{"id":25741,"date":"2017-11-07T13:32:11","date_gmt":"2017-11-07T21:32:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/locationmanagers.org\/?p=25741"},"modified":"2018-09-26T16:01:55","modified_gmt":"2018-09-26T23:01:55","slug":"out-of-this-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/locationmanagers.org\/es\/out-of-this-world\/","title":{"rendered":"Out of This World: Emma Pill, LMGI"},"content":{"rendered":"

Renaissance Location Professional Emma Pill<\/span><\/h1>\n

By Nancy Mills<\/strong> | Fall 2017<\/em><\/p>\n

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Emma Pill. Photo by Rankin \u00a9 2005 Eon Productions<\/p><\/div>\n

When Emma Pill was offered the job as supervising location manager on Blade Runner 2049, her first thought was not \u201cBlade Runner is a classic film. How can I possibly live up to its memory?\u201d That was her second thought. Her first was much more practical: \u201cHow are we going to find post-apocalyptic, future 2049 locations?\u201d<\/h3>\n

Pill may not be the most practical person.\u00a0\u201cMy family and my fianc\u00e9 joke that I can\u2019t cross the road on my own,\u201d she says.\u00a0\u201cThey think I\u2019m disorganized in my normal life.\u201d But when it comes to working on a film, a hidden superpower exerts itself.<\/p>\n

Now celebrating her 20th year as a British location manager, Pill\u00a0has an impressive list of credits:\u00a0Spectre,<\/em>\u00a0Cinderella, Thor: The\u00a0Dark World, Dark Shadows, John Carter, Captain America: The First Avenger, Inception, Alice in Wonde<\/em>rland, The Wolfman, Mamma Mia!, Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day, Stardust, The Bourne Ultimatum <\/em>and Munich<\/em>.\u00a0And that\u2019s just since 2005.<\/p>\n

Blade Runner 2049<\/em> almost slipped through her fingers.\u00a0\u201cAt the end of 2015, (director) Denis Villeneuve, (cinematographer) Roger Deakins, (producer) Bill Carraro and I actually looked at London locations,\u201d Pill says.\u00a0\u201cThey\u2019d thought of doing locations in the U.K. and studio work in Budapest, but it became apparent that was not a sensible way of doing things.\u00a0When the whole production moved to Budapest (at the suggestion of the film\u2019s executive producer Ridley Scott, who directed Blade Runner<\/em>), I didn\u2019t think I\u2019d get to go.\u201d<\/p>\n

2049<\/em>\u2019s production designer Dennis Gassner made sure she did.\u00a0\u201cEmma and I had been working together for a while,\u201d he says about their collaboration on Spectre<\/em>, the 24th James Bond film.\u00a0\u201cI put her on Blade Runner 2049<\/em>. Emma is smart, funny and tenacious, and she has great taste. She gets it.\u00a0She is the job personified.\u00a0She has a great instinct and has a history of what seems to work. She\u2019s always searching. It\u2019s about knowing the game.\u00a0If you don\u2019t know the game, you can\u2019t play it.\u00a0She can play.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Pill found one of 2049\u2019s most striking locations in an old tin factory. Shown is the basement.
Photo by Emma Pill\/LMGI<\/p><\/div>\n

Gassner is impressed with Pill\u2019s political savvy.\u00a0\u201cThat\u2019s an important part of how you conduct yourself within a highly creative environment,\u201d he says.\u00a0\u201cEmma has a great sense of how to do that.\u00a0She works well within the company structure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pill went to Budapest with Gassner in January 2016 for what she thought was an eight-month posting.\u00a0She wound up staying for 11 months.\u00a0In addition to supervising the location work at the two Hungarian studios\u2014Origo Studios and Korda Studios\u2014where much of the film was shot, she also supervised work in Iceland, Spain, Nevada and Mexico City. In all, she was responsible for nine main unit locations and five aerial unit locations.<\/p>\n

