{"id":26742,"date":"2018-05-15T14:03:01","date_gmt":"2018-05-15T21:03:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/locationmanagers.org\/?p=26742"},"modified":"2018-09-26T15:59:37","modified_gmt":"2018-09-26T22:59:37","slug":"a-wrinkle-in-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/locationmanagers.org\/es\/a-wrinkle-in-time\/","title":{"rendered":"A Wrinkle in Time | Alison Taylor, LMGI"},"content":{"rendered":"

Location pro Alison Taylor explores a brave new world<\/h2>\n

by Nancy Mills<\/b><\/p>\n

Movie photos\u00a0by Atsushi Nishijima. \u00a92017 Disney Enterprises, Inc. All Rights Reserved.<\/i><\/p>\n

What happens when one of the most beloved children\u2019s books, Madeleine L\u2019Engle\u2019s A Wrinkle in Time, crosses paths with California\u2019s new tax incentives? Then add another ingredient\u2014director Ava DuVernay, the first woman of color to direct a $100 million-plus budget film, who was determined to hire a highly diverse crew. It\u2019s a Hollywood tsunami. Life behind the camera may never be the same again.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a black female, I\u2019m very excited to be part of a team that\u2019s so multicultural and gender-inclusive,\u201d Wrinkle\u2019s supervising location manager Alison Taylor, LMGI says. \u201cI\u2019ve been doing this job for over 23 years, and to be on a set where there are a bunch of people of color and women was fantastic. It\u2019s pretty much been a white man\u2019s world that I\u2019ve operated in most of my career.\u201d<\/p>\n

Taylor won the California On Location Award\u2019s (COLA) \u201cLocation Manager of the Year \u2013 Studio Feature Film\u201d a few months ago for her work on A Wrinkle in Time. She credits DuVernay\u2019s determination for the big change. \u201cAva came in and said, \u2018This is going to be a very inclusive production,\u2019\u201d she says. \u201cThe crew of A Wrinkle in Time looked like Los Angeles. It was great to see women in all different departments, especially operating cameras.\u201d<\/p>\n

In this current #MeToo female empowerment moment, many key jobs on Wrinkle were held by women. Jennifer Lee wrote the screenplay. Naomi Shohan served as production designer. Catherine Hand produced.<\/p>\n

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Reese Witherspoon is Mrs. Whatsit and Storm Reid is Meg Murry.<\/p><\/div>\n

The movie itself is about teenager Meg Murry (Storm Reid), who discovers a time warp. She and her younger brother Charles Wallace (Deric McCabe) and their pal Calvin O\u2019Keefe (Levi Miller) embark on a search through time and space for her missing scientist father (Chris Pine). Three magical beings guide them: Mrs. Which (Oprah Winfrey), Mrs. Whatsit (Reese Witherspoon) and Mrs. Who (Mindy Kaling).<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I started with Ava, she wanted to make sure we had a diverse cast in front of the camera and a diverse crew behind the camera,\u201d executive producer Doug Merrifield says. \u201cKnowing that Ava rebooted the movie to be in contemporary urban Los Angeles, I needed somebody who was familiar with working there. Alison just ticked off all those boxes. She is very quick on her feet. She could always handle last-minute shooting changes. She\u2019s really good at rolling with the punches.\u201d<\/p>\n

Taylor, whose recent films include Straight Outta Compton<\/i> and The Purge: Election Year<\/i>, says, \u201cMy department has always had black folks, Latinos and women. White people are usually in the minority. I\u2019m usually the only department to have a team that looks like mine.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had a great experience (with diversity),\u201d Merrifield says. \u201cIf you\u2019re used to working with similar people, it forces you to get out of your comfort zone. For this movie, we used all ethnicities and genders. Having a crew that\u2019s more reflective of today\u2019s society just takes a few more phone calls to find qualified people out there. They\u2019re just waiting for the opportunity to get a step up and advance in their careers. It was really a positive experience and something I\u2019ll be carrying forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first day I walked into the production office, I sensed there was something different,\u201d Wrinkle<\/i> location scout Lori Balton, LMGI says. \u201cEventually, I realized that there were people of color and women everywhere. I hope that\u2019s a change that will continue. Typically, I\u2019m the only female in the scout van.\u201d<\/p>\n

