Listed below are the election statements from 2018 nominees. Please review these statements before voting. If you would like to learn more about our election process feel free to call us at 310-967-2007 or email elections@locationmanagers.org
2018 LMGI Board Member Nominees
NOMINEE: JJ LEVINE
This is a super exciting time for the Guild! As many of you know, I’ve been on the Board for quite a while, and we’ve seen a lot of changes in that time. We’ve gone International, our membership is growing, we’ve launched the Awards and the Compass – and there’s loads more of exciting developments and projects on the line to come. Our leadership has changed a lot in the past few years, and I think one of the most important things I bring to Guild leadership is my awareness of what we’ve done to date – our “Institutional Memory”.
As we’ve expanded, we’ve been re-organizing our approach and I’m feeling a new and increased enthusiasm for the LMGI we are, and LMGI we are on the road to becoming. I’m dedicated to helping Location Managers in the U.S. become members of the TV Academy and to bringing more local, regional, international and online events to our members – and as always, pushing our marketing and public relations agenda forward with the public and the press.
With your support, I look forward to serving another term with the LMGI Board!
JJ Levine
NOMINEE: JOHN RAKICH
I am John Rakich and I am a Location Manager based in Toronto, Ontario Canada. I’ve been working in feature films and television for over 19 years and I would like to submit my name to the LMGI membership for consideration as a new board member in the upcoming elections.
I have been a member of the LMGI since 2015, I have been a panelist on the LMGI’s 2016 Comic Con Location Scout Panel and have since then been a member of the Comic Con Committee, attended the last few LMGI Awards Shows, been a frequent contributor to Compass and have been doing my best to introduce the LMGI to the Locations community here in Ontario and have been successful in getting more people and organizations to apply for membership.
I am as well a long-time member of the Directors Guild of Canada (who represents Locations in Canada), and the current Locations Caucus Representative for the Ontario District Council and happy to attend the first joint partnership DGC/LMGI event in Canada in February, which set the first step in having more joint events to come.
In the time that I’ve been in the LMGI I have been so lucky in getting to meet more members in person, I have been humbled in the amazing understanding that I’m part of something larger that brings us together.
The LMGI has brought our profession into the light and provides a forum of communication and appreciation of our art. I believe location management is an art or a combination of arts. The ability to communicate on multiple levels is a skill not all possess. That skill along with truly being a filmmaker is what our profession is all about.
I am very proud of the of the credibility and respect that LMGI, has brought to a profession that we all love, and I see the opportunity of joining the LMGI board as a way to contribute to our growing community, and continue the great work that is being done by our organization to raise the profile of locations professionals worldwide.
Thank you for your consideration.
John Rakich
NOMINEE: LES FINCHER
Dear LMGI Community,
As a Co-Founder of the New York based, Association of Location Scouts
and Managers, ALSAM, and an IBT Local 817 member, I have been an active
participant in the organizational history of location scouting for three decades.
This Association was the forerunner to much of the structure we enjoy today.
My Trail Blazer film was presented at the “The 5th Annual LMGI Awards”.
LMGI – ALSAM FILM
View Here
LMGI – TRAILBLAZER AWARD View Here
I formally present myself for consideration as a Member of the Board of LMGI.
The LMGI needs to expand its membership in order to reach its full potential so it can help you reach YOURS. The large group of recently unionized New York Scouts are prime candidates for membership. I will encourage these scouts to experience the professionalism, vision, and craft LMGI embodies. I will work to share the LMGI mission to elevate the category and focus on pertinent topics such as safety.
As a LMGI Board Member I will promote LMGI awareness to local Film Commissions, Producers, and Unions. I offer my research skills, professional website and reputation to the cause.
It is an honor to be considered for the LMGI Board. I look forward to working collectively to showcase national and international LMGI members and projects.
