Interview Number 2 Ryan Phillips

David Rumble-Location Manager 

Michigan 

In your job, what are some challenges you have to deal with in relating to “production” people?

I am a location manager so I really have a big job in that i facilitate all the departments. I have to make sure that hair and make up have a place to set up, parking is available, everyone being safe, and pretty much anything else under the sun that you can imagine.I think the most important challenge is to make sure all lines of communication are open all the time. If this does not happen then things can go bad really fast. If you communicate with everyone and keep a loud voice then things will run smoothly. 

Can you tell me a war story, or a story of when something went badly wrong, or seemed like it was going to fall apart, but then ended up working out [or didn’t work out].

Yes, the last movie i worked on ran very low on money and needed to be shot in downtown Detroit for two days at the cost of 24,000. The producer came to me and said he wanted it cheaper in which case i replied that it was impossible to do because they only had 2500 so things were real bad. It was 6 days until the shoot and we needed a elegant boardroom and a downtown Detroit looking street. I was freaking out with nowhere to shoot, and then I found this amazing public library. It was just what we wanted, and we got them sign off on it (side note: make sure whoever signs the paper work is high enough in position to do so. In the past I have had someone sign papers who was not aloud to, and that can get bad fast) Anyway everything turned out good and the shoot went very well. I have also had bomb threats happen down the road from where we had been shooting, and we had to call the news to make them get there choppers out of the sky. Crazy crazy stuff....


Do you have any advice for a person starting out in the business, someone who is about to graduate?

You just have to keep bugging people, and be really really aggressive. Make sure people know who you are so they can match your face with your resume. Its also very important to look very busy on the job you are working on even if you are not because people will remember you for this.