A Wrinkle in Time<\/i> is the first big-budget film to take advantage of California\u2019s Film & Television Tax Credit Program, Executive Director of the California Film Commission Amy Lemisch says. \u201cOur previous iteration didn\u2019t allow budgets over $75 million, but our goal was to attract some of the biggest budget films back to California. We want them because they have such a big spending footprint. Since the program was revised, we\u2019ve had about eight of them. We\u2019ve definitely seen a turn for the better.\u201d Lemisch noted that the current tax incentives will expire in June 2020, but legislation is pending to renew them for another five years. \u201cThe other great thing about A Wrinkle in Time <\/i>(which received an $18.1 million tax credit) is that it filmed outside the (30-mile) zone, all the way up to Humboldt County. We don\u2019t often get a large movie to go that far.\u201d<\/p>\n

Without the California incentives, Taylor might have been out of a job. \u201cThe incentives were a very big deal,\u201d she says. \u201cWhen I started on Wrinkle<\/i>, I was hired just as a scout. Lori was scouting in Northern California, and there was another scout in Atlanta. If we didn\u2019t get the (tax incentive) money, the company was prepared to open production offices in Atlanta. They were double-prepping. They were hoping to shoot in California, but we would have gotten on planes and gone to Atlanta a day after the announcement if they hadn\u2019t given us the tax incentive. They might not have kept me. When we got the tax incentive, they offered me the location manager position.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Filming in a neighborhood with identical houses.<\/p><\/div>\n

Wrinkle<\/i> provided a new kind of challenge for Taylor. \u201cMost of my projects have had a lot more locations,\u201d she says, \u201cand within that large number, certain ones have to be right. You get a little more latitude on others\u2014on TV, you compromise a lot. On Wrinkle<\/i>, we had to get everything right because we really wanted to make Ava happy. We didn\u2019t have a lot of locations, but each one was very specific and not one of them was easy. Each had a series of hoops we had to jump through. It was crazy!<\/p>\n

\u201cIt took a lot of negotiation with the L.A. School District (in order to film at Crenshaw High School when school was in session). For the Camazotz suburbs, we had to make arrangements with the military and go through all those layers. When we were shooting the Camazotz forest in Humboldt County, Film Commissioner Cassandra Hesseltine was super-helpful. But we were in a city park and a state park, so we were dealing with rangers and the state of California.\u201d<\/p>\n

Through it all, Taylor collaborated closely with Shohan. Early on, the production designer spent a lot of time with the director, and, according to Taylor, \u201cNaomi had a good understanding of what Ava wanted. We had to go through a lot of options to get the ones that really worked.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was no compromise on anything,\u201d Shohan adds. \u201cThat\u2019s why it was difficult. During the first few weeks (of pre-production), we put up a presentation for the studio with a lot of illustrations and references to the planets (a key part of L\u2019Engle\u2019s story). Ava, the DP, the visual effects director and I threw around a lot of ideas and images.\u201d Taylor and Shohan, who had worked together on the 2001 Training Day<\/i>, slid into a comfortable arrangement. \u201cThis was a nice reunion,\u201d Shohan says. \u201cLocation managers either find you great locations or they don\u2019t. Alison finds you great locations.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The Murry house in the West Adams District.<\/p><\/div>\n