One of her first tasks was not to be overwhelmed by the original Blade Runner<\/em>.\u00a0\u201cI\u2019d seen it years and years ago,\u201d she says.\u00a0\u201cAs soon as I got the call, I watched it again.\u00a0That\u2019s when I realized it is so iconic. How am I going to match this?\u201d Soon, though, she recognized her job didn\u2019t involve matching but finding something new.\u00a0\u201cSeeing the film did help,\u201d she says.\u00a0\u201cYou\u2019ve got to have it in the back of your mind.\u00a0But you have to look at it with fresh eyes. You can\u2019t try to replicate.\u00a0 You need to go in with an open mind and try to find the best available architecture.\u00a0My brief was not related to the original.\u00a0I needed to go into concrete, straight lines and Brutalist style. Grimy locations, lots of grimy locations. That was hard because there\u2019s not a tremendous amount of it in Budapest. Budapest architecture could double very easily for Paris.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pill likes to consider options outside the box. \u201cAs location manager, you can put up ideas that are slightly off-brief if you think they\u2019re interesting,\u201d she says.\u00a0\u201cSometimes you get knocked down and sometimes they think your idea is amazing. Denis is a very energetic and communicative director. If he doesn\u2019t like something, he\u2019ll say so, and that\u2019s great.\u00a0At least you know what he thinks. I\u2019d rather have a \u2018NO\u2019 then \u2018EH!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

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MTV building. Photo by Emma Pill\/LMGI<\/p><\/div>\n

Once Pill got settled in Budapest, she started her usual routine\u2014spending her weekends exploring the city.\u00a0\u201cTo learn about a place and get my bearings, I always walk,\u201d she says.\u00a0\u201cMy team would hate me on Monday morning. I\u2019d come into the office with pictures and say, \u2018I want to know what\u2019s in that building.\u2019 That\u2019s the problem with location managers. We\u2019re nosy! I found one of our key locations by just walking down the street.\u00a0I thought, \u2018That building looks really interesting.\u00a0We need to get in there.\u2019 It was a school that had extraordinary architecture.\u00a0We used it as an apartment block for one of the characters, but we had to shoot during the students\u2019 summer holiday.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gassner doesn\u2019t consider nosiness a problem.\u00a0\u201cI told Emma, \u2018Just look at the city.\u00a0Describe to me what looks interesting.\u00a0I\u2019ll do the same when I\u2019m driving around.\u2019\u00a0There\u2019s a pattern language that starts to develop.\u00a0The first Blade Runner<\/em> has its signature, and we have to have our own signature.\u00a0They\u2019re going to be contiguous, but there\u2019s a freshness to it. Location managing is an art.\u00a0Like any of the departments, it\u2019s very particular.\u00a0You have to love it, and Emma loves it.\u00a0She\u2019s an unsung hero.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ultimately, much of Blade Runner 2049<\/em> was filmed on stages because, Pill says, \u201cRoger wanted to control the light.\u201d But there were also plenty of locations to find. \u201cHungary is a fantastic region with amazing post-war industrial architecture that\u2019s just standing there,\u201d she says.\u00a0\u201cIt\u2019s a location manager\u2019s dream.\u00a0We don\u2019t have that in the U.K. As soon as a building is abandoned, developers take it over.\u00a0There are quite a lot of abandoned buildings on the outskirts of Budapest. I felt like an urban explorer, going into them.\u00a0They\u2019re not necessarily safe.\u00a0If I found something visual, I\u2019d look at safety issues\u2014have air-quality tests, asbestos checks, possibly put up special netting to make sure nothing was falling off buildings.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Harrison Ford and Ryan Gosling. Photo courtesy of Alcon Entertainment and Warner Bros.<\/p><\/div>\n

Her hardest location to find?\u00a0\u201cA street in a winter environment,\u201d she says.\u00a0\u201cIt had to fit into a futuristic world, not be typical Budapest architecture.\u00a0We managed to find a couple possibilities. One of them is in the film\u2019s trailer, where Ryan Gosling is walking down the street and it\u2019s very snowy. It was a full night shoot in a residential area of Budapest.\u00a0The locals were very accommodating.\u201d To get the job done, Pill worked closely with her Hungarian location team.\u00a0\u201cI relied on them more than if I were working in my own country,\u201d she says.\u00a0\u201cMy Hungarian is not good.\u00a0It\u2019s one of the hardest languages to learn, but I had a great team who spoke fluent English.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Photo courtesy of Alcon Entertainment and Warner Bros.<\/p><\/div>\n

