{"id":38220,"date":"2024-12-30T12:23:29","date_gmt":"2024-12-30T20:23:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/locationmanagers.org\/?p=38220"},"modified":"2025-08-23T14:06:42","modified_gmt":"2025-08-23T21:06:42","slug":"true-detective-night-country","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/locationmanagers.org\/es\/true-detective-night-country\/","title":{"rendered":"True Detective: Night Country"},"content":{"rendered":"

The team from Iceland\u2019s Truenorth leads the cast and crew
\nof HBO\u2019s Emmy-winning True Detective: Night Country<\/em>
\ninto a magical and chilling landscape\u2026<\/h3>\n

INTO THE DARKNESS:
\n<\/span><\/strong>SURVIVING TO TELL THE TALE<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

by Shaun O\u2019Banion<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

All photos courtesy of HBO, except as noted<\/p>\n

\n

In the midst of the pandemic, HBO decided to pursue another season of their Emmy-winning anthology series True Detective<\/em>. The resulting fourth installment\u2014True Detective: Night Country<\/em>\u2014teams Emmy winner Jodie Foster as Officer Danvers and Kali Reis as Officer Navarro\u00a0 <\/span>as they investigate the mysterious disappearance of eight men from an Arctic research station in the fictional mining town of Ennis, Alaska\u2014a town so close to the Arctic circle that it exists in perpetual darkness for eight months each year. There the detectives must also confront the darkness they carry in themselves as they dig into the haunted truths that lie buried beneath the eternal ice.<\/p>\n

With previous seasons featuring all-male leads and set in Louisiana, California and the Ozarks, respectively, the execs envisioned a fresh location and a new perspective with a female protagonist. They found the perfect storyteller in Mexican-born writer-diarector Issa L\u00f3pez, who had been sketching out a plot for a \u201cwhodunnit\u201d even before HBO approached her to join the series.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\u201cIceland is a magical place. We have an endless gallery of classical nature, with a variety of looks. The light is ever-changing, and the surreal drama of most locations here is astounding.\u201d<\/span><\/h3>\n
\u2014Truenorth LM Einar Sveinn Thordarson\/LMGI<\/span>\"\"<\/h5>\n
\n

L\u00f3pez had always been fascinated by mystery novels and stories of real-life unsolved murders. She recalled hearing of one particularly grisly tale as a child known as \u201cThe Dyatlov Pass Incident\u201d: In 1959, an experienced group of scientists from the Soviet Union\u2019s Ural Institute had set out on foot for a research expedition. They were later discovered not far from camp, with some grotesquely frozen to death from what appeared to be some gruesome physical trauma on the ice. What had happened during the night that caused these men to cut their way out of their tents and flee the campsite?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe details don\u2019t make sense and they died in the ice,\u201d relates L\u00f3pez for screendaily.com, \u201cso, I thought, \u2018murder mystery, ice, the unexplainable demise of a group of people.\u2019\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cNow all I needed was everything else. The story, characters and what happened to the men.\u201d<\/p>\n

L\u00f3pez pitched a modern take on the Dyatlov Pass incident as the central mystery, resetting the series in Alaska and imbuing the narrative with flourishes of indigenous culture, environmental contamination and an unsolved murder.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Once the pilot was crafted, veteran producer Mari-Jo Winkler joined the project and she and L\u00f3pez headed to Alaska to flesh out the details.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe wanted to understand the culture of the Inupiaq indigenous communities and the physical place, shares Winkler. \u201cWe scouted in -22 degrees Fahrenheit, rode snowmobiles across the frozen ocean and visited different locations that were scripted to get a true sense of it all.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>Alaska can get down to -40 degrees in the coldest months,\u201d adds production designer Dan Taylor, \u201cwhich seemed like too much, not just for the crew, but for equipment as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

The scout confirmed that the high Arctic wouldn\u2019t be suitable for shooting a large-scale, long-form series.<\/p>\n

Patagonia, Newfoundland and Winnipeg were all considered as alternative settings, but it was the production company Truenorth that presented the most compelling case for Alaska to be played by Iceland.<\/p>\n

\"\"Truenorth Iceland<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

When the team at Truenorth received word that HBO was looking for an environment that could double for Alaska, they sent a photo package to the producers. \u201cIt was immediately clear to the creative team that Iceland had a lot to offer beyond just being a visual match,\u201d says Winkler.<\/p>\n