Among those they sought were the Murry house, Meg\u2019s attic bedroom, a school, the planets, a grassy field, a frozen lake and a neighborhood with identical houses. \u201cAt the beginning of every film, I spend weeks and weeks in a car with the location manager,\u201d Shohan says. \u201cYou can just be losing your mind if you\u2019re with people who are lumps. Or it can be wonderful. We had a blast. Alison is so much fun. We talked about what we wanted creatively, what we wanted politically and what we wanted creatively and politically in our own lives. We drove hundreds of miles to some pretty far-flung places trying to figure out what to do, and the conversation was always lively and pithy. We formed a really wonderful friendship.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wrinkle<\/i> is Taylor\u2019s biggest job to date, and it came with an opportunity to learn something new. \u201cThis was a big visual effects movie,\u201d she says. \u201cI have worked with some visual effects, but I had to learn a lot about what corrections can be made with visual effects and what the location has to be. For instance, the forest comes to life. There\u2019s a three-part process. It\u2019s the location itself, and then there are the art department\u2019s pieces. They might have a fake rock, and then visual effects builds on that. They\u2019re creating the rest of the environment and movement. I learned that they can get rid of things behind a tree but not what\u2019s in front of it. I worked a lot with Rich McBride, the visual effects supervisor, who was very clear in explaining what they needed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Taylor had a bigger location budget than she usually does. \u201cThat allowed me to do my job the right way,\u201d she says. \u201cI could have the right resources, including additional people in the department to expand our scout and money to pay for extra things you sometimes have to have. We did some work out at Venice Beach, shooting by the water for a couple days with a bunch of extras and a bunch of restrooms. We had to build a pathway from the parking lot to the beach\u2014a walkway that got pieced together to roll equipment. Those things are very expensive.\u201d<\/p>\n

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A scene filmed on Venice Beach.<\/p><\/div>\n

KALM Brittany Petros, LMGI has vivid memories of the shoot, which was depicting Red\u2019s Beach. \u201cIt\u2019s in the other world,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s this big, beautiful, gorgeous beach, and everybody is laughing and playing and having fun. Then the kids start getting sucked in, and they realize they\u2019re on one of the bad planets.\u201d The production found itself on Venice Beach because, Petros explains, \u201cAll the other beaches were booked for other shows. Will Rogers or Malibu would have been good, but by the time we knew when the scene would be on the schedule, Venice was the only beach available. It was a heavily populated scene with a lot of equipment and set dressing. With cast and crew, we probably had 500 people, including 100 children, so we had to have a school room built. We didn\u2019t want them to walk too far, so we had to bring in plywood, AC and a big circus tent for them. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cSince Venice Beach is public, we couldn\u2019t rent out all the parking lots. We rented four different parking lots and had to coordinate them for breakfast, lunch, background parking, some for crew, and base camp. It was a lot of logistics.\u201d<\/p>\n

Also complicating matters was the 5K run scheduled for one of the prep days. Adequate space for restrooms was another challenge. \u201cNormally, we\u2019d have multiple sets of trailer porta potties and pump them in the morning or at night,\u201d Petros says. \u201cInstead, we had 2 four-bangers, and we pumped them every hour. One of the lifeguards said in his 30 years of lifeguarding, he\u2019d never seen anything as close to this big happen on the beach in Venice. It was a lot of hoops to jump through, but people were very helpful.\u201d<\/p>\n

Talking about working for Taylor, she says, \u201cWhat I love about her is that if you need help, she\u2019s there to help you. But if you don\u2019t, she\u2019ll stay away, trusting she hired the right people. Some managers want so much information, they slow you down because they\u2019re just on you. Or there are managers who won\u2019t give you help. Alison wasn\u2019t wasting my time filling her in with things she didn\u2019t need to be involved in. I appreciated her trusting me.\u201d<\/p>\n

ALM Velvet Graves, LMGI adds, \u201cI feel so grateful to even know Alison. She encourages people and brings out the best in them. She builds her team. She doesn\u2019t tear them down. She\u2019s approachable. With her, there are no guessing games. There were times when she could have easily exploded, but she approaches things in the right way. She takes things head-on and deals with them. I learned from that. If you don\u2019t deal with it, it\u2019s always sitting there. If you address it, it disappears.\u201d<\/p>\n