Working in Hungary proved smoother than Pill expected.\u00a0\u201cYou have to adapt to styles, local techniques and local companies,\u201d she says. \u201cMy team was good at their jobs. What they didn\u2019t need is my telling them, \u2018You need to do it this way.\u2019\u00a0If something wasn\u2019t working, I\u2019d eventually use my experience and say, \u2018How about if we do it like this?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Through her team, Pill found one of 2049<\/em>\u2019s most striking locations in an old tin factory. \u201cI do a lot of research, trawling the internet, looking at architectural websites,\u201d she says.\u00a0\u201cI also went through my location team\u2019s libraries to see if there was anything interesting and to get ideas. That\u2019s where I first saw this wonderful space. One of the guys had an old photo of it.\u00a0He didn\u2019t know where he got it.\u00a0He just knew it was in this massive, abandoned, fenced-off building.\u201d One morning, Pill and one of her assistants set out to find it. \u201cWe spent a few hours searching,\u201d she remembers. \u201cWe had to go up abandoned staircases, and cross holey floors, which is not a good way to scout.\u00a0Finally, we found the space in a basement.\u00a0It was all concrete, and it was covered with 2-3 inches of water. It had fantastic concrete pyramids coming down\u00a0from the ceiling, and high ground-level windows. It was a weird space, but Denis and Roger fell in love with it.\u00a0Then we had to make it work, which was challenging, making it safe and secure. During filming, I remember standing on set and thinking, \u2018This is very beautiful. No one is going to think it\u2019s an actual location.\u2019 You have to have the tenacity to get what you want.\u00a0It\u2019s wonderful when you present a location and see the creative types get really excited about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to her hands-on work in Hungary, Pill says, \u201cPart of my role was to find a lot of the visual effects locations in other countries.\u00a0Viewers won\u2019t notice, but visual effects needed aerial plates (footage from helicopters used as background for visual effects shots). Denis wanted a cloudy desert, which is the hardest kind of desert to find.\u00a0Deserts with no vegetation usually means there is hardly any rain, which means there are hardly any clouds.\u00a0He also wanted a desert in winter that would fit our production schedule.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had a brain wave.\u00a0 I\u2019d been to Iceland before, so I went to Denis and asked if it had to be a golden sand desert.\u00a0He said, \u2018What are you thinking?\u2019 I showed him the deserts in Iceland, and we went for the black volcanic look.\u00a0I spent five days in Iceland, two of which in a helicopter scouting the entire country. We ended up shooting the aerial plates there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pill also worked closely with Los Angeles LM Robin Citrin, LMGI.\u00a0\u201cRobin looked after an aerial shoot for me at the Valley of Fire outside Las Vegas,\u201d she says.\u00a0\u201cWe also needed a shot of the Vegas skyline, some shots in Lincolnshire and in the southern part of Spain, plus the favellas of Mexico City.\u00a0With these faraway locations, I researched them and production sent small teams of people, but I didn\u2019t get to go.\u201d<\/p>\n

If possible, Pill, 46, would like to visit every location, no matter how obscure or difficult.\u00a0That\u2019s one reason she loves her job so much.\u00a0\u201cI fell into location work,\u201d she says. \u201cMy background is art and photography.\u00a0I went to Salisbury College of Art. Photography is my passion.\u00a0After college, I decided to travel, which is my other passion.\u00a0I was gone 1\u00bd years.\u201d While she was away, Pill failed to settle on a career.\u00a0\u201cI wasn\u2019t grown-up enough to think about what I wanted to do,\u201d she says.\u00a0\u201cI was 24. I thought maybe I could work in the film industry, but it was all so unknown. I moved to London and rented a flat. I knew photography and travel would be in my world.<\/p>\n

