0:00:02 - VO
Quiet on the set All together and action. Welcome to Media Monuments presented by Women in Film Video in Washington DC. Media Monuments features conversations with industry professionals speaking on a range of topics of interest to screen-based media makers. 

0:00:28 - Tara Jabari
Welcome everyone to Media Monuments. I am your host, Tara Jabari, for this episode. Today we're speaking with Kelly Stewart, a location manager working primarily in Los Angeles. Projects she has worked on include the Oscar-winning Everything Everywhere All At Once and television shows like True Blood. Welcome to the show, kelly, Thanks. Thanks for having me. So first, can you explain in layman's terms what is a location manager? 

0:00:56 - Kelly Stewart
A location manager a lot of times can be one of the very first people on a project. We start immediately. We take the script and speak with the producer, director, production, designer. We find out okay, are you building anything on stage? What locations need to be found, and sometimes we'll start with the big stuff, because if it's lower budget, you're like okay, some of these smaller things, we're going to find this first and then we're going to have to find something. We'll go back to that. Or because what you have to do is sometimes marry a location to another. So, even though you're finding this location, maybe it's not an entire day of shooting, so you need to fill your day with something else. So what we do is we find the locations. Then, once we find the locations and they are locked down, then we prep the locations and we manage the locations. So we handle all the logistics. So we do scouting, then we do prepping, shooting, and then we strike the location. 

0:01:50 - Tara Jabari
Strike meaning you break it down. Clean up, Clean up okay. 

0:01:53 - Kelly Stewart
Break it down. So if you're shooting a house, then we oversee every department comes in and they strike it and we just have to make sure we've left the location in the condition that we've found it in. So if it's like I said, if it's somebody's house and we scratched the wall, either we have to fix it or we pay them to fix it. 

0:02:12 - Tara Jabari
So, for instance, everything everywhere all at once, without giving any spoilers hard to do, but we have. It's in the trailer too. You have the office of where they go for the taxes, you have their laundry mat store and then the apartment above it. So was that something that you were? Okay, these are three major locations and you would find it, or how did that work? 

0:02:36 - Kelly Stewart
The office building. They actually found that before I started, because that's that was such a huge integral part of it that they started just looking, I think before anything happened. But that one, since we shot, I mean we shot there for almost. I think we shot there for a month or something, but we were there for a couple of months prepping and then shooting, so that, yes, we did end up. Then we were in Sasebe Valley, which is a town in like Los Angeles County, and there were some things that we did then go like there was a restaurant in there that was close by, there was that raccoony scene that was all close by. But since we were then also at the laundromat for a long time, that was something that I just went and found. It didn't have to be close to the office at all. 

However, the apartment above it is completely fake because the laundromat's only one story, so they faked it that it was a two-story. So then they built the apartment actually, believe it or not, they built a stage set inside the cafeteria of the office building that we shot in. So, yeah, there was this huge cafeteria and it was a closed office building, so they just put a set in there and then, oddly enough, so there was one scene where they were climbing up the stairs. So that was a super quick scene that I did just literally when we were shooting at the laundromat. I just started driving around looking for two-story buildings and then knocking on people's doors and saying, hey, do you have stairs that you'd be willing to let us film on? So it's like this random office building that makes I think they made parts for airplanes and that's where the stairs was. 

0:04:13 - Tara Jabari
So, like for things that have more of a set, like True Blood or, I'm thinking, american Auto, which is another show you work on, they usually have sets. So where did you help with the set? Not decorations. What do you call it Design? 

0:04:29 - Kelly Stewart
When they're building something on stage. No, I don't do that's the entire art department, anything that's generally once it's built on stage, especially if it's an actual stage. Like that wasn't a real stage. Even though they built it, that was still a location, so I was still in charge of the location part of it. But if we are on a stage like American Auto Hat, we were at Universal Studios, so whenever they shoot on stage, I have nothing to do with it. Like I, like literally I. Sometimes I barely even go to the stage because I there's no reason for me unless somebody's like hey, can you meet me here? 