Graves spent much of her time on what she calls \u201cthe haunted house\u201d location in the West Adams District. \u201cIt was a very dilapidated house that needed a lot of love,\u201d she says. \u201cIt looked spooky. Its foundation was falling apart. The set decorators did a phenomenal job. Oprah Winfrey and Mindy Kaling shot there.\u201d This location kept Graves busy. \u201cWe were there three different times, and I dealt with the neighborhood,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s heavily lived-in\u2014a lot of homes tight together. I\u2019d get signatures and arrange placement of our equipment. I got to know hundreds of people.\u201d<\/p>\n

She also worked on the Murry house location. \u201cWe moved the homeowners out for three months,\u201d she says. \u201cThen they completely cleared the house and dressed it.\u201d Finding that house was one of Taylor\u2019s biggest concerns. \u201cAva wanted a traditional neighborhood that had been one thing, became another thing and was going back to being fancy,\u201d Shohan explains. \u201cWe were looking at an upper middle-class neighborhood that became all black and was now gentrifying. We wanted that urban pattern. Then the house needed to have a sense of welcome and embrace in terms of its character. \u2018What do you want it to say about the family?\u2019 Once we defined the area, it was like looking for a needle in a haystack.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t begin to tell you how many houses we saw,\u201d Taylor says. \u201cAva had a very specific look in mind. Also, there was a certain geography that had to happen with some of the scenes. When someone is walking through the house, they can see the outdoors through certain windows. From the top of the staircase, they could look down and see the front door. We finally found the house in the West Adams District, which is where Ava wanted the Murrys to be living.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

DuVernay went along on a number of the scouts. \u201cThe location team took lots of pictures and showed them to Naomi, who filtered them,\u201d Taylor says. \u201cThen she and I would go scout and filter even further. The ones that got checkmarks from Naomi are the ones we wanted to show Ava in person. She was tireless on the scouts. If she didn\u2019t like any of the locations, we\u2019d go back to the drawing board.\u201d\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Once they settled on the house, they then had to find a location for Meg\u2019s bedroom. \u201cThe book and the movie both start with the line, \u2018It was a dark and stormy night,\u2019\u201d Taylor says. \u201cMeg is upstairs in her bedroom, but the house we chose did not have a suitable bedroom. So we did a lot of searching.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In the book, Meg\u2019s bedroom is in the attic. \u201cAva wanted that attic look,\u201d Merrifield says. \u201cWe found another house in the West Adams District that had the classic roofline and triangular windows.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Murry house was a huge set,\u201d KALM Pedro Mata, LMGI says. For his work on the film, Mata recently won COLA\u2019s Assistant Location Manager of the Year. \u201cIt was almost like a whole block because of the lighting they did,\u201d he says, \u201clighting from the street before and the street after. There was rain. That was a big, big thing to arrange.\u201d An optimist, Mata doesn\u2019t see problems as problems. \u201cI call them challenges,\u201d he says. \u201cWe are on the street filming with people all the time. Lots of things are going on. If we tackle all the challenges while we\u2019re prepping, there are no problems on film days. It\u2019s like the circus is coming to town, but actually it\u2019s coming to one house or one street.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mata, who has worked with Taylor for 15 years, holds her in high regard. \u201cAlison is awesome,\u201d he says. \u201cShe\u2019s very assertive and knows what she wants. And she\u2019s very supportive when you need the help. She\u2019s very clear and serious. You see how happy she is when you get something, especially when it was challenging.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Levi Miller and Storm Reid filming in Sequoia Park, Humboldt County.<\/p><\/div>\n