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Pill found this school location while walking down the street. Photo courtesy of Alcon Entertainment and Warner Bros.<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cSome contemporaries of mine from college were working on a film in the New Forest, and they said, \u2018Why don\u2019t you apply to be a runner?\u2019 My photography course had done a bit of film and TV at the end, and I knew I was interested in the moving image.\u00a0I also knew I was never going to be a camerawoman or technical person. I became a runner on The Woodlanders<\/em> (1997, based on the Thomas Hardy novel).\u00a0It was out in the woods. I\u2019m not an office person.\u00a0I grew up on a farm in Oxfordshire.\u00a0Outdoors is my natural habitat. I don\u2019t mind standing, although not for 12 hours in the rain. I started out helping out in the production department. Then I did a couple other jobs as a runner (True Blue, Fever Pitch<\/em>).\u00a0After that, someone offered me an assistant role (A Merry War<\/em>) in locations.\u00a0I accepted, not knowing what a location manager was, and it morphed into a path that was just perfect.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the two decades since then, Pill has built a strong career, making her one of the top LMs in the U.K.\u00a0Over the years, she has worked with such directors as Kenneth Branagh, Tim Burton, Marc Forster, Paul Greengrass, Phyllida Lloyd, Chris Nolan and Steven Spielberg. Right now, she is working on Disney\u2019s Christopher Robin<\/em> for Forster, due out in 2018.\u00a0\u201cIt might be a smaller cast and crew, but you still have the same amount of work,\u201d she says, comparing it to Blade Runner 2049<\/em>.\u00a0\u201cI have a pretty challenging schedule. There are a hell of a lot of locations.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt really depends how you set up the team on the schedule. Sometimes we have three to five locations where we\u2019re prepping, shooting and striking at the same time.\u00a0I have 13 or 14 on the Christopher Robin<\/em> team.\u00a0You have to be a bit more creative on your deals and budgets. We don\u2019t have a Bond budget, but we have a similar number of people on the team.\u00a0I have amazing producers who listen when I say, \u2018This is why I need X, Y and Z.\u2019\u00a0If I had two locations and 20 people, something would be wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n

Looking back on how her career progressed from hanging out in the woods to basically closing the Thames River for a spectacular action sequence in Spectre<\/em>, she says, \u201cYou start by doing small films.\u00a0You work with key producers and production designers.\u00a0When they get bigger films, they request you.\u00a0You end up going with the flow.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me, everything changed in 2005.\u00a0Munich<\/em> was my first launch into big-boy films.\u00a0The film shot in two countries.\u00a0I did Malta with location manager Mark Somner, and was there for about six months.\u00a0We doubled Malta for seven other countries, including Israel, Spain and Italy.\u00a0The good thing in Malta is that English is their second language, so I was able to bring a few of my team from the U.K.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Left to right: Gosling and Ford with director Denis Villeneuve. Photo courtesy of Alcon Entertainment and Warner Bros.<\/p><\/div>\n

LMGI\u2019s Ali James, who was Pill\u2019s assistant for eight years and served as ALM on Munich,<\/em> has some colorful memories of that Spielberg film.\u00a0To illustrate her boss\u2019s determination to get the job done, James describes an incident that occurred during their time on the island. \u201cWe found a location we wanted,\u201d she says.\u00a0\u201cThe owner then turned around and doubled or tripled the price. There was another building exactly the same type and size, so Emma said to the Maltese LM, \u2018Let\u2019s get that one.\u2019\u00a0Over the course of the next six hours, she managed to organize all six owners.\u00a0We tracked them down and had them sign a bit of paper. Then Emma told the first guy, \u2018Get stuffed\u2019 in the nicest possible way. You have to have a certain amount of stubbornness and yet be charming.\u201d<\/p>\n

Both women found Munich <\/em>to be \u201ca very difficult movie,\u201d
\nJames admits.\u00a0\u201cWe were quite a lot less experienced. The two of us learned an awful lot.\u201d Adds Pill, \u201cThat was baptism by fire for me.\u201d Their interactions with Spielberg were minimal.\u00a0\u201cThe people around him were very pleasant,\u201d James says, \u201cbut we didn\u2019t hop in a car with him and drive around looking at locations.\u00a0Some directors are low key and some arrive with bodyguards.\u201d The experience undoubtedly cemented a friendship between the women. \u201cAli probably knows me better than anyone else,\u201d Pill says.<\/p>\n