0:05:03 - Tara Jabari
Yeah. 

0:05:03 - Kelly Stewart
I don't do anything on the stage. I've even in times where I was like where's ours? I don't what stage are we on. I don't even know those things, because when you're shooting on stage, I'm prepping for the locations. 

0:05:15 - Tara Jabari
Can you share an example for something like a television show that usually has a set like True Blood, for instance, because I know that one a little bit better, I did watch it. Can you share an example of when you, as the location manager, would be involved? 

0:05:29 - Kelly Stewart
We did have a stage and some things were built on stage and then some things weren't so, like you remember the bar Merlotz. So the exterior of Merlotz, believe it or not, was in what we call the jungle at the Warner Brothers lot, the back lot. So if there were exterior scenes we would go to Warner Brothers and that would be a location, since it was outside, and then the interior they built that on our stage. So once they go inside, because that structure at Warner Brothers it's just like a shell. 

0:05:56 - Tara Jabari
Yeah, like once you go inside, there is actually no infrastructure for an actual store to be. 

0:06:02 - Kelly Stewart
Exactly. There's some things like Alex's bar that was down on Long Beach that actually was never built on stage until I think the second or third to last season, I can't remember. But we just kept going down there and kept going down there and then, I think, one season they're like we're gonna do a lot of work at Alex's bar, let's finally build it on stage. So they literally had to go in and measure the entire Interior and match it and then they built it, because we'd shot it a hundred times but most places you do. If it's a recurring location or it's going to be a hero location, I should say and he by hero location it just means that's like a main one that will always be around. It's like your house. Your house is your hero location, but like you might go to a restaurant all the time, that's not a hero location. But it could be a recurring location because you go there all the time. How did you? 

0:06:53 - Tara Jabari
get started in Managing locations or, in this specific field, when it comes to film and television a long time ago when I was looking for a job. 

0:07:03 - Kelly Stewart
I'd worked in development before, and development can be a lot of like you spin your wheels and you don't really get anything Accomplished or done. You don't work on any projects, it's just trying and trying and trying. And I really wanted to work on something when it was like I wanted to film something. I wanted to see it all the way through to the end, and I can't remember who or whatnot. But somebody got me an interview with the line producer on a movie and I met with her. She was great and she called me and she's like hey, I loved you. You were great. 

I have to hire some other producers, son, or was like something like that. She's like which you know sucks, but my location manager is looking for a locations coordinator. Would you be interested? And at that point in time I needed a job and I was like yeah, I'm totally interested. And so she's great, I'll give you your number, she'll call you. So I hung up the phone and literally I was like what's locations? I literally had no idea what it was, but I said yes, and that's I cheek. The woman called me and I got the job. It was really just, I needed a job. It was in production. I was like I guess it sounds cool. I really really fell into it. 

0:08:12 - Tara Jabari
What has been some of your favorite aspects of it that makes you keep going back to this particular job. 

0:08:20 - Kelly Stewart
Technically speaking, I'm in a union. The benefits are great Most people who stick around a lot of reasons for that. But as far as the locations aspect of it, it gets more interesting as you move up a little bit and you're not stuck on set. I don't like being stuck on set. I prefer the prep of it. I like finding the locations For everything everywhere all at once. When they were like find a laundromat, I swear I went into a minimum of 100 laundromats. I probably drove by another 100 that I didn't even like some of them. I would pull into the parking lot and leave Some of them. I would drive by and just not even stop because there's a laundromat on every corner. I was looking for a really long time for that one, but when I finally found the one that we shot in when I walked in I was like this is it. This is the one. I do like that aspect of it. When you find that's perfect location, it's really cool you went by what? 

0:09:16 - Tara Jabari
from talking with the director or reading the script to understand. Do visualize what that laundromat, for instance, in this example, what it would feel like or look like and that's how you would go into a parking lot. You're like this isn't going to be it. You go to number 99 and all that stuff. 