For producer Jim Whitaker, the Humboldt County sequences were the toughest moments to capture. \u201cPatrick\u2019s Point State Park and Sequoia Park in Eureka were the most physically difficult locations in terms of what the actors were doing,\u201d he says. \u201cIt was also challenging to find a way to get cameras into a place that matched the action.\u201d Hard work paid off. \u201cWe got incredible shots with a Spidercam running down a gully,\u201d he says. \u201cYou\u2019re traveling through and following these kids running away from the monster that\u2019s following them. That was logistically challenging.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey did a lot of stuff on this film that no one has really done before,\u201d Northern California (NORCAL) ALM Patti Stammer, LMGI says. \u201cIt was amazing to watch the kids running up and down these steep gullies with a Spidercam coming through the trees watching them.\u201d Stammer joined the production after Balton scouted NORCAL locations, searching for a place that could be the forests of Camazotz. \u201cMy brief was looking for interesting natural environments,\u201d Balton says. \u201cI looked at the quality of the trees, the density, the texture of the bark, the spacing of the trees and other vegetation. It depends on what the director wants\u2014claustrophobia or depth of field.\u201d<\/p>\n

Once DuVernay chose the locations, Stammer says, \u201cAlison called me and said, \u2018I need somebody to fix anything that goes wrong.\u2019 In fact, very few things went wrong. We were in Patrick\u2019s Point and Sequoia Park at the same time. They have slightly different vegetation. I made a list of all the greens native to these two forests and went up with a botanist from a timber company called Green Diamond to fill up their truck with bushes, leaves and small trees\u2014anything they needed. I also had to find places to park 15 giant trucks, which came from LA but were going on to the next location. I talked to all the neighbors to make sure having their street blocked off for a month would not irritate them. Luckily, Humboldt County is one of those places where people still really think filming is fun. They were absolutely delighted this was happening.\u201d Because of her work in some of the most scenic areas of California, Stammer has become a redwood forest expert. \u201cOur forests are the ones trying to kill the (Wrinkle<\/i>) children,\u201d she says. \u201cThey\u2019re treacherous. There was a lot of running through them and dodging trees.\u201d \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Filming in the forest had its challenges, but at least the production team knew where the forests were. Finding a location for the Camazotz suburbs was perhaps the location team\u2019s most frustrating experience. They were trying to match the book\u2019s very specific description of this area: \u201cThe houses in the outskirts were all exactly alike, small square boxes painted gray. Each had a small rectangular lot of lawn in front, with a straight line of dull-looking flowers edging the path to the door.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen Meg, her little brother and Calvin show up in the suburbs, everything is eerily exactly the same,\u201d Taylor says. \u201cWe had to find the right neighborhood where all the houses were exactly the same. It took months. We searched from Oxnard to Long Beach to Hemet. We went everywhere. Some things were close but not quite there. Finally, Pedro Mata found the perfect location. It was a private residential area for military families in San Pedro. That was a big YES moment for me. I\u2019m glad we found it, but it was hard to film. By the time we finally found it, we didn\u2019t have much time left. Thank goodness for the military liaison, Develyn Watson, who helped push it through.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt took three months to discover it,\u201d Mata says. \u201cWe looked and looked and looked at the whole Southland. I\u2019d find some stuff and get permission to scout it, but military properties were not easy to get into.\u201d He discovered the ultimate location on Google Earth. \u201cI told Alison, \u2018It looks good from above,\u2019\u201d he says. \u201cBut when I saw it, families had made changes so their homes would be more individual. Every military family had their own theme. They rearranged the greenery or put their own ornaments up. We had to take their ornaments out.\u201d<\/p>\n

With a lot of negotiating, Taylor finally got permission to film there. All progressed smoothly, Mata says, \u201cUntil we changed the filming date. There were some scheduling problems with the actors, and we wanted to move filming forward from February\/March to November. There was a lot to coordinate and work out. Dev helped make it happen. We shot for about a week, following a week or two to prep.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Bellamy Young in the Camazotz suburbs.<\/p><\/div>\n