James started as Pill\u2019s assistant in 2004 on Goal! The Dream Begins.<\/em>\u00a0\u201cWe worked solidly together until 2011 (through Dark Shadows<\/em>) and then got back together on Spectre<\/em>,\u201d James says. \u201cThen I got sent off to Mexico City (to handle the Day of the Dead sequences among others, and Emma headed up the London locations.\u201d The two, who are both 5 feet 3 inches tall, joke about being mistaken for each other. \u201cPeople get us muddled up,\u201d James says. \u201cThey\u2019ll call her Ali and me Emma.\u00a0We\u2019ve given up correcting people. We support each other a lot. She\u2019s fully into what she does, and she\u2019s rarely out of work.\u201d<\/p>\n

James mentions Pill\u2019s willingness to help those just starting out.\u00a0\u201cEmma has been a great mentor to loads of people,\u201d she says.\u00a0\u201cThere\u2019s no official training for location work. She certainly paved the way for me and other girls coming up. Women are very outnumbered on a film set, so we redress that balance a little bit. Emma has done everything from opening Tower Bridge for Thunderbirds<\/em> to being the first female location manager to work in Morocco\u2014for both The Bourne Ultimatum<\/em> and Inception<\/em>.\u00a0\u201cThere is not much she has not attempted on film over her career.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe leaves no stone unturned.\u00a0She is a very good scout and researcher.\u00a0She\u2019s good logistically at running films. In the U.K., we do everything on a film set from start to finish\u2014from finding locations to figuring out where the toilets go. Emma has always been popular with designers and directors. She\u2019s tenacious and a good listener and good at adapting.\u00a0She tries to make it fun.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not everything Pill has to do is fun. Handling legal contracts is not high on her fun list, but she truly loves her work. \u201cI can travel,\u201d she says.\u00a0\u201cI can use my camera, and I have some influence in the creative process. That\u2019s the best part of the job. I have a logistics streak in me,\u00a0and I love the challenge of finding locations and then bringing all the elements together.\u00a0It\u2019s thrilling standing there on the night, watching it happen.<\/p>\n

\u201cBond was a pretty extraordinary experience.\u00a0I got to do scouting all around Europe.\u201d Most thrilling was watching the climactic Thames River scene in Spectre,<\/em> which took her and her team hundreds of hours to pull off. Pill recounts putting it all together.\u00a0\u201cThe river sequence ran for 1\u00bd miles, from Vauxhall Bridge to Hungerford Bridge, taking in Lambeth and Westminster bridges. It all had to be lit as the sequence was shot at night \u2026 Westminster Bridge being the very heart of London. We lit each bridge arch from a rigging boat (17 arches in total), through the nights for three weeks in advance as we had to close the Thames to river traffic. We lit from 10 rooftops. We positioned five lighting cranes along the river, and even had two 150-foot lighting cranes floating on river barges. We had 32 lighting generators that moved into position on a Friday night, and moved back out on a Sunday night.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe shot the sequence over eight weekends, which included closing Westminster Bridge.\u00a0We had a hero helicopter and a camera ship that flew down the Thames up to Westminster Bridge at 150 feet above the water, following a speedboat with the actors onboard. Westminster Bridge and Lambeth Bridge were closed to the public at various times. Due to helicopter noise, we had to finish the flying element by midnight each time, and continue with non-noisy stuff up to dawn every morning.\u00a0I had a 24-hour location team in London to manage all these elements, with a team on the night of 13 locations, 50 location PAs and 150 location security. We sent out approximately 11,000 resident and business letters over the eight-week period, letting people know of our activities, as we were in such a high-profile location.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Spectre.<\/i> \u00a9 2015 Danjaq, LLC, Metro Goldwyn Mayer Studios Inc. and Columbia Pictures
Industries, Inc. All rights reserved.<\/p><\/div>\n

Callum McDougall, executive producer on Spectre,<\/em> brought Pill to the film as supervising location manager. He had tried to work with her for years, but, he says, \u201cUnfortunately until now, she was not available. She was an integral part of the planning of this huge film.\u00a0She became one of our very key figures during pre-production and shooting. I really like and admire\u00a0Emma\u2019s continual enthusiasm and drive. She can be like a dog with a bone.\u00a0She won\u2019t give up and will keep pushing with ideas and options until we have what the director and designer are looking to find. She adores what she does, which is very evident as soon as you meet her, and she inspires those that work for and around her. She does extensive research\u00a0and doesn\u2019t leave a page unturned. At the same time, she is fun. The experience of working with her is always enjoyable. She is a real team player.\u201d<\/p>\n