It also helped that Winkler had been introduced to the principals at Truenorth back in 2014 when, after deciding to take a solo trip to Iceland, some of the folks at Truenorth had helped map out her journey.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Founded in 2003, LMGI business partner Truenorth has established itself as one of the leading production service companies in the industry, with offices in Iceland, Norway, Greenland, the Faroe Islands, Finland, Sweden, Greece and the Canary Islands.<\/p>\n

More than just a service company, Truenorth Iceland actually develops and produces its own projects for film and television markets worldwide, but in terms of major U.S.- and EU-backed films like Clint Eastwood\u2019s Flags of Our Fathers<\/i> or Ridley Scott\u2019s Prometheus<\/i>, foreign productions had, for the most part, only come to Iceland for shorter shoots.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The possibility of hosting a major series for the full run was something the Truenorth team very much wanted to make happen\u2014so much so that they lobbied the government and were granted an increase in the incentive program to a very generous 35% cash rebate.<\/p>\n

A Magical Place<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"

SLM Thor Kjartansson<\/p><\/div>\n

Truenorth SLM Thor Kjartansson\/LMGI and LM Einar Sveinn Thordarson\/LMGI had dispatched scouts, including LM Robert Garcia, to search for fish factories, hospitals, homes, offices and a number of lakes which would be critical to double for Alaska\u2019s frozen ocean. By the time L\u00f3pez, Winkler and Taylor arrived in Reykjav\u00edk, Truenorth had gathered a wealth of location possibilities for them to consider.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIceland is a magical place,\u201d says Einar. \u201cWe have an endless gallery of classical nature, with a variety of looks. The light is ever-changing, and the surreal drama of most locations here is astounding.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThor and Einar\u2019s presentation convinced us that we could absolutely pull off recreating Alaska in Iceland from a visual standpoint,\u201d says Winkler.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Another key element of the fourth season is that it takes place almost entirely at night. Iceland, like Alaska, has very little daylight from December through February, which was exactly what the production needed. But even more than that, Thor and Einar had shown that the country also had the infrastructure and skilled crew that could support the production in very harsh conditions.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

HBO signed off quickly and the creative team settled on the core locations found during those early scouts. UK SLM Jethro Ensor\/LMGI, fresh off the new series 3 Body Problem<\/i>, soon arrived in Iceland to work out contractual details and to help sew up the remaining locations for HBO.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was excited to go out there to support Thor, Einar and Robert as they were already setting things up,\u201d says Jethro.<\/p>\n

By the time he arrived, the schedule was already shifting.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019ve been in television for a while, that\u2019s pretty standard for TV drama, but it meant that we had to rethink certain locations the guys had found in different areas,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Arriving late in the game might have been tough on another show, but Ensor says he was welcomed by the Truenorth team, and they found themselves aligned very quickly.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cFor me personally,\u201d says Jethro, \u201cit was about kind of knowing Dan\u2019s eye as production designer, seeing the storm of the schedule change coming and then working out how best to make it all work creatively. But honestly, most of that is down to Thor, Einar and Robert.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Einar is equally effusive about Jethro. \u201cHe was absolutely essential for us. There is a real difference between the Icelandic way of doing things and the English way and Jethro was the perfect bridge between those methods, in addition to his experience on large-scale shows and his eye for locations.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"

Silver Sky Mine<\/p><\/div>\n

The Glacier Man<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

SLM Thor Kjartansson has been with Truenorth for more than 20 years, his background and skill set essential for working with production crews in extreme environments. The literal definition of the \u201coutdoorsy type,\u201d he began training with Iceland\u2019s Air and Ground Rescue team at just 16 years old. Over the next three years, he would learn extreme survival skills and practice search and rescue (SAR) missions in a variety of situations.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe specialize in searching for missing planes,\u201d Thor says, \u201cbut we do it all: glacier rescue, people that have fallen into crevices or been buried under an avalanche, even just people who\u2019ve gotten lost on snowmobiles in the wilderness or on the glaciers.\u201d<\/p>\n

