Movers & Shakers
Paul Wilson’s Got The Look
by Michele Elyzabeth
The film and television industries could not exist solely
with the actors who portray our heroes. As Hilary Clinton
put it so well, “it takes a village.” Among the
team of people who help make it happen, there is a gamut of
professionals which are seldom recognized for their
contribution and yet play an important role in the equation.
The perfect example is the job of the Location Manager.
Every show or film has one, but contrary to what we may
think, it is not as easy as one might imagine. Their prime
concern is to find the right look required by the director
and set designer. He is the guy who will validate our dream,
even if he has to fake it. It involves negotiating with
location owners, and covering a number of issues, such as
the cost and terms of the hired crew, vehicle access,
parking, noise reduction, and required permits. Once filming
has started, Location Managers are in charge of managing all
aspects of shooting in each location, as well as making sure
that every location is handed back to its owners in a
satisfactory condition after the shoot and that also means
dealing with insurance. LATF met with Paul Wilson, the
location manager of the #1 TV show CSI. He shared with us
some of his experience.
ME: How did you become a location manager?
Wilson: I actually studied acting and then started working
as a production assistant, just on a low budget feature. I
worked for a producer on two different shows and he said,
“Do you want to do locations on the next one?” I
had no idea what he was talking about, but I said
“Sure.” I kind of learned how to do it from him
on that show, where they would just tell me where to go and
I’d go photograph places and make deals with
people.
ME: How do you choose your location?
Wilson: We read the script and go through the places we need
and to talk to the director about what it is he wants, and
just kind of go out and find places. There are services that
represent houses and — I actually find it’s just easy
to drive around and knock on doors if I know a neighborhood
that has a certain style of house — that kind of thing.
ME: Typically on a show such as CSI. How many locations do
you have to get?
Wilson: It varies, but anywhere from 3 to 7 per episode.
ME: How long does it take you to do that?
Wilson: We have usually about 6 days; so for each episode.
It’s very fast.
ME: So for 6 days, you go from one place to another,
deciding what is going to be the look?
Wilson: Yeah. We’ll spend one day going out and
finding places, photographing them, and then the last five
days usually I’m in a van with the director and the
producer and production designer and director of photography
and we drive around and we look at different locations and
we all decide together what they want to use.
ME: Is there a specific area in Los Angeles that you usually
deal with? Or do you go to Pasadena and Santa Monica and all
over the place?
Wilson: Yeah, on this show, we don’t go to the west
side very much; we try and stay in the valley, but
we’ll go to Pasadena and we go to Santa Clarita a lot
because it’s set in Las Vegas. Santa Clarita — a lot
of the areas look like Las Vegas looks.
ME: What does it take to become one of the top guys in your
business?
Wilson: It’s mostly just hard work and being a nice
guy to everybody. So then when somebody goes onto the next
show, if they like you, they hire you back again. I got this
show from a production manager who was the production
manager on “My So-Called Life.” I was an
assistant on that, and then I worked for him on a TV pilot
that never got on the air. So he called me when this show
started.
ME: Any desire to do anything else?
Wilson: Not really. Sometimes I like to perform comedy.
ME: So you still have the bug.
Wilson: Yes, but I’d like to make money, so.
ME: You could do maybe both while you go on a hiatus. How
long have you been doing this now?
Wilson: Since 1991. And I got into the union in 1994 on My
So-Called Life.
ME: Can you tell me an anecdote that has happened on any of
the shows? Have you ever been let down?
Wilson: A few times — it actually happens a lot because we
have so little time to find locations; like sometimes
we’ll go to a location on somebody’s word that
maybe we can use, maybe we can’t. And then sometimes
we lose it and have to find something else. It actually just
happened yesterday. There is a business park and we wanted
to use it because it had a roll up warehouse door. The
business owner really wanted us to film there, but the
property management company just took it over, so two people
I talked to at their office said they’d want us to
film there. And then the last person called me back and
said, “No, they couldn’t get it done.”
They said ‘because we wanted music this Friday.’
And I had sent them all the paperwork, or sent them all the
information last Friday, but she didn’t get it until
yesterday, and said that wasn’t enough time for her to
get everything done. So this morning we went out and found
another place that looks similar and the guy wanted us there
and it worked out fine.