McDougall made sure Pill was acknowledged in Spectre<\/em>\u2019s main credits. \u201cIt was a first for me,\u201d he says. \u201cBut that just goes to prove what an integral part she played on the film. As we know, it\u2019s never one person, but she was the HOD of the locations, and that\u2019s where traditionally, we put HODs on a Bond film. Yes, we had production managers and location managers in all the various countries, but Emma was supervising and coordinating.\u00a0It\u2019s very unusual for us to have one location manager who supervises all the film\u2019s global locations, and that\u2019s where the recognition came from. It was at the request of the director as well. Emma found all of the locations on the film, along with Dennis, with the exception of Mexico City. That was due to timings when Mexico became the country choice. That\u2019s also why her title is supervising location manager.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pinpointing what sets Pill apart from other location managers, McDougall says, \u201cThere is a confidence, and the ability to immediately identify what the director and designer are looking to find for the visual journey of the film. Emma just comes up with some really good options, alternatives and backups (if required)\u2014and is very focused on the goal everyone is looking to achieve. She has a passion for the film\u00a0and also loves all the logistics as well\u2014and my God, did she have logistics to deal with for the shoot on the Thames. It was mammoth, and she relished it all! She has an amazing eye for detail. She makes good creative choices.\u00a0She is extremely hard working and efficient and excellent at budgeting and cost control. Without doubt, she would be top of my list\u00a0of location managers for any film. Her r\u00e9sum\u00e9 speaks for itself, showing much repeat business from producers and production companies.\u201d<\/p>\n

McDougall notes that Pill worked closely with director Sam Mendes, designer Gassner, producers Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli and himself for more than 18 months. \u201cAfter the initial meetings, Emma set up office at Pinewood Studios (our U.K. base) and did extensive research on locations, along with our location manager, Ali James,\u00a0and it wasn\u2019t until we had a shorter list of options did she head out on the road with our associate producer, Gregg Wilson, and Gassner. Dennis and Emma both had a clear understanding of what Sam was looking for and also both came up with inspiring choices, which then lead onto further design decisions for both exterior locations and studio interiors alike. Once they had done an initial scout to the locations,\u00a0they would prepare boards for Sam and the producers, and then we would do a director\u2019s first scout.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs always when you are prepping a film, ideas come and go, and Emma would have many meetings with Sam during development and pre-production. There was an unprecedented car chase through the streets of Rome (a first) and around all the Vatican buildings (which were\u00a0all done for real, no CG). The big ticket was the chase down the Thames with a\u00a0helicopter crashing on Westminster Bridge. On so many of the locations on this film, we were not just dealing with the multiple countries\u00a0(U.K., Italy, Austria, Morocco, Mexico) but some of the most iconic buildings and areas within those cities. It was a huge ask.\u00a0It was similar in Mexico City with our\u00a0helicopter sequence in the most famous square in Mexico City\u2014Z\u00f3calo.\u201d<\/p>\n

McDougall mentions an unusual challenge. \u201cThe winter locations in Austria were tricky, as we had to see them with snow,\u201d he says. \u201cWe really had to scout and choose them nine months prior to the shoot\u2014before the snow melted so we could see visually what it would look like. Also, since they were ski resorts, we had to get an early reservation before all the rooms were taken for their normal ski business. We had two large film units shooting there at the same time. The snow, which had arrived early the previous year in abundance, was late arriving. On one location by the lake where Bond finds Mr. White, it only snowed two days prior to shoot. We shot for a couple of days, and then all <\/em>the snow melted and it was lush and green again two days after we left in January! We were making snow at one of the other locations for a chase sequence. Locals were saying, \u2018Never been like this before!\u2019 It only happens when a film crew turns up\u2014the world over.\u00a0Of course, we had looked at data for the last 10 years, which was encouraging, but the world\u2019s weather as we know is ever-changing these days. But all the locations that Emma found in Austria worked perfectly in the end.\u201d<\/p>\n