While training with the team in his youth, he would never have imagined that his work or, frankly, his life\u2019s passion would lead to a career in film and television, though it should be noted that he is still an active member of the rescue team.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Thor\u2019s move into film and television came through a chance meeting on \u2026 where else? A glacier.<\/p>\n

\u201cI started operating Super Jeep and snowmobile expeditions,\u201d he says, \u201cand I would take people on excursions up in the Highlands and onto the glaciers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thor quickly earned a reputation as a trusted and competent guide on the ice, and soon it wasn\u2019t just tourists calling for his expertise.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOver the course of about 10 or 15 years, I ended up supporting a lot of small TV crews that wanted to get up on the glaciers and I worked as a kind of fixer for them,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

On one such trip in 2003, he met Truenorth founder and CEO Leifur Dagfinnsson. \u201cIt was just one of those moments where an opportunity comes up,\u201d says Thor. \u201cWe were standing at the top of a glacier talking about the industry and he asked me if I would be willing to meet at his office. I did and I basically joined Truenorth a couple of months later.\u201d<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re considering changing your career or considering anything, really, Thor highly recommends going to the top of a glacier to find clarity. \u201cYeah, I always say, \u2018the best way to reach your thoughts is to go up on a glacier. You\u2019ll find them up there,\u2019\u201d he laughs.<\/p>\n

When Einar joined Truenorth three years ago, after having worked for 20 years in production services in Iceland and at the legendary Propaganda Films in L.A. before that, he recognized right away that Thor was a very unique individual, unlike anyone else he knew in the industry.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cEven on his days off, you won\u2019t likely find Thor at home or even indoors,\u201d he says. \u201cHe\u2019s always somewhere out on the ice, in an ice cave or riding around on his snowmobile!\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"

Fiona\u2019s House<\/p><\/div>\n

Snow Chasers: Finding Ennis\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

With the series taking place entirely in a single Alaskan town, the team had to find a location that would work not only from a visual standpoint but would also get the right amount of snow and be able to work for a number of exteriors and interiors.<\/p>\n

They ended up finding their Ennis in two different towns: The first was Dalv\u00edk, which is about five hours away from Reykjav\u00edk by car and only 45 minutes by plane.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Dalv\u00edk was selected early on due to the likelihood that it would get snow and, hopefully, hang onto it for a while\u2014which it did\u2014and distance aside, the town worked well and would end up being used for a number of key locations. But during scouting, the creative team had to imagine what everything would look like with snow \u2026 because there wasn\u2019t any.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had zero snow all the way through prep up to almost Christmas,\u201d says Ensor, \u201cthen we had the break and the day we left, Iceland had their biggest snowfall in a long time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Taylor remembers the exact day. \u201cWe flew out on the 16th of December and it was snowing heavily. Once we came back, the first issue was how we were all going to get back up to the town,\u201d he laughs.<\/p>\n

When they finally did, the snow was waist high!<\/p>\n

\u201cPerfect for the show,\u201d says Ensor, \u201cbut very difficult to operate in. We had to remove a level of snow to prep, but still try to make sure it looked virgin. That was tough!\u201d<\/p>\n

Among the locations shot in Dalv\u00edk were the police station (an old post office), the liquor store (an old fisherman\u2019s shed) and numerous exteriors such as the gas station and roads for a fair amount of driving scenes and an intense car-crash sequence.<\/p>\n

\u201cDalv\u00edk was great because it didn\u2019t matter if you looked to the west or the north, it basically had the same feel as a lot of the towns in Alaska,\u201d says Thor, although he is quick to praise Dan Taylor and his art department.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThey had to bring in a lot of stuff to really sell it,\u201d he says, \u201clike American trucks, light poles, signage and things like that. Even for interiors. Things like American light switches and radiators which look different from ours. What they managed to do there was quite incredible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite being sold on the Dalv\u00edk locations, the creative team felt that they needed to expand the scale of \u201cEnnis\u201d beyond what Dalvik could offer.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we needed,\u201d says Taylor, \u201cwas something with more of a commercial area. Dalv\u00edk, for me, made our exteriors feel too small, though I should note that the townspeople there were great about letting us take over things and it was a really fun location to work in.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"

