Film location scouts shoot for a look of authenticity
Somewhere in that twilight between real and reel worlds, a customer sits back under a yellow bib as daylight spills across the worn floor of Harry's, an urban American barbershop. Nearby, tumbleweeds congregate between ragged fences that all but holler "Welcome to Wyoming!" And a few steps farther along, the garish wallcovering and wooden seats of a shady theater line up in a startling display of visual rhythm and saturated color.
These three photographs are among 59 in a free exhibition opening Saturday at the Pacific Design Center in West Hollywood. They look like they've come from all over. But each image was seen and snapped through the lens of an entertainment industry location scout working in "the zone," an invisible but economically significant circle that radiates roughly 30 miles out from the corner of La Cienega and Beverly boulevards.
Beyond that radius, entertainment industry labor contracts typically call for greater per diem compensation or overnight lodging. Logically enough, producers of films, television shows and commercials have long favored the zone, whether the script calls for a California suburb, a European side street or a Chinese temple.
In recent years, however, an increasing number of productions have started migrating to Canada and other far-flung locations, drawn by the temptation of nonunion labor and other economies, not to mention fresh scenery. And so, to remind producers of the wide world within the zone -- and to draw back the veil on the singular nature of their work -- a group of scouts, also known as location managers, has pulled together this first-of-its-kind display, titled "In the Zone."
On closer inspection of its images, you find that Harry's Barber Shop, shot by Pamella D'Pella, is in Crenshaw. Those ragged fences, shot by Richard Klotz, are in a corner of Canyon Country known as Spookyville. The seats and wallpaper, shot by Frank Yoshikane, are in the Pasadena Civic Center.
They are a breed apart, these scouts. First they are called upon to find locations that roughly match the imagination of a producer, director or production designer. After days or weeks or months of searching, the scouts bring back folders full of photo prints arranged in taped-together panoramas, some of which will become "hero" locations: sites that actually get filmed. Then, in most cases, comes the less intriguing part of the job: These same operatives typically pull permits, make deals with property owners and neighbors, hire security and remain on the set to smooth civilian relations when production armies arrive and take over.
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