Another area of worry was finding locations for the planets the children visit during the search for their father. L\u2019Engle didn\u2019t write highly specific descriptions of the ice planet Ixchel or the lush planet Uriel. They were just way stations on the journey to the evil planet Camazotz. \u201cWe had a lot more latitude to figure out what felt right emotionally,\u201d Shohan says, \u201ctaking just a few cues from the book. We spent a lot of time looking at images, asking ourselves, \u2018What would strike a note with Ava?\u2019 It was a long process. We pre-envisioned what they had to be, but they had to be on Earth, and that was tough. I think people will be really satisfied with the locations, and they\u2019ll be surprised with the creatures in the same way. We spent a long time figuring it out. They\u2019ll recognize the locations but say, \u2018Oh, I didn\u2019t visualize it completely but now I see what it is.\u2019 For me, it was delightful to create a universe.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the end, some locations were impossible to find in California, so they were built at the Santa Clarita Studios, north of Los Angeles. \u201cWe looked for a frozen lake that\u2019s on the planet Ixchel,\u201d Taylor explains. \u201cMeg wakes up on top of the lake. Because of climate change, we couldn\u2019t guarantee any California lakes would be frozen, so we built it in the studio.\u201d<\/p>\n

For a few other locations, the cast and crew had to go to the Southern Hemisphere for a few weeks near the end of production. \u201cWe needed a long, grassy slope,\u201d Shohan says. \u201cThat sounds not too hard to find in California, but the state was in a drought. We found some hills with long grass that looked beautiful, but if you stood in them, the grass didn\u2019t move. It was dead. Ultimately, there was no solution that wouldn\u2019t have been a CGI solution, so we ended up filming it in New Zealand.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were shooting in the dead of winter in California,\u201d Whitaker adds. \u201cWhen the script called for a place 20,000 times as vibrant and exuberant as Earth, I said, \u2018Let\u2019s go to New Zealand.\u2019\u201d He was intimately familiar with the country because he had recently shot Pete\u2019s Dragon<\/i> there. \u201cOn Uriel, Meg is running down this hill, and there\u2019s a blue lake. We shot that at Lake Tekapo in the Mount Cook region.\u201d<\/p>\n

Taylor and her team did not go to New Zealand. Instead, local LM Clayton Tikao, who had worked on Pete\u2019s Dragon<\/i>, took over location responsibilities. Ultimately, it was important to everyone that the movie absolutely capture the spirit of the book. \u201cBut we went to great lengths to challenge some of the ideas that had been seen before,\u201d Whitaker says. \u201cL\u2019Engle\u2019s book is so well known that over the years, people copied the ideas. So we pushed hard to find new and interesting ways to evoke its spirit. When people see the film, they\u2019ll feel the book.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of Taylor\u2019s happiest moments on Wrinkle<\/i> was finally being able to use a location not far from where she lives. \u201cIt\u2019s a palm tree-lined walkway that I\u2019ve been in love with for years,\u201d she says. \u201cI\u2019ve been dying to put it in a movie. We got a wonderful drone shot above the palm trees, where you see kids walking. I was so happy with that. It was major for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Taylor started her career as an event planner in Indiana before discovering location work. She recently completed The First Purge<\/i> and is about to start work on season three of Insecure<\/i>. What happens after that? \u201cI\u2019m very excited about this time,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s a time where I\u2019m seeing film crews being multi-cultural. They\u2019re inclusive across the board\u2014gender-inclusive, men, women, gays, straights, black folks, Latinos, Indian folks, Asians. I went from Ava DuVernay to Issa Rae and Melina Matsoukas (an executive producer on Rae\u2019s series Insecure<\/i>) to Gerard McMurray (the young African-American director of The First Purge<\/i>).\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

After completing season two of Insecure<\/i> as supervising location manager, Taylor is being promoted to creative consultant. She will not be doing day-to-day location work and instead will work directly with the executive producers.<\/p>\n

\u201cPart of me loves doing locations,\u201d Taylor says. \u201cPart of me is interested in seeing how Insecure<\/i> goes. I\u2019ve never worked in any sort of producer\/consultant capacity. Maybe not having to completely stress over the permits wouldn\u2019t be a bad thing.\u201d She laughs. \u201cMaybe I\u2019ll be able to transition into some sort of other capacity. I\u2019m excited for my future but I\u2019m not necessarily sure what it is.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

