On March 4, DGA members gathered at Guild headquarters in New York for a special master class about the job of the Location Manager. Presented by the AD/UPM Council East’s Location Manager Committee, the Location Manager Master Class: A Conversation with the Experts gave the attendees a primer on the work done by members of this category.
Following a welcome from Location Manager Committee Co-Chairs Joe Guest and Mike Kriaris, the attendees were treated to an entertaining, in-depth discussion on location management with UPM Richard Baratta and 1st AD Joseph P. Reidy.
The first segment, The Director’s Team: ADs and Location Managers Working Together, featured Reidy’s exploration of how Assistant Directors and Location Managers manage the complexities of shooting on location. Reidy discussed the importance of a strong relationship between the Location Manager and the AD team in being able to effectively plan a production schedule, address problems that occur during production, and implement the Director’s creative vision. Reidy’s credits include Jodie Foster’s Money Monster, Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan, and Martin Scorsese’s Goodfellas. He is currently serving as an alternate on the AD/UPM Council East and has been a DGA member since 1979.
In the next segment Baratta guided everyone through The Art of Negotiating. The veteran UPM gave concrete strategies for negotiating difficult deals in New York’s very busy production climate and shared his own war stories of tough and unusual negotiations. A DGA member since 1987, Barratta’s resume includes Scott Derrickson’s Doctor Strange, Martin Scorsese’s The Wolf of Wall Street and Tony Scott’s The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3.
The master class concluded with an open forum where the speakers and co-chairs took questions from the audience.
About the Council
The Eastern AD/UPM Council is the elected body that represents the Assistant Director and Unit Production Manager members of the Guild who reside and/or work in film, television, commercials and new media the East and Midwest regions.