Checking the ice. Photo by Jethro Ensor\/LMGI<\/p><\/div>\n

To add that scale, they settled on Keflavik, a town in the Reykjanes region of southwest Iceland and about 45 minutes by car from Reykjav\u00edk. \u201cThor and Einar showed us a former U.S. Army base built by the Americans in the \u201940s, and it was pretty great,\u201d says Winkler.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

There was only one problem \u2026 they needed to shoot in Keflavik first and preserve Dalv\u00edk for later in the schedule in the hopes of more snow. And there was very little snow in Keflav\u00edk.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe needed to do our big exteriors there: the hotel, the mine, Hank\u2019s place and Qavvik\u2019s bar,\u201d says Taylor, \u201cso it had to be snow-covered.\u201d<\/p>\n

They ended up bringing snow down off the mountains.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was just truck after truck bringing in snow,\u201d Taylor says, \u201cand then we\u2019d spread it around. The good news is that once we\u2019d placed it, it would stay for a bit.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite the difficulty, everyone agrees that the addition of Keflav\u00edk rounded out Ennis and added the scale they needed. Most of the high and wide exteriors were done there in addition to a few smaller yet pivotal sequences, such as Navarro\u2019s run-in with a wayward polar bear.<\/p>\n

\u201cDon\u2019t get me wrong,\u201d Thor says, \u201cthere were a lot of locations on this show, but in a way, it was really like having only one big company move because we were able to find most of what we needed nearby Reykjav\u00edk in places like Fellsendi or \u00d6lfus. So, it was kind of just shooting in the south and then our big move up to Dalv\u00edk in the north.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Ice Lake<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

There are a number of scenes in the show set on the frozen ocean and, while other shows might consider doing it all on stage somewhere with fake ice, comfortable water temperatures and a fair amount of blue screen, Night Country<\/i> wasn\u2019t your typical production. Thor and Einar believed they could safely shoot on real ice\u2014though it took a bit of time to find a suitable location.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019d find a decent lake and then realize that it was near a main road so, once it got dark, you were going to have headlights all the time and noise which we obviously couldn\u2019t have,\u201d says Einar.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

They ultimately settled on a location Thor knew well.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a lake here on private property,\u201d Thor says, \u201cand I know the landowner personally. It\u2019s actually a lake that I\u2019ve been taking my kids to skate on for years.\u201d<\/p>\n

The owner was amenable, so the only questions were whether the conditions would work for the shoot once the lake froze over and if those conditions would hold in the weeks after. From a location perspective, it also worked for a number of reasons.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe property is close to Reykjav\u00edk, which was going to function as our base, so that was obviously helpful,\u201d Thor says, \u201cand then what was great is that there\u2019s only a single access road to the lake which meant that we could strictly control who went out there.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Controlling who could access the lake was incredibly important in order to prevent distortion of the ice itself, as well as maintaining the integrity of the surface for safety.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing on the ice is exciting,\u201d says Thor, \u201cbut it gets intense when you have to take 60 or 70 people\u2014including your cast\u2014and a bunch of equipment out there.\u201d<\/p>\n

With Truenorth, safety falls under the umbrella of the Location Department.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s probably down to my background, but yes, we prefer to handle that aspect,\u201d says Thor. \u201cSafety is our number one concern.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"How Deep the Ice<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

During prep, the first order of business was to go out in a boat and measure the depth of the entire lake. \u201cThere\u2019s a big difference between falling through the ice if it\u2019s 50 meters deep versus three,\u201d says Thor, \u201cand from the surface, you can\u2019t tell how deep it is beneath the ice so, in the unlikely event that the ice gives way, we would be in the shallows.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYou have to think about it as if it could happen, so we chose areas where we knew that if something bad happened, anyone who went in could basically stand on their toes and we could pull them out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Initially, the weather gods smiled on the production, which Ensor jokingly credits to Thor, giving them an ideal situation for all the sequences they planned to shoot there.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe got very cold weather right away,\u201d Thor says. \u201cIt made the ice really clean so you could see through it and, at the surface, there were beautiful little cracks and air bubbles.\u201d<\/p>\n

If the lake had frozen in layers, with sleet or snowfall occurring between those layers, the ice would\u2019ve appeared white which would have been fine but wouldn\u2019t have looked as interesting.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was pristine,\u201d Thor says with a satisfied smile.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe ended up using that ice lake environment as a kind of one-stop shop for four or five locations,\u201d says Taylor.<\/p>\n

