{"id":5901,"date":"2023-11-23T09:58:23","date_gmt":"2023-11-23T08:58:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/filmmadrid.com\/noticias\/?p=5901"},"modified":"2023-12-09T19:09:02","modified_gmt":"2023-12-09T18:09:02","slug":"talk-with-location-manager-matthew-chamberlin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/filmmadrid.com\/noticias\/talk-with-location-manager-matthew-chamberlin\/","title":{"rendered":"Interview with location manager Matthew Chamberlin"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Matthew Chamberlin, experienced location manager for major studios productions, visited Madrid region during the international fam trip promoted by Film Madrid. <\/h3>\n\n\n\n

As part of the fam trip<\/a><\/strong> organized together with Madrid Film Office last October, Film Madrid had the opportunity to talk to Matthew Chamberlin<\/strong>, a location scout with a great professional career in feature films and series for American studios. Matthew Chamberlin<\/a> has been in the film industry for more than 30 years, 25 of them working in the location department. He began his career in commercials, and moved into film and television when he took a job with producer Jerry Bruckheimer as an office assistant and later as a personal assistant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1996 he started as location assistant on the film Armageddon<\/em> and since then has worked on feature film projects such as Enemy of the State<\/em>, Matchstick Men<\/em>, Hillbilly Elegy, Zombieland 2: Double Tap, and Samaritan, and for television he has located on series such as Modern Family, The First Lady and Halt and Catch Fire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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– Welcome to Madrid Mr. Chamberlin, and congratulations for your long career. Have you visited Madrid in any previous location?  No unfortunately have not but I aim to do that soon with one of my producers.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

– Have you worked for any production shot in Spain? I have not yet but have filmed in Italy, France, Ireland and the UK<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

– What has been your impression of the fam trip so far? Any location has caught your attention in particular? The fam tour has been very well thought out to accommodate for everyone involved, showing us a very diverse portfolio of locations and led by knowledgeable guides. As all of the locations have been fabulous, I\u2019d say if I had to pick one in particular, it would be the diversity of neighborhoods and architecture in the City which allow a filmmaker to shoot almost anywhere.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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– In your view, are the locations in Madrid really known by the major American studios? I would say no, but they soon will be after I pass my photos along to my studio contacts.  I would love to see more so that I have a greater diversity to show them, the more the better.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

– In your opinion, what would be the main factors for a major US production to shoot in Spain, and more specifically in Madrid?   The availability of crew and stages, the hotel base and simplicity of moving around Madrid and the country of Spain, the diversity of locations, and of course, the generous tax credit.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

– Spain has implemented improvements in tax incentives, by the impulse of the institutional plan \u201cSpain, Audiovisual Hub of Europe \u00bb in the last three years; could be the decisive reason for attracting more filming from the USA? Yes definitely, as we all know the most important factor a studio makes when deciding where to film a project is cost which is based upon tax credits.  This will definitely offer Spain a leg up as they say.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

– What do you think about Film Commissions and Film Offices? Do you make use of these offices in your localization work? Any experience in Spain? I definitely use both the State and local film commissions when going into any City as a basic starting point for any project, followed by the permitting entities.  I have not had any experience in Spain but would like to interface more with you in the future.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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– As a Film Commission we have a lot of contact with location managers, professional associations and junior profiles that want to enter the profession, we would like to know more about your work method. So how did you originally become a location manager? Originally my father worked as a producer in advertising, which led to a job as an assistant to Jerry Bruckheimer the action producer, from there when it was time to leave his employ, he suggested locations and I\u2019ve been there ever since.  But my rise in locations to manager, came from hard work, determination and staying in one position long enough to master it before moving the the next level.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

– How do you choose locations for the shows? Do you work with the producer and the director to figure out the kinds of places they want?  I read the script and break it down and then speak with the designer, whom I work with side by side to come up with options that work for both the story and environment, then present those options to the director in person, and then through scouting as we hone the locations to the selects that are actually chosen as hero locations.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

– Do you draw heavily on your location portfolio, or do you like to start projects from scratch in search of new locations?  This depends on what type of project I\u2019m working on whether television or features.  However, with both mediums I always start with a \u201cfile pull\u201d of locations to show both the designer and director, hoping to narrow the locations to a select few we have to \u201ccold scout\u201d or find ourselves.  With television, I tend to rely heavily on my portfolio more due to the speed at which the project moves, where with a feature I tend to \u201ccold scout\u201d more.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

– When finding locations, what are some of the least obvious things you look out for to make sure the site is best for filming?  A few of the least obvious things are the ease of permitting and approval through state and local entities, the financial cost of a production, the safety aspect of filming at the location and then the logistical ability to film there, i.e. is there enough parking, do we have places to stage equipment, are there limiting hours in which we can shoot and if so, are they going to hold up getting what we need or can they fit in to our schedule.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

– What\u2019s your favorite thing about the job? And which production has been your best working experience?  My favorite thing about location managing is that no day is every the same, followed by always meeting new people from varied backgrounds.  My favorite production was my first in locations \u201cArmageddon\u201d because the production was not only smooth going but we also shot in a diverse amount of cool locations such as Kennedy Space Center and on an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico.  As a manager my favorite has been \u201cHillbilly Elegy\u201d as a I got to work with Ron Howard and experience his creativity and preparation every single day and it was a pleasure.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

– What advice do you have for someone wanting to get into location management? Find someone in locations and ask them if you can follow them along for a day.  During that day, ask them many questions about why they choose locations, how they scout, and what happens day to day in locations, then ask them if you can work for them as a production assistant.  When you get that chance, work the hardest and smartest of all of the PA\u2019s, asking questions when you don\u2019t know something and success will follow.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Matthew Chamberlin, experienced location manager for major studios productions, visited Madrid region during the international fam trip promoted by Film Madrid. As part of the fam trip organized together with Madrid Film Office last October, Film Madrid had the opportunity to talk to Matthew Chamberlin, a location scout with a great professional career in feature […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":5651,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5901","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","entry"],"featured_image_url":"https:\/\/filmmadrid.com\/noticias\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/entrevista_chamberlin_portada.jpg","featured_medium_image_url":"https:\/\/filmmadrid.com\/noticias\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/entrevista_chamberlin_portada-500x250.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmmadrid.com\/noticias\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5901","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmmadrid.com\/noticias\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmmadrid.com\/noticias\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmmadrid.com\/noticias\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmmadrid.com\/noticias\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5901"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/filmmadrid.com\/noticias\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5901\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5924,"href":"https:\/\/filmmadrid.com\/noticias\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5901\/revisions\/5924"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmmadrid.com\/noticias\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5651"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmmadrid.com\/noticias\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5901"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmmadrid.com\/noticias\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5901"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmmadrid.com\/noticias\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5901"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}