Location Manager

When mobster Mickey Cohen ruled Los Angeles in the late 1940s, his favorite hangout was the legendary Slapsy Maxie's nightclub on Wilshire Boulevard. It's long gone now of course, so to re-create it for the new film "Gangster Squad" the filmmakers had to be creative. Production designer Maher Ahmad found the right spot for Slapsy Maxie's almost by accident, while driving around with the film's first location manager. They had been looking for a vintage house in a suburban neighborhood when they passed an Art Deco-inspired block of empty businesses in Bellflower.

The people behind "Argo" hope to pick up some more hardware for their trophy cases at Sunday's Academy Awards, but in the meantime they've added another accolade to their accomplishments list. On Friday, Los Angeles City Councilman Tom LaBonge presented the film with the second annual Made in Hollywood award, which recognizes films that are shot primarily in Los Angeles. “'Argo' is a great film that was shot in a great location: the city of Los Angeles,” LaBonge said while presenting the honor to Warner Bros.

Location managers for HBO's drama "Luck," the Ben Affleck spy movie "Argo" and "Hitchcock" won top honors at the 18th annual California On Location Awards Sunday night. Chris Baugh, location manager for "Argo," won the award for location professional of the year in the feature film category. The movie, about an unlikely plot hatched by CIA agent Tony Mendez to rescue American embassy workers during the Iranian hostage crisis in 1979 by passing them off as members of a Canadian film crew, was filmed mainly in Los Angeles.

Charles Bukowski, the hard-living poet, novelist and short-story writer who probed the cultural and social underbelly of Los Angeles, is getting the James Franco treatment. The prolific actor-director-writer-producer has started production on a movie titled "Bukowski," an adaptation of the boozy poet's semi-autobiographical novel "Ham on Rye," which is set in Depression-era L.A. The project is one of several low-budget movies contributing to a modest upswing in local feature film activity this year.

Charles Bukowski, the hard-living poet, novelist and short-story writer who probed the cultural and social underbelly of Los Angeles, is getting the James Franco treatment. The prolific actor-director-writer-producer has started production on a movie titled "Bukowski," an adaptation of the boozy poet's semi-autobiographical novel "Ham on Rye," which is set in Depression-era L.A. The project is one of several low-budget movies contributing to a modest upswing in local feature film activity this year.

ABC's Emmy-winning hit series “Modern Family” is a point of pride in Los Angeles, where it stands among the growing crop of comedies filming locally in a region buffeted by production flight. Local drama production has fallen off dramatically due to the proliferation of film incentives offered outside of California. Notably, the other big winner from Sunday night's 64th Primetime Emmy Awards, the Showtime series “Homeland,” is actually produced in North Carolina. But production in Los Angeles of television comedies has been on the rise, climbing nearly 30% to 718 production days January through June compared with the same period a year ago, according to FilmL.A.

RICHMOND, Va. - Below the spaghetti-works of Interstate 95, beside a canal where excursion boats are the only watercraft, I try to imagine a group of African American workers on the day after Union soldiers brought freedom to Richmond. They were repairing a bridge in the newly surrendered capital of the Confederacy when a tall, gangly man in a stovepipe hat approached from the James River. A few Marines surrounded him, but there was no fanfare. President Abraham Lincoln had just arrived by rowboat to see the city that had been his nemesis for four long years of the Civil War. Pandemonium erupted.

SURFACES and facades are important in "Big Love," HBO's tale of a polygamous family tucked into a pristine Salt Lake City suburb. So settling on a location to represent the surreally perfect manicured neighborhood in which the action takes place was a particularly sensitive task. "It was something of a major discussion between us and HBO between the pilot and the first episode," says co-creator Mark V. Olsen. "I thought it was too Southern California stucco. HBO thought it was too upscale.

If more local scenes seem to be showing up on television and movie screens lately, it's not an optical illusion. The San Fernando Valley's share of on-location filming has increased about 5% over the last five years, to about one-fifth of the work being done in the Los Angeles area today.

I know I'm not as "important" as Sean Penn but if it wasn't for me, Joseph Hanania wouldn't have had such a "sweet deal" ("Hey, Sean, Did You Enjoy Being Roomies or Was It All Just an Act?," April 14). The name is Fega, not Sega. And about that sweet deal, let me say a few things to dispel other apartment-dwellers or homeowners from thinking you can get paid exorbitant fees for allowing a film crew in your dwelling. As the location manager on the film "I Am Sam," it was my responsibility to find an apartment building that would satisfy our director's artistic vision, allow our director of photography to shoot it in a way that highlighted its unique qualities, and to assist our production designer in complementing his overall look of the film.