0:09:31 - Kelly Stewart
You definitely start off by reading the script. You have to know what is needed. There is a parking lot scene. There has to be somewhere where you're going to shoot the exterior work that obviously you have to think about that. Then the stuff inside. As far as what becomes better for shooting, you start to learn these things that it's bigger is always better. You can't make something look bigger, but you can make something look smaller if that's necessary. 

Having something where people can move around really helps. A lot of laundromats are really thin and long, which can only give you depth on one side and then look a little stunted. It also needed to feel like at this family's home. It should have had that homey feel to it that they've been there for a long time. There's just some laundromats have this weird corporatey looking vibe to them. But you do talk to the director. You talk to the production designer. On that movie they actually gave me a vision board. They would give me pictures of stuff. Obviously I'm not going to find that specific thing. Then the production designer usually always has a lookbook or something where they've also put inspiration photos. You have these inspiration photos that are in your head that you've seen, and that really helps. 

It can be different on a TV show when we're moving a lot of faster. Sometimes it is like find us a laundromat, that's two stories and that's it. In features you get a lot more direction, but sometimes you just don't have that time. You do have to find something, but the longer I've done this I feel like the better I can find you something, whereas somebody who just started you're like why did you show me this? This is the smallest, teeny, tiny. There's no way we can fit anyone in it. Or it's on the second story and there's no elevator. And when you have a crew of 100, nobody wants to carry equipment upstairs. There's certain things that you get better at, that you learn as you do this longer. But yeah, I've been doing this a while. I know what looks good on camera and what doesn't. 

0:11:33 - Tara Jabari
Do you have any advice or have you been given advice when you were starting your career? As you're saying, the more you work, the more you're equipped to know what to look for and things like that, and obviously one of the big part about working on screen-based media, which is what this podcast concentrates on is experience. You really have to learn on the job. Is there anything that any advice or anything that you learned while you were starting in your career that you think is useful for people to keep in mind, like it helped you? 

0:12:09 - Kelly Stewart
I think more is better, like when you go scouting. If you like the location, then you need to sell it to me. It goes through several processes of selling, but, which means don't tell me this location is great, you only took 10 photos. You could take 100 and then only show me 20, but just you have to really understand that you have to sell it to me that when I see these pictures, that means let's go shoot there. There are certain things that if you care, I find that if somebody cares, they do a better job. And then the people who don't care and they show up with five pictures and they didn't go outside or something. It goes a long way to put more of your heart into it than just thinking well, I took a picture of the place, can't you tell it's like no. 

0:13:01 - Tara Jabari
Is it sort of like you have to feel like you're in the story as well? If you don't feel like you're in the story, it's not going to work. 

0:13:07 - Kelly Stewart
Yes, read the script. A lot of people don't read the script and then I'm like what about that scene that says it's out back by the dumpster? Did you go out back? Oh, I didn't know there was a scene. I took pictures of the front and I'm like that's not where the dumpster scene is. They're like oh, you didn't tell me that. It's like you were supposed to read the script. So if you read the script, okay, I'm going to shoot. What else is there? There's a lot of responsibility involved and there's a lot to think about. So it definitely requires a lot of multitasking. In addition to multitasking what you're doing, you have to multitask in your brain. Oh, you know what? When I was driving to that laundromat, that I thought was really cool, there was also this outdoor park and we have a scene in a park later. Yeah, there's just a lot of things to remember. 

0:13:57 - Tara Jabari
I was wondering you were just sharing like, oh, you had to look for a building that just had stairs for everything everywhere all at once. Has there ever been a time where you're like I love this location, this is a perfect one? But then either if it's a house, the homeowners don't want to use it, or what have been some trials that have been frustrating for you, and what have you done to overcome those? 