LEADING BY EXAMPLE<\/b><\/h3>\n

Cassandra Hesseltine\u00a0<\/span>Sets a High Bar for\u00a0Film Commissioners\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

by Alison Taylor<\/p>\n

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Cassandra Hesseltine, left, with Alison Taylor. Photo by David Berthiaume\/LMGI<\/p><\/div>\n

I\u00a0was introduced to Cassandra while working on A Wrinkle in Time. I will never forget it. Our lead location scout, Lori Balton, LMGI, was returning from a scout with the cinematographer in Humboldt County.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Balton reported, \u201cOur \u2018simple, little\u2019 DP scout for A Wrinkle in Time wouldn\u2019t have happened without the capable assistance of Cassandra Hesseltine. These things have a way of growing, and it was helpful knowing she had our collective back, from finding perfect local stand-ins clothed in the proper wardrobe, to meeting us and dropping us off at the airport, to organizing our picnic lunch \u2026 she is wonderfully detail-oriented. In what can be a hard-edged, fast-paced business, she is a breath of fresh air. She truly cared about the success of our movie, and made us look good once again! The Humboldt Film Commission is the embodiment of making on-location filming a win-win experience for all concerned.\u201d<\/p>\n

In her role as Film Commissioner, Cassandra always works on behalf of the production. I know this firsthand based on our incredibly smooth experience filming the amazing redwoods in Sequoia Park and the lush forest at Patrick\u2019s Point State Park for Wrinkle. Thanks to Cassandra\u2019s advance planning and lobbying on our behalf with city and state officials, she literally made the permit process a walk in the park!<\/p>\n

Hesseltine adds, \u201cSetting aside that it is a great story and this version was making history with Ava DuVernay\u2019s vision, I loved working with Wrinkle for a few reasons\u2014that they were inclusive from start to finish when it came to involving my office. Being a part of the process made it easier to help put out fires and problem solve. I also loved how the location department hired and mentored a handful of my locals. The work experience Alison and her team gave them was priceless. Overall, if I could describe my experience in one word, it would have to be … respected.\u201d<\/p>\n

She attended Humboldt State University majoring in psychology with an emphasis in theater as therapy. After working with at-risk youth, helping them find their voice through theater, Hesseltine produced indie movies and television shows. After 10 years of working on productions that were primarily away from her home and family, she was asked to be the interim Humboldt-Del Norte Film Commissioner. Hesseltine took that opportunity to implement a detailed tracking system for the new film commissioner. The Board was so impressed that they offered her the position! \u201cIt was really a lovely surprise,\u201d Hesseltine says, \u201cthat is when I discovered how much I loved helping productions. Plus, I got to stay in the community and be with my family, so I had the best of both worlds.\u201d \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Seven years later, she is not only the Humboldt-Del Norte Film Commissioner, but also in her second term as President of Film Liaisons in California Statewide (FLICS)\u2014a nonprofit organization comprised of 41 film commission\/liaison members throughout the state of California\u2014promotes filming and assists productions with locations, permits, resources and local knowledge. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t see a problem as a problem or an accomplishment as an accomplishment; I see them as part of the job,\u201d says Hesseltine. \u201cEach production has different needs. Some are basic, but often there are random needs and even after seven years as the Film Commissioner I think, \u2018Oh my gosh! Why don\u2019t I have that list or that resource ready for them?\u2019 I feel like I\u2019m always ready to learn. I love putting out fires; I love solving problems.\u201d Cassandra Hesseltine thrives on helping productions be successful while helping her community enjoy the positive impact of filming.\u00a0 <\/span>A \u201cwin-win\u201d indeed!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

The Air Force\u00a0Elevates\u00a0<\/span><\/b>A Wrinkle in Time<\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/h3>\n

by Dyana Carmella<\/b><\/p>\n

\"\"