One of the newest hot spots for filming in the San Fernando Valley is a 71-acre former retirement community featuring lodge-style residences and medical buildings, surrounded by oaks, redwoods and pines, on the edge of the Angeles National Forest - owned and operated by the Union Rescue Mission. On a chilly Tuesday morning, operations manager Scott Johnson was barreling a red golf cart through the sprawling hillside facility, known as Hope Gardens Family Center, his two-way radio crackling.

When mobster Mickey Cohen ruled Los Angeles in the late 1940s, his favorite hangout was the legendary Slapsy Maxie's nightclub on Wilshire Boulevard. It's long gone now of course, so to re-create it for the new film "Gangster Squad" the filmmakers had to be creative. Production designer Maher Ahmad found the right spot for Slapsy Maxie's almost by accident, while driving around with the film's first location manager. They had been looking for a vintage house in a suburban neighborhood when they passed an Art Deco-inspired block of empty businesses in Bellflower.

RICHMOND, Va. - Below the spaghetti-works of Interstate 95, beside a canal where excursion boats are the only watercraft, I try to imagine a group of African American workers on the day after Union soldiers brought freedom to Richmond. They were repairing a bridge in the newly surrendered capital of the Confederacy when a tall, gangly man in a stovepipe hat approached from the James River. A few Marines surrounded him, but there was no fanfare. President Abraham Lincoln had just arrived by rowboat to see the city that had been his nemesis for four long years of the Civil War. Pandemonium erupted.

Location managers for HBO's drama "Luck," the Ben Affleck spy movie "Argo" and "Hitchcock" won top honors at the 18th annual California On Location Awards Sunday night. Chris Baugh, location manager for "Argo," won the award for location professional of the year in the feature film category. The movie, about an unlikely plot hatched by CIA agent Tony Mendez to rescue American embassy workers during the Iranian hostage crisis in 1979 by passing them off as members of a Canadian film crew, was filmed mainly in Los Angeles.

ABC's Emmy-winning hit series “Modern Family” is a point of pride in Los Angeles, where it stands among the growing crop of comedies filming locally in a region buffeted by production flight. Local drama production has fallen off dramatically due to the proliferation of film incentives offered outside of California. Notably, the other big winner from Sunday night's 64th Primetime Emmy Awards, the Showtime series “Homeland,” is actually produced in North Carolina. But production in Los Angeles of television comedies has been on the rise, climbing nearly 30% to 718 production days January through June compared with the same period a year ago, according to FilmL.A.

Hollywood's location managers have ratified a new three-year contract. Members of Teamsters Local 399 approved a new contract negotiated last week  with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers covering 600 location managers who work in the Los Angeles area. Modeled on similar contracts negotiated by studio drivers, camera operators, grips and other technical crews and crafts workers, the new deal provides a 2% annual wage increase, an increase in car allowances and additional funding for the union's healthcare plan.

About 150 crew members, supported by three motor homes, a giant crane and 10 semi-trucks, huddled under downtown's 6th Street Bridge to film a "winter scene" on the Los Angeles River. Tampering with the river, which is regulated by the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers, was off-limits. So producers of the "Batman" sequel "The Dark Knight Rises" built a platform over the riverbed designed with a special surface to make it look like ice. The sequence for the movie -- which is scheduled for release in theaters in July -- was part of a nighttime shoot that lighted up the industrial area, complete with fake snow, fireballs and plenty of billowing smoke.

John Armstrong Location manager Current job: CBS' FBI thriller, "Numb3rs" Job description: "We have two teams. My team does the odd episodes and my associate's team does the even episodes. On each team we have one location manager, one assistant location manager and a utility player who goes back and forth. "The location manager has two functions -- to scout for locations and to manage the locations once they are found.

Hollywood's location managers have staked out a new three-year contract. Teamsters Local 399 on Thursday reached a tentative agreement for about 600 location managers in the Los Angeles area   with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, said a person close to the negotiations who was not authorized to speak publicly about the matter. Patterned after similar contracts negotiated by studio drivers, camera operators, grips and other technical crews and crafts workers, the new deal provides a 2% annual wage increase and additional funding for the union's health plan.

About 150 crew members, supported by three motor homes, a giant crane and 10 semi-trucks, huddled under downtown's 6th Street Bridge to film a "winter scene" on the Los Angeles River. Tampering with the river, which is regulated by the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers, was off-limits. So producers of the "Batman" sequel "The Dark Knight Rises" built a platform over the riverbed designed with a special surface to make it look like ice. The sequence for the movie -- which is scheduled for release in theaters in July -- was part of a nighttime shoot that lighted up the industrial area, complete with fake snow, fireballs and plenty of billowing smoke.