0:14:23 - Kelly Stewart
Oh gosh, I mean, there was this one project where the house was like a huge deal and the production designer was like I keep driving by this house, it's super cool, and I managed to get ahold of the owners and I thought I talked them into it. But once it started to get into it they freaked out and they were like no, never mind, we don't want to do it. And we were going to be there once an episode, we were going to be there a lot. Unfortunately, the show got canceled and shut down before we even filmed a scene. But it is tough when you lose something like that, where there's nothing you can do, you just have to start over again and keep trying. It happens, locations fall through. But yeah, I'm trying to think of another. 

Oh, there was one cool scene on True Blood where we found this cool place, but, as I'm sure you remember from watching it, a lot of the places were run down and like we didn't go to Disney concert hall. We were at you know what crack dens and that's what they were written as, and so we literally it was supposed to be like a crack den and we found this cool location and then we discovered black mold. Oh no, we couldn't shoot there, we had to find something else. There are sometimes where you find a location and you're like, oh, this is great. But then you bring in somebody like safety, and they're like, yeah, you can't have 100 people inside this house for 12 hours. 

0:15:41 - Tara Jabari
I was gonna ask do you work closely with like legal and then set departments and things like that? I feel like you're as involved as, let's say, a director who has their head in every little department. 

0:15:53 - Kelly Stewart
Yeah, the locations department pretty much works with every single department in a sense, because I'm support. So if you need something or at a location, you should come to me and ask for something. So deal with the art department more than any other department. For sure, if you're hanging, you wanna hang something on the wall. You can't just walk into someone's home, believe it or not, and just drill holes into their walls. They don't want you to do that, so you do just have to ask permission. Even though you're already there. 

It doesn't mean you can just do whatever you want to a location. 

You're a renter, you're not, you're on it. 

So you have to keep a lot of those things in mind. But we also deal with safety, which I do really like, because I feel like and I know a lot of the crew I don't know if they know how much time we spend on safety, but like if something, if somebody is like, hey, can we go put lights up on the roof, I'm like the location says that you can, but I'm gonna call on a brother safety because they told me if I hear their R word, I have to call and they literally we make an appointment and they come out and we go up on the roof and if they feel that it needs further inspection, we like have to get a specialist to kind of like if you're filming near a river, if you're filming in water, if you're filming near a cliff. There's just like all these things, that like there are other people who will think about it as well, but it does for bringing people out. I need to take care of that as well. I have my safety hat on. 

0:17:17 - Tara Jabari
While you've been on set, and you've worked on quite a few big projects, were you ever curious about other aspects on it that you wanted to look into, like, were you ever interested in being in set, design or the art department? 

0:17:32 - Kelly Stewart
The art department was never something that I was interested in. I was more interested in wanting to produce than doing that. Most of the people who are in art departments and stuff do have a creative background or they start. Everybody kind of starts at the bottom, you work your way up and most production designers have design backgrounds, like they know. Some of them even are architects. So there's just a lot more that goes into that. But when you do bigger projects you end up in a union. You're in your union. It's not so easy just to be like, hey, I wanna go get a job in the art department. 

0:18:07 - Tara Jabari
And you really do seem like you really enjoy what you've been doing for a few years. 

0:18:12 - Kelly Stewart
There are times that I enjoy it, there are times that I do not. But I think that's if somebody who works in production were to tell you that they love their job all the time they're allowing. Yeah, it's a hard job, it's a really hard job. If you don't wanna work really hard and work long hours, don't get into it, just don't. I respect for a lot of people who are like, look, I just wanna do this and I wanna go home. That's, I respect that. That's all I wanna do. All I wanna do is I wanna do my job, but I wanna go home and it can be really demanding, really stressful, and sometimes it is fun. I find it's more fun if I like the people that I work with, but there can be times where it's just really hard. 

You're constantly thinking about budget and I've got to make sure that 100 crew members can go move to a brand new location tomorrow and that they have everything that they need to get their job done. So there's just there's so much that goes into it. The logistics can get. It's huge. You have to have a permit, you have to have bathrooms, you have to have a certificate, somewhere for us to eat lunch All of those things are falling under the locations banner. So there's just a lot in addition to dealing with you're at somebody's home. You're dealing with that, which is a huge job in itself. 