Air Force Deputy Director and Secretary of Public Affairs Develyn J. Watson. Photo courtesy of California On Location<\/p><\/div>\n

When the fantastical Wrinkle<\/i> required a neighborhood of cookie-cutter houses, the US Air Force flew to the rescue. The Air Force Entertainment Liaison Office handles entertainment projects while protecting the Air Force brand in television, films, video games and web content. Deputy Director and Secretary of Public Affairs Develyn J. Watson provides continuity between active duty military personnel and entertainment companies. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Specifications for DOD filming differ from private properties. \u201cThe minimum requirements are that the production has funding and distribution. Then we determine if the project has an Air Force depiction,\u201d Watson explains. \u201cWe review a script in its entirety or, if unscripted, we look at a treatment to see how the Air Force brand will be utilized. Once we make the initial determination, we make a recommendation to DOD at the Pentagon whether to provide support.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Production wanted to shoot a section of military housing. Watson says, \u201cThey wanted uniformity among the structures. Because most of the homes are exactly alike, production was able to achieve that look.\u201d\u00a0 <\/span>Watson found the project to be exciting, as well as exhausting. \u201cThis was the first time our office had filmed on this property,\u201d she says. \u201cTypically, we work on active duty bases where we can \u2018direct\u2019 compliance once we have film approval. Working with the residents required patience and compromise. The sheer amount of [production] people caused a bit of angst among the residents. We had to work daily to engender trust and cooperation.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Watson enjoyed working with location manager Alison Taylor, LMGI. \u201cWe went to the same college back in the day,\u201d says Watson. She also appreciated the diversity of the production. \u201c[DuVernay] spent time with the residents, which made a more pleasant experience,\u201d Watson recalls. \u201cFrom the tech scout to filming, she was accessible. There were a high number of people of color and women in roles usually dominated by white men. This was the first time I worked with a group of people like me.\u201d \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

DOD doesn\u2019t offer perks to the film industry, but they don\u2019t charge a location fee or require permits. They typically provide secure locations free from unwelcomed press and gawkers. Additionally, productions can have access to a range of jets and planes, anything from C-17s and F-16s to F-35s and F-22s. \u201cYou can\u2019t borrow a plane because you think it\u2019s pretty,\u201d Watson explains. \u201cThe first question I always ask is, \u2018What is the Air Force depiction?\u2019 And we need to see a full script.\u201d If a production wants to utilize a plane in flight, the Liaison Office pairs the shooting days with a training mission, which lowers the cost. However, to direct a flight for filming purposes, the Office sets the standard price placed by the government.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs far as locations, the USAF is located throughout the world,\u201d says Watson. \u201cIf there is a base where you want to film, we can help. We are more than locations; we are your partners in a successful production. A small group of military professionals and civilians, we can provide you with subject matter experts, [and] can help add realism and production value, helping you navigate the bureaucracy of filming on DOD property. Further, our advice is at no cost to the production.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was the first time I worked with a group of people like me.\u201d \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Reprinted with permission from the <\/i>California On Location Awards 2017 magazine www.californiaonlocationawards.com<\/i><\/p>\n<\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Location pro Alison Taylor explores a brave new world by Nancy Mills Movie photos\u00a0by Atsushi Nishijima. \u00a92017 Disney Enterprises, Inc. All Rights Reserved. What happens when one of the most beloved children\u2019s books, Madeleine L\u2019Engle\u2019s A Wrinkle in Time, crosses paths with California\u2019s new tax incentives? Then add another ingredient\u2014director Ava DuVernay, the first woman […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":63,"featured_media":26747,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","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-26742","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-featured"},"yoast_head":"\nA Wrinkle in Time | Alison Taylor, 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\/a-wrinkle-in-time\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"es_ES\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A Wrinkle in Time | Alison Taylor, LMGI - Location Managers Guild International\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Location pro Alison Taylor explores a brave new world by Nancy Mills Movie photos\u00a0by Atsushi Nishijima. \u00a92017 Disney Enterprises, Inc. 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