
    HOLLYWOOD, Calif. --

    Location manager John Panzarella (Midnight Run, LA Confidential, The Italian Job, Vice) will receive this year’s Lifetime Achievement Award from the Location Managers Guild International (LMGI) at the 9th Annual LMGI Awards. The LMGI Awards ceremony is returning live to the Los Angeles Center Studios on Saturday, August 27, 2022. 
     
    LMGI president and awards committee chair John Rakich noted, “The LMGI is honored to recognize John Panzarella, who has made indelible contributions to the craft of location management. With a career that spanned over 35 years of cinema classics and the great fortune to work with some amazing directors, producers and legendary production designers, it’s highly likely he has location managed more feature film days in Los Angeles than any other location manager. He is most deserving to be honored with this year’s LMGI Lifetime Achievement Award.”
     
    Known for his creative vision, Panzarella has turned the Los Angeles locale into a stand-in for many foreign locations. While working on Vice starring Christian Bale as former Vice President Dick Cheney, the location manager’s team managed to find seven countries and six states spanning six decades in and around L.A.  Vice was Panzarella’s final project before retiring. 

    Among his more than 50 movies, Panzarella’s many credits include Lethal Weapon, Grand Canyon, Disclosure, The Parent Trap, Nurse Betty, Bandits, Elizabethtown, World Trade Center, Charlie Wilson’s War, Larry Crowne, Aloha, Hail, Caesar!, Jason Bourne and Rules Don't Apply.  

    He has worked on numerous films for directors Cameron Crowe, Larry Kasdan, Blake Edwards, Barry Levinson, Curtis Hanson, Mike Nichols, Nancy Meyers, Warren Beatty and the Coen Brothers, among many others. His closest ties have been with the talented production designers Jeanine Oppewall and Clay Griffith, and the location manager has worked with Academy Award® winners Bill Creber, Ted Haworth, Dean Tavoularis and Patrice Vermette.
     
    The LMGI Awards honor the creative visual contributions by location professionals in film, television and commercials from around the globe. Outstanding service by film commissions is also recognized for their support “above and beyond” during the production process. 

    Tags:John PanzarellaJohn RakichLMGI AwardsLocations Managers Guild International



    Ex-OpenAI engineer who raised legal concerns about the technology he helped build has died

    Saturday, December 21, 2024
    Suchir Balaji poses for a photo in Hawaii in 2018. Balaji was a former OpenAI engineer and whistleblower who died in November 2024. (Balaji Ramamurthy via AP)

    Suchir Balaji, a former OpenAI engineer and whistleblower who helped train the artificial intelligence systems behind ChatGPT and later said he believed those practices violated copyright law, has died, according to his parents and San Francisco officials. He was 26.

    Balaji worked at OpenAI for nearly four years before quitting in August. He was well-regarded by colleagues at the San Francisco company, where a co-founder this week called him one of OpenAI's strongest contributors who was essential to developing some of its products.

    "We are devastated to learn of this incredibly sad news and our hearts go out to Suchir's loved ones during this difficult time," said a statement from OpenAI.

    Balaji was found dead in his San Francisco apartment on Nov. 26 in what police said "appeared to be a suicide. No evidence of foul play was found during the initial investigation." The city's chief medical examiner's office confirmed the manner of death to be suicide.

    His parents Poornima Ramarao and Balaji Ramamurthy said they are still seeking answers, describing their son as a "happy, smart and brave young man" who loved to hike and recently returned from a trip with friends.

    Balaji grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and first arrived at the fledgling AI research lab for a 2018 summer internship while studying computer science at the University of California, Berkeley. He returned a few years later to work at OpenAI, where one of his first projects, called WebGPT, helped pave the way for ChatGPT.

    "Suchir's contributions to this project were essential, and it wouldn't have succeeded without him," said OpenAI co-founder John Schulman in a social media post memorializing Balaji. Schulman, who recruited Balaji to his team, said what... Read More

    MySHOOT Profiles


    Add A Comment