Imagine if you let 100 people into your home with heavy equipment, who, no offense, they don't care if they're stepping on your rose bushes because they need to get somewhere and they're not gonna shut the door, put your dog in a you know, kind of like we're not gonna shut the door behind us, like all these things that we have to think about. Like you and it's usually better for you to leave. If you're like in a, rent your house to me, I don't want you there, I want you to leave. You can have somebody else be in charge, but it can't be, it shouldn't be you, because you'll freak out, you'll hate it. You'll be like, oh my God, what are they doing? So it's like one of the things that I tend to do is I'll pay you to leave. I don't want you there. You will hate it. You will freak out like, just leave, and then just tell everybody that this cool movie shot at your house and you'll be fine. 

0:20:25 - Tara Jabari
I know you're like you will see the finishing product and you will be like, huh, that's my bedroom. Or oh, those were my front doors. But during the making of it you'd be like they're gonna scratch the wall. They're gonna scratch the wall. And then your tent, it'll change the whole energy. 

0:20:41 - Kelly Stewart
It's awful, yeah, it's not good. People are like, they're like we just don't want it to be inconvenient. I'm like then don't do it. It's horribly inconvenient. Filming is inconvenient for anybody involved. We are big, we come in fast and hard and loud and early and we're there for a really long time. We will damage something I try not to, but something will get damaged and then we'll clean it up and we pay you a lot of money and we leave and it can be fun or it can be stressful, but it's never the same. I can tell you that it's always something different that's happening. 

0:21:21 - Tara Jabari
It's just like as soon as you're done with finding the laundry mat, you're like we have to find the apartment and we have to find the stairwell to get to that. It feels like it's never done. 

0:21:30 - Kelly Stewart
No, you're looking for these all at the same time. It's not find the laundry mat and then be done and then go, move on to the next one. I'm finding them all at the same time. And then you also find multiple options and then sometimes they don't always. Even though that's the one you shot, they might go back to it three or four times before they pick it. It's very rare that you'll be like you take everybody to see one place and that's the one that they pick. So sometimes you'll go out multiple times to look for a grocery store or a bowling alley or just whatever. You'll keep going to multiple ones. But the best thing to do is just get people out and look at stuff. 

0:22:08 - Tara Jabari
Is there anything else that you'd like to share with people, the listeners, what to take into account when they watch something, with all the different aspects? One of my favorite things about media and monuments is we like to talk to people that people forget. It's not just the director or the actor or the writer. There's so many other aspects. We do talk to them but, like the editors, the special effects people, the location managers, the crafts people, all this without all of you guys, we wouldn't have the entertainment or the documentary or the film or the television show. So anything else you'd like to share with viewers? 

0:22:46 - Kelly Stewart
Oh, there's so many people that put together something that you were gonna watch. It took hundreds of people months in preparation and I think a lot of people talk about, like you said, the director, the actors. People talk about wardrobe, they talk about hair, but people very rarely are gonna talk about the lighting which can make a break. You know the sound guy. I know there's times where you're like what'd they say? Believe it or not? There's like a lot of things that you've got somebody who does. You got to. You want this beautiful night scene when we need a light from above. So you've got either somebody building a scaffolding just to put a light, or it's too sunny and it's creating too many shadows. You'd be surprised at what people have to do just to create that light, which can take hours for somebody to get. But it's a lot. There's a lot of people involved that we were called below the line, that go into making your favorite movie, your favorite TV show, that you know you don't see them. We're all behind the camera. 

0:23:51 - Tara Jabari
Thank you, and the next time I'm watching something, I will be thinking of all the hundreds of people behind the camera. Thank you so much, mm-hmm. 

0:24:32 - Kelly Stewart
Thank You.