The ocean ice exteriors include where Navarro\u2019s sister wanders out into the darkness, when Danvers falls through the ice (partially shot in a tank) and when Officer Prior disposes of evidence. They built sets on the edge of the lake as well, including Navarro\u2019s house overlooking the sea.<\/p>\n

One other pivotal sequence that was originally meant to shoot on the ice had to be moved: The \u201ccorpse-sicle,\u201d as it came to be known.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

At the start of the series, a literal pile of bodies is discovered out on the ice. It\u2019s an even more gruesome version of what L\u00f3pez had read about those Russian hikers as a child.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt turned out that it just wasn\u2019t practical to do that on the ice,\u201d says Thor, \u201cso we moved the scene to a field at another location and you can\u2019t really tell it isn\u2019t out on the ice.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"

Basecamp. Photo by Einar Sveinn Thordarson\/LMGI<\/p><\/div>\n

Safety on the Ice<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Knowing about his background in glacier rescue, the crew trusted Thor. If he said it was safe, it was safe. So, every day began with a briefing in which Thor and the team would cover protocols in case of an emergency and, for the entire lake shoot, safety divers in dry suits were on standby.<\/p>\n

Once the lake had frozen over, they brought in an \u201cice engineer.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe engineer was with us the entire time we were there, and we were constantly taking samples and measuring the depth of the ice,\u201d says Thor. \u201cThose measurements help us calculate the weight strength.\u201d<\/p>\n

Once they determine it\u2019s safe to work on, they also need to monitor who is going out on the ice to make sure that whoever does, comes back in.<\/p>\n

Then they need to consider vehicles, equipment and their respective weight. Yes, that\u2019s right, everything goes out on the ice\u2014even the technocrane and a 4×4 truck that served as video village. There were even Arctic tents with heating<\/i>!<\/p>\n

\u201cTo do this, you have to very carefully consider the manner in which you distribute that weight,\u201d says Thor. \u201cFor example, we had to bring a snowcat that pulls a kind of little shelter for cast, like a warming room. So, we\u2019d bring that all the way out on the ice and we knew the weight of the shelter plus the snowcat. Then we\u2019d do the math and determine that we needed to maintain 10 meters between the snowcat and the technocrane.\u201d<\/p>\n

There was one moment involving the technocrane, though, that gave some of the crew pause.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had been there shooting for a bit and we knew there was a layer on the surface and a little water underneath after about maybe 6 cm or 7 cm depth,\u201d says Thor, \u201cbut we also knew that didn\u2019t affect the strength of the ice. Still, the crew noticed the ice was starting to bend.\u201d<\/p>\n

A few of them came to Thor and voiced their concern.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI totally respected them for making it known immediately,\u201d he adds, \u201cbut we knew it was alright.\u201d<\/p>\n

After a chat, the crew members relaxed\u2026 Until they began to hear cracking sounds and what almost sounded like lasers or high-tension wires snapping.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen it\u2019s cold\u2014and some of the nights were super cold even for Iceland\u2014there\u2019s tension in the ice,\u201d Thor says.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The variation in temperature can range between -5 degrees Celsius up to as much as -20, and then there\u2019s the water that\u2019s flowing beneath the surface. These factors affect the tension in the ice, and it begins to make odd noises. Some of the sound can come from the surface, but most comes from below.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt can sound like glass breaking or, other times, it\u2019s this super weird sound, like, a whale or something. It comes from under the surface and, I mean, I totally understood these people. Like how in the hell should they trust my word alone, not having any experience working on the ice?\u201d Thor says.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Thor and the team had to prove the solidity of the ice to the crew by drilling down, and with them watching, proving its depth. When Thor and the engineer took measurements, they found there was still 45 cm of ice beneath the thinner top layer.<\/p>\n

\u201c45 cm can hold the weight of a truck,\u201d Thor explains.<\/p>\n

The focus on safety extended off the ice, too, of course.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen it comes to bad weather,\u201d Thor says, \u201cit doesn\u2019t need to be up on a glacier or out on an ice lake. Our department would have to monitor the crew in the towns as well, because some nights a storm would come in and you\u2019d have no visibility at all for maybe 10 minutes or more. Total whiteout.\u201d<\/p>\n

