One day prior to leading multiple tours of the original location of Industrial Light & Magic, in Van Nuys, CA, for over a hundred people, renowned visual effects innovator and nine-time Academy Award winner Dennis Muren met up with us at the location. It was the first time Dennis had stepped foot inside the building in nearly fifty years, making it once-in-a-lifetime 'On Location" episode. We talked about the maddening pressure of creating the groundbreaking visual effects for "Star Wars" (1977) at this nondescript industrial property outside the Van Nuys airport, why he wanted to work for George Lucas and the filmmaker's clear cinematic vision, meeting Steven Spielberg for the first time at ILM, Van Nuys, his genuine love of movies and filming locations, and his feelings on the reemergence of VistaVision.

Today, the location is home to Neiman & Company, an established architectural signage firm that's been in business since 1965 and purchased the building in the early 2000's. www.neimanandco.com

Just in time for the holidays, four-time Academy Award-nominated production designer Jeannine Oppewall joins us at Union Station Los Angeles to talk about working on Steven Spielberg's Christmas-adjacent film, "Catch Me If You Can". Jeannine discusses using Union Station in a non-traditional fashion; getting lucky with two vacant, mid-century modern airport terminals; what makes the best sets; how life experience came full-circle to inspire one of the major location choices in "Catch Me If You Can"; why you can't trust IMDb locations lists, and much more. Our 25th episode is a mini-masterclass with one of Hollywood's most esteemed contemporary production designers.

Visit the Ticket Concourse at Union Station Los Angeles through Wednesday, December 25, 2024.

https://www.unionstationla.com/happenings/experience-the-holidays-at-union-station-2024/

Also, check out our new book, 'World Film Locations: Los Angeles Volume 2', edited by Jared Cowan, Gabriel Solomons and Fabrice Ziolkowski. Available wherever you buy books.

https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/distributed/W/bo238313161.html

In our first episode outside of Los Angeles, we head to Philly to meet up with location manager Andrew Ullman at Ontario St. Comics. Andrew reflects on discovering his love cinema while growing up in the City of Brotherly Love, becoming the first agent to one of today's foremost comedic actors, finding artistic gratification as a location professional, and returning to his hometown where he became a frequent collaborator of M. Night Shyamalan's. Jared shares with Andrew his personal connections to the production of "Unbreakable" as we dig into the film's locations. We're also joined by Bill Fink, the owner of Ontario St. Comics, the long-established North Philadelphia comic book shop used in Shyamalan's contemporary superhero tale.

Ontario St. Comics:

www.facebook.com/OntarioComics

Location Manager Kelly Stuart joins us at Majers Coin Laundry, the San Fernando, CA laundromat featured as the home and business of the Wang family in the Best Picture-winning film "Everything Everyhwere All at Once." In what is arguably our most candid conversation to-date, Kelly talks about meeting with the film's creators, the challenges of finding the perfect laundromat, the spiritual "cleansing" of one of the film's locations, why location professionals deserve credit for their roles as creative collaborators, and much more. We're also joined by the owner of the location, Kenny Majers.

Majers Coin Laundry:

Instagram - majers_coin_laundry - www.instagram.com/majers_coin_laundry/

Facebook - San Fernando Majers Coin Laundry

Over a 35 year career, location manager Michael Burmeister worked on some of the most explosive action films in contemporary cinema including "True Lies," "Twister," "Pearl Harbor" and "Transformers." But he broke into the feature film world working locations for two of the most highly celebrated sequels ever made, "Back to the Future Part II" and the trilogy's Western conclusion. On this episode, we meet up with Michael at the South Pasadena home used for Biff's grandmother's house in "Back to the Future Part II." We talk about securing some of the locations from the original film, an unlucky neighborhood location, a cameo appearance in "E.T," and working on "Edward Scissorhands," "Casino," and "National Treasure," on which a fake Liberty Bell made for an awkward 11 o'clock news story.

When Christopher Nolan's feature debut "Memento" hit screens, it shattered all structural conventions of narrative filmmaking. We meet up with the film's location manager, Russ Fega, in Altadena, CA, at the home of the film's muddled and forgetful accountant, Sammy Jankis. Russ lives across the street from the Jankis house and has invited the homeowner, Terry Andrues, to join us. Russ talks in-depth about working with Nolan in the very early part of the filmmaker's career, appearing onscreen in a handful of Nolan's films, and making the transition from a location manager to the owner of a successful location service business.

For more information about Russ's locations company, Home Shoot Home, please visit https://homeshoothome.com.

Director and co-writer of "Tales From the Hood," Rusty Cundieff, meets us in Angelino Heights, outside the turn-of-the-century Victorian used as the exterior of the Simms Funeral Home in the 1995 horror film anthology. Rusty talks the inspiration behind the settings in "Tales From the Hood," filming an explosive zombie scene in downtown L.A., his affinity for cemeteries, and the joys of location scouting.

We meet up with veteran location manager, scout and current Location Managers Guild International (LMGI) board member Ken Haber in the neighborhood from George Clooney's 1950s-set crime drama, "Suburbicon" (2017). Ken talks the challenges of finding a period-accurate, '50s housing development in contemporary L.A., becoming Ridley Scott's go-to location manager, and a familial connection going back to Brooklyn, NY. A few of the neighbors of Ash Avenue also join us to talk about the experience of having their street appear in a major motion picture.

Eddie Murphy's 2007 film "Norbit" was a critical disaster but a gargantuan success at the box office. We sit down with the film's assistant location manager, David Lyons, at the Great Wall Chinese restaurant in Reseda, CA, the interior location for the film's Golden Wonton Restaurant and Orphanage. David discusses the ins and outs of shooting an Eddie Murphy picture on location, why "Norbit" is a problematic movie, his genuine love of filming locations, and why "Norbit" remains on his resume.

We're back for our first episode "On Location" since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. We meet up with "Punch-Drunk Love" location manager Larry Ring at Eckhart Auto Body, the site of Adam Sandler's workplace in the 2002 offbeat romantic comedy by San Fernando Valley native, Paul Thomas Anderson. Also joining us is the owner of Eckhart Auto Body, Mark Cardella Sr. Larry and Mark haven't seen each other since the movie was made, and the stories are priceless.

Visit Eckhart Auto Body: http://eckhartautobody.net