ME: So you saved the day and are still on schedule.
Wilson: We’re always trying to find a back-up
location. There’s another one that I don’t know
if it’s that funny, but there was an episode where 5
monks were killed in a temple, and there’s a temple in
North Hollywood on Cold Water Canyon. Wat Thai Temple. And
they’re very film friendly, generally. So I went and
talked to somebody there and I had a translator from the
temple and I told her exactly what we wanted to do — that 5
monks would be shot and killed in the temple. And she said
it was fine, and for a couple of days we started planning
this, and somebody called me who wasn’t part of the
temple, but was a member and they had sent him the script
and he said ‘you can’t do this in the temple —
we’re not going to let you do this.’ And I
don’t think she understood English very well, and was
just happy to be helpful. And so we ended up having to —
they still let us film outside, where we didn’t have
any violence or anything —and then we built the interior
temple on stage.
ME: Is this a lucrative profession?
Wilson: Yes, it is.
Me: How many people are in the union?
Wilson: I don’t know; probably a few hundred location
managers.
ME: Still not that many.
Wilson: No.
ME: It’s a rather restricted profession.
Wilson: Yeah.
ME: How do you get in it though?
Wilson: Just getting to know somebody, or — I mean most of
the people that I know — I’ve actually gotten like
four people into the union that just were looking for a job
and they were smart and thought quickly on their feet. And I
think all four of them are still working on other shows now,
so…
ME: What quality would you say you have to have to do this
show?
Wilson: Well, skill in photography and knowledge of the city
or the ability to find things fairly quickly and a lot of
charm. You have to talk people into letting you do things
that they maybe don’t want you to.
ME: I would imagine that people do want to let you do
whatever.
Wilson: A lot of people — it seems like there would be more.
I’m surprised at the number of people who don’t
want filming or who are just worried about it. And a lot of
it is because a lot of film companies — I don’t know
about now, but I know in the past — would go in and film
some place and do damage and leave and never take care of
it.
ME: But you are protected. You carry insurance.
Wilson: Yeah. And if somebody’s nervous, I usually
offer them a security deposit or something to make sure that
we’re going to get it back. And the crew I’m
working with is unbelievable. They’re really great; we
hardly ever damage anything, and if we do, we’ll
repair it immediately.
ME: Do you have assistants?
Wilson: Yes, I have three assistants.
ME: And what are their jobs?
Wilson: They’re mostly out scouting for things, and
then while we’re on the location, they’re there,
taking care of the neighbors, or the home owner, or the
business owner — making sure that our company can do
everything they want, and that everybody around us is not
too disrupted by it, because it’s like a huge
circus.
ME: At the end of the day, is this a profession that you
would recommend to people, if they have the perfect
qualities?
Wilson: Yes, and it can be very stressful, but I like it a
lot.
ME: What are the pros and cons?
Wilson: I don’t know that I can think of any cons
other than it is a stressful job; you have to get more than
you often can. You have money restrictions and time
restrictions and scheduling restrictions — all these things
that you have to kind of work together to make whatever
location you end up at work.
ME: Long hours?
Wilson: Long hours, which I never minded.
ME: And how much time do you have off the year when
you’re on a series?
Wilson: This, I’m usually on ten months, and have a
two months hiatus, which is great — so for the past eight
years — I’ve been on this for 14 years, so the past
8…I bought a house in upstate New York, because I
couldn’t afford one on the west side, which is where I
want to live. And I have family in New York. So every hiatus
I drive out there and drive back, which is really fun.
That’s the other thing — I love driving and finding
new places.
ME: That’s a good thing.
Wilson: (laughs) It’s my job. So I try and take a
different route across the country every year; it’s
pretty fun.
ME: When we look at these shows and see all these different
types of places, you wonder: What does it take to find all
of these places?
Wilson: Yeah, it’s fun. And I’ve found places
where just randomly found the most bizarre things. We were
looking for a bombing suspect who was supposed to live in
the middle of nowhere; and I was out in Santa Clarita and
just took the side road, and went over a hill and it’s
just desert and there was a trailer and an above ground pool
and a bunch of cars and a little garage. And the guy who
lived there let us film. Everyone asked, how did you find
this?! You would be surprised what you can accomplish with
kindness and a little charm.