This meant the location team had to make sure everyone knew what to do in any extreme weather event and that the crew were accounted for throughout each day and at the end of the day, too, to make sure they\u2019d gotten safely back to their hotels.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In the north, most of the crew were based in the town of Akureyri, which lies at the base of Eyjafj\u00f6r\u00f0ur Fjord. It was about a 25-minute drive to Dalv\u00edk from there and so anytime anyone left, they\u2019d have to caravan. And then there were the shuttle buses.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYeah,\u201d Thor says. \u201cKeeping the buses on the road was a thing, too. It didn\u2019t matter that they were on the main street next to the town. You still had to look out for them.\u201d<\/p>\n

All in a night\u2019s work for the man from Iceland\u2019s Air and Ground Rescue and his team.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Photo courtesy of Jethro Ensor\/LMGI<\/p><\/div>\n

Surviving and Triumphant<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

True Detective: Night Country<\/i> premiered on January 14 of this year to critical and commercial praise. It went on to receive six Primetime Emmy Award nominations, winning one for series lead Jodie Foster.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The series featured close to 60 practical locations over the course of its six episodes. For their work, Thor, Einar, Robert and Jethro received a nomination for \u201cOutstanding Locations in a TV Serial Program, Anthology, MOW or Limited Series\u201d at this year\u2019s 11th Annual LMGI Awards.<\/p>\n

Truenorth has capitalized on the awareness Night Country <\/i>has given them globally and, as of this writing, the company has projects shooting in three countries simultaneously\u2014a milestone.<\/p>\n

\u201cNight Country<\/i> was a big jewel in our crown,\u201d says Einar. \u201cWe proved that a project of that scale can be handled at the highest standard here in Iceland, and I\u2019m proud, not only of what we accomplished on the show, but of this country.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

SLM JETHRO ENSOR\/LMGI \u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/span><\/h3>\n

When UK SLM Jethro Ensor\/LMGI got the call from HBO to join the location team in Iceland on True Detective: Night Country, <\/i>he didn\u2019t hesitate to accept. \u201cI was just there to support the Truenorth team as they were already setting things up. They\u2019re world class!\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"

True Detective production designer Dan Taylor with SLM Jethro Ensor\/LMGI. Photo courtesy of Jethro Ensor\/LMGI.<\/p><\/div>\n

Jethro had just finished up on the international Netflix series 3 Body Problem<\/i> and already had a history with HBO as the SLM on the TV series The Nevers<\/i>. His location cred would help the Icelandic team mesh with the English way of doing things.<\/p>\n

He was raised with his sister between the small town of Pocklington in the north of England and the bustling city of London. Growing up, he hadn\u2019t intended to get into the film and television industry, though film was a part of his life from an early age.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had one little cinema in our town,\u201d Jethro recalls, \u201cand you\u2019d go with your family and the whole town would be there. I guess that\u2019s where I first became aware of film.\u201d<\/p>\n

There was also a family friend who had access to the emerging video tape market. \u201cWe would watch stuff I definitely shouldn\u2019t have been seeing at a young age like Jaws<\/i>. And then, as I got older, of course, it was Alien<\/i>. I loved John Carpenter. We were also raised on the Marx Brothers or the Jacques Tati film Monsieur Hulot\u2019s Holiday.<\/i> We really were exposed to quite a bit.\u201d<\/p>\n

By the time he attended university, Jethro thought he might pursue a career in the music industry. \u201cI can\u2019t play an instrument,\u201d he says, \u201cbut I thought that was going to be the thing. Maybe get into being a roadie or a manager.\u201d<\/p>\n

But an opportunity to work as a floor runner on commercials changed everything. \u201cWhen you\u2019re a student, you go, \u2018wait, someone\u2019s going to pay me 50 quid cash a day to run around getting stuff, and they\u2019ll feed me?! I\u2019m in!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

On one auspicious day, he was assigned to assist the location department. \u201cThat\u2019s where this career began,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s like, \u2018can you drop some letters off and, while you\u2019re there, knock on a door for us?\u2019 Well, I mean, yeah, of course I can go knock on a door and it\u2019s actually fun because you never know what\u2019s beyond it. Then you\u2019re chatting with really fascinating people and it\u2019s great.<\/p>\n

