FOCUS: the Meeting Place for International Productionbroke all of its attendance records, a 30% increase over 2018, and the Guild was front and center. LMGI Board Member Georgette Turner spear headed the event, staffing the booth with a dedicated group: Tom Howard, Mick Ratman, James Davey, Tom Davey, Jessica Wright, and Aliya Parvez. The expanded conference schedule, networking events, and panels were all well attended. Over the course of two days, more than 3,400 production professionals from more than 80 countries filled London’s bustling Business Design Centre.
Board Members John Rakich and Lori Balton joined Turner and LMGI Members Harriet Lawrence, Ben Ahmed and Markus Bensch on a number of SRO panels, including the LMGI Panel “A Tale of Four Cities,” “Perception: the Politics of Locations,” “Scaling up: the impact of a streamer in your local territory,” and the Bectu Panel “Meet the Supervising Location Managers.” Lawrence additionally held a Masterclass with the Designer (BIFA winner) Cristina Casali, on the Personal History of David Copperfield, as well as a short presentation about the need to train the next generation and the re-boot of her Assistant Location Managers Training course, sponsored by the UK Location Collective.
The LMGI booth had a consistent crowd throughout the show, with a good number of new member and business partners excited about joining. Members Trish Gray (New York), Jonas Spokas (Lithuania), Kristofer Piir (Estonia), and many of our UK members packed the meet and greet social. Many film commissions are planning fam tours with us. With countries new to incentives, we hope to work out educational seminars as well, for film commissioners and aspiring Location Managers.
It was great to meet so many of our Business Partners here, including The Honolulu Film Office, Film Fixer, Ready to Shoot (Portugal), Panorama Films (Italy), the Valencia Tourism Office, the Polish Film Institute, Central Athens (Greece), the Western Norway Film Commission, the Production Service Network, Babieka (Spain), Panda Films (Turkey), Family Film (Romania), Film In Iceland, Finnish Lapland Film Commission, the Trinidad and Tobago Film Commission, Film Malta, and the Good Film Company.
Kudos and endless gratitude to our partners—the makers and shakers at the Location Guide for making this dream a reality. It was a testament to our solidarity, growth, and bringing attention to the fact that we are truly ambassadors to the world, celebrating excellence on location!
London’s Business Design Centre provided the perfect venue
Longtime LMGI supporter and Business Partner Walea Constantinau of the Honolulu Film Office.
The LMGI Panel/ A Tale of Four Cities….Filming in Toronto, London, Berlin and Los Angeles….with John Rakich, Georgette Turner, Markus Bensch, and Lori Balton moderated by LMGI Member and veteran UK Location Pro Harriet Lawrence
Turner with Business Partner Film Fixer’s Karen Everett and Andrew Pavord
Trinidad and Tobago Film Commissioner Nneka Luke; Czech Film Commissioner Pavlína Žipková; Zuzana Bieliková, Slovak Film Commission; and Slovak Location Pros Patrick Horvath, and Peter Bezak
Tom Davey and John Rakich share a moment
Perception/ the Politics of Locations. LMGI Board Members Georgette Turner, John Rakich, and Lori Balton dodge political landmines in today’s complicated sphere of filming. Moderated by the Location Guide’s Shona Smith.
The tall and the short of it–Location Pros Jonas Spokas and Trish Gray
Veteran Location Manager Jane Soanes
Siobhan O’Sullivan, Kerry Screen Commission, joins Georgette Turner and Ben Ahmed
Panda Films Suat Saglam and Chad Ozturk join hardworking LMGI members Jessica White and Mick Ratman…promoting excellence on location worldwide.
One of our newest members, Location Pro Kristofer Piir, from Estonia
Mick Ratman
LMGI Board Member Georgette Turner with event organizer, the Location Guide’s Clara Le
Lisa Dee, London Borough of Barking & Dagenham Film Office with Georgette Turner
Georgette Turner and Central Athens Productions Andreas Tsilifonis.
Anna Ewa Dziedzic of the Polish Film Institute, Board Member and panelist John Rakich, and Monika Glowacka, Lodz Film Commission
Alexander Naas of Tunisia joins the crowd at the LMGI Booth.
Akshay Desai, Tom Howard, and Shaun Mucner and Sarah Cardall-Spawforth of Hatfield House