What\u2019s on Pill\u2019s wish list? \u201cWhen you work out of the U.K., you don\u2019t get to come stateside but you do a lot of Europe-side,\u201d she says. \u201cI\u2019ve done a whole raft of stuff\u2014period, fantasy, futuristic, modern day.\u00a0I\u2019d like to shoot on a Caribbean beach and work in Africa.\u00a0If they ask me, I\u2019d love to do the next Bond film.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Emma\u2019s Blade Runner 2049 Team:<\/b>\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

Senior Location Manager:<\/i><\/b> Andr\u00e1s Rudolf\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Location Manager:<\/i><\/b> Zsolt Molnar<\/strong><\/p>\n

Junior Location Manager: <\/i><\/b>Csaba Sepsi\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Assistant Location Managers:\u00a0<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

Istvan P\u00e1pp, B\u00e1lint Forg\u00e1cs, Mihaly Magenheim, Balint Regius<\/strong><\/p>\n

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It\u2019s a Tough Job, but Someone Has to Do It \u2026 Emma\u2019s Greatest Hits<\/b><\/h3>\n

Thor: The Dark World<\/i><\/strong> (supervising location manager) \u201cScouting in Norway,\u00a0traveling by\u00a0helicopter down\u00a0UNESCO-protected\u00a0Geirangerfjord on a crystal-clear day and blue sky, I got the most incredible scouting photos.\u00a0I remember putting a camera\u00a0crane on the roof of St. Paul\u2019s Cathedral, which was quite eventful, and equally at the top of St Mary Axe (the Gherkin), there is a window-cleaning bucket that comes out of the\u00a0building on the 38th floor. I managed to get out in it, to get images of London for a camera position.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dark Shadows<\/i><\/strong> (supervising location manager) \u201cWe had to find a daunting building, and we finally chose a large house in Beckenham, which was the wrong side of London to the studio and a real pain to travel to. But it was a good visual location. Ali really didn\u2019t want me to offer it up as an option as it was painful to manage, but I knew it was what Tim Burton would like, and indeed he chose it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Inception<\/i><\/strong> <\/i>(location manager: Morocco) \u201cThere is a riot scene in a dream at the beginning of the film. We shot this in the Medina in Tangier with 300 rioting extras and car explosions in the heart of a food market. We had more than 1,000 stall owners to deal with. The actual scene was very short for the effort that was\u00a0put into setting it up but worth it. It was my second film in Tangier, and it was lovely meeting up with the same people two years on after Bourne.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mamma Mia!<\/i><\/strong>\u00a0(supervising location manager) \u201cHow can you not be happy being on a Greek island? The chapel was the most incredible location. We actually built a set chapel over the existing tiny chapel as it needed to appear bigger for the interior scene that was shot on stage. Prep took place for one month in advance, and the only way was to walk the kit up the steps.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Bourne Ultimatum<\/i><\/strong>\u00a0(supervising location manager: Morocco) \u201cI remember the rooftop chase. Also, fitting a large feature film crew into the Old Medina town had its challenges with narrow passageways. We had to be very creative with utilizing every little space to put our kit. I am under the impression I was the first female location manager to film in Morocco, and I was made to feel very welcome. It\u2019s a great country. I have been back three times now and have had the opportunity to scout most of the major cities, deserts and mountains, which we also did on Spectre.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When Emma Pill was offered the job as supervising location manager on Blade Runner 2049, her first thought was not \u201cBlade Runner is a classic film. How can I possibly live up to its memory?\u201d<\/p>","protected":false},"author":63,"featured_media":25810,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_themeisle_gutenberg_block_has_review":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-25741","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-featured"},"yoast_head":"\nOut of This World: Emma Pill, LMGI - Location Managers Guild International<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/locationmanagers.org\/es\/out-of-this-world\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"es_ES\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Out of This World: Emma Pill, LMGI - Location Managers Guild International\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"When Emma Pill was offered the job as supervising location manager on Blade Runner 2049, her first thought was not \u201cBlade Runner is a classic film. 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