\u201cLM Keith Pettinato took me under his wing and started training me. It taught me that this is not just a job. You\u2019re building a team and creating this camaraderie because you need that. I\u2019ve carried that with me my whole career.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

After taking off for a couple of years to travel the world and even manage a bar in Sydney, Australia, for a bit, he returned to England. A call from his friend LM Rupert Bray pulled him back into the world of filmmaking. The two would end up working together for several years.<\/p>\n

\u201cRupert really put me through it,\u201d says Jethro. \u201cYou know, in those days, there were no Google maps or things like that. So, I\u2019d have to make the movement orders and do all that stuff. And then I\u2019d give them to Rupert, and he would mark them up or correct them with a big red pen on the recce buses.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Eventually, he would move up to LM on an established UK series and TV movies which led to a career-making opportunity to work on The Hollow Crown<\/i>, a massive production based on Shakespeare\u2019s Richard III<\/i> that entailed huge battle sequences.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThat was the first experience for me of the massive machine that is streaming television. It was a beast,\u201d he says. \u201cI think it worked out because I knew about crowds, I knew about period and I really knew how to find stuff. The one thing I didn\u2019t really know then was the scale of VFX that happens on these shows. That was a huge learning curve.\u201d<\/p>\n

From then on, talking to the VFX team as often as possible has become his mission. \u201cI\u2019m very interested in the VFX guys because it\u2019s helpful to have a sense of what they need because, you know, one day you turn around and suddenly there\u2019s a 40-foot blue screen blocking a road that people had forgotten to mention,\u201d he laughs.<\/p>\n

All that learned experience carried him onto the HBO series The Nevers<\/i>, for which he earned an LMGI Award nomination in 2021 for \u201cOutstanding Locations in a Period Television Series.\u201d<\/p>\n

His newfound understanding of VFX definitely came into play on 3 Body Problem<\/i> and in Iceland on Night Country<\/i>, for which he would receive his second LMGI Award nomination, along with his Truenorth colleagues. This time in the category of \u201cOutstanding Locations in a TV Serial Program, Anthology, MOW, or Limited Series.\u201d<\/p>\n

Having had great mentors of his own, Jethro believes in passing on what he\u2019s learned. \u201cI like the idea of \u2018each one, teach one.\u2019 There are always young people coming through and I try to impress upon my LMs and ALMs that they should really try to give everyone a chance. Despite the uncertainties in our industry, we want to build a generation of people that do this. And I\u2019m really fortunate that I\u2019ve got two people with me who\u2019ve been with me for years. One is now a fantastic LM in his own right who I trust implicitly and it\u2019s great to have that backing and that\u2019s what you learn when you\u2019ve got great mentors.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n
\"\"

(L-R): Robert Garcia, Anna Bjork Hilmarsd\u00f3ttir, Einar Sveinn Thordarson\/LMGI , Birkir Gr\u00e9tarsson Photo courtesy of Einar Sveinn Thordarson\/LMGI<\/p><\/div>\n

TRUE DETECTIVE: NIGHT COUNTRY<\/em> LOCATION DEPARTMENT<\/b><\/span><\/h3>\n

Truenorth SLM – \u00de\u00f3r \u2018Thor\u2019 Kjartansson\/LMGI \u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

SLM – Jethro Ensor\/LMGI<\/b><\/p>\n

Key LM – Robert Garcia<\/b><\/p>\n

LM – Einar Sveinn \u00de\u00f3r\u00f0arson\/LMGI<\/b><\/p>\n

LM (North) – Marino Sveinsson<\/b><\/p>\n

ALM – Birkir Gr\u00e9tarsson\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

Location Coordinator – Anna Bjork Hilmarsd\u00f3ttir\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

Key Location Assistant – Patrick Kristinsson<\/b><\/p>\n

Key Location Assistant – Haukur \u201cThe Hawk\u201d Henriksen\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

Location PA – Gabr\u00edel Marin\u00f3sson<\/b><\/p>\n

Location PA – \u00de\u00f3r\u00f0ur \u2018Dotty\u2019 Kristj\u00e1n Ragnarsson<\/b><\/p>\n

Location PA – Andri Enoksson<\/b><\/p>\n<\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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