Hillman is a member of Studio Transportation Drivers Teamsters Local 399. Though he won't say how much he makes, he notes that union scale for feature film location managers is about $2,111 per week.
His assistants--he usually works with two--are also, in effect, freelancers, but he tries to work with the same people if schedules permit.
Supporting a movie on the street costs $18,000-$22,000 a day, including location fees, support staff, portable toilets and phone lines, he says. That amount goes up if filming takes place at night or in expensive neighborhoods.
Things can also be complicated by the delicate matter of negotiating with homeowners, who typically charge $500 to $5,000 a day to use their homes for filming.
Ironically, he says, some of the strongest resistance to filming comes in the kinds of affluent neighborhoods favored by entertainment industry insiders.
Sometimes the demands are outrageous, he says.
During one shoot, one of his crews was forced to wear surgical booties and charged $15,000 to film inside a Holmby Hills mansion.
When a scene required rearranging the furniture, only movers with white cotton gloves were allowed to handle household objects.
Another time, an executive for a company that issues insurance for movies tried to stop crews from filming a movie of the week in his neighborhood, trying to enlist government officials to shut down the production. That effort failed and filming went ahead.
"This guy put up the biggest resistance," Hillman said. "Yet everything he had came from this business and what we try to do every day."
Still, he has empathy for residents displaced by filming. "I bring the circus to town," Hillman said of the 18-20 production vehicles and 100 crew members that can descend on a quiet neighborhood like a conquering army.
Among the most memorable and challenging experiences was his work on "Magnolia," director Paul Thomas Anderson's 1999 film set and filmed in the San Fernando Valley.
"He knew what he wanted and he knew what his shots were," Hillman said of the 43 locations he helped scout for "Magnolia." Most were shot here in the Valley.
Before getting into the movie business, Hillman spent 15 years playing in rock 'n' roll bands along the East Coast. After several moves, he wound up in Chicago, where he sold real estate before his sister-in-law told him about location scouting.
Moving Closer to the Action
He started out with a $50-a-day job as a production assistant for the 1990 film "Music Box," starring Jessica Lange. "I got introduced to the whole magic of the business, creating fantasy amid reality," Hillman said.
Two years later, he worked his way up to location manager but realized producers called him only if they couldn't get the veteran scouts already working in the Chicago area.
To achieve success, he had to move where the action was--Los Angeles. Now, it's a full-time job, even when he's taking time off.
"We'll be on a vacation and my wife will say, 'You're scouting again, aren't you?' Hillman laughs. "She finds it enormously entertaining that I get excited about a large parking lot."