Sincerely,
Les Fincher
NOMINEE: LORI BALTON
Winner of the 2017 LMGI Trailblazer Award for being the first location professional accepted
into the Academy, I recently took a hiatus from the Board to “let others have a chance to step
up.” Seeing that there was no great influx of people willing to roll up their sleeves, I’m running
for the Board with the intent of finding ways to move our guild into the future once my generation of location pros retire. We have built a worthy institution that has endless possibilities and I hope we can find ways to convey that to the next generation.
A founder of the LMGI, critical to its inception, I served as President of the Guild for five of its formative years. I have almost 30 years of solid location work behind me, as illustrated by my resume (imdb.me/loribalton). Co-editor of the LMGI Compass Magazine, and contributor to the success of all five LMGI Awards, I would like to reclaim a seat on the Board of Directors
to help ensure the continued success of the Location Managers Guild International.
Lori balton
NOMINEE: MATT PALMER
I am honoured to have served on the Board for the last two years and having the opportunity to work with a tremendous group of people. The LMGI membership is extremely fortunate to have a group of location professionals who are dedicated to seeing that the organization is successful, and that the LMGI is guided by solid founding principles and a long term vision. In my two years on the Board I have attended almost all the Board meeting and always look to where I can add my views or ideas. I have also spent the last two years working on the Regional/International committee working towards building membership. I worked to bring a number of organizations and Canadian location professionals into the fold of the LMGI as members. In addition, I helped to spearhead and organize the very first “Location Sustainability Day” in Vancouver in February 2018. The day was hugely successful with over 120 people in attendance, including Board members Eric Klosterman and Mike Fantasia, and LM’s from Montreal, Toronto, and Winnipeg. The event was the first to be co-hosted by the LMGI and the Directors Guild of Canada(DGC) BC District Council.
If re-elected I plan to continue the work I have been doing – working to increase LMGI membership in Canada, working with the Regional/International Committee on more initiatives and events, and working towards events with the LMGI and the DGC in Toronto and a second “Location Sustainability Day” in Vancouver in 2019.
Thank you for the support of all the members and I look forward to being able to continue my role on the Board.
Matt Palmer
NOMINEE: PHILL KANE
Dearest Members,
Over the past 2 years it has been my honor to be a part of the LMGI Board and to be able to see, first-hand the effort the board puts forth to move forward the cause of bringing attention to what Location Professionals bring to the table. And though 2 years may seem like a long time, I feel that I am only just beginning to hit my stride in reference to what I can bring to the table as an in the trenches Location Manager. It is my belief that without Location Professionals running point, the film industry as a whole would come to a dead stop and I would be again honored to receive your vote, so I can continue the work that I feel I have only just begun
Phill Kane
NOMINEE: RYAN SCHAETZLE
I have been working in Film and Television for just over 22 years. I grew up in the metro Atlanta area and became interested in the industry in my high school video production class.
After graduating from the University of Georgia in 1994 I moved to Los Angeles and worked for just under 2 years as an Office and Set PA.
I later moved to Wilmington, NC in 1996 where I began working in Locations. Starting as a Loc PA, I spent several years learning the job from the ground up on Features, TV, and Commercials. I eventually moved up to manage commercials and my first real gig as a manager for TV or Film was on, “Dawson’s Creek” Season 4.
I worked in Wilmington until things dried up in 2004. Moving back home to Atlanta was a stroke of luck in timing. I had no idea the tax incentives would create such a market and I’ve been fortunate to stay extremely busy here for the last several years managing mostly features and episodic. I also truly enjoy the chance to just scout (on things I won’t end up managing). I find that it resets my focus on the more intuitive and creative parts of the job and helps me recharge interest for the next long managing run.
I am 46 years old, married and live in Marietta, which is a small town a few miles outside of Atlanta.
Manager:
The Blindside
Dawson’s Creek
What To Expect When You’re Expecting
Black Panther (additional photography)
Halt and Catch Fire
Assistant:
I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997)
Muppets From Space
Summer Catch
28 Days
Scout:
Spiderman: Homecoming
Passengers
Logan
American Made
Full IMDB credits here:
Thanks!
Ryan Schaetzle