Jennifer Baron, 36 /SELF-EMPLOYED /SALARY RANGE: $150 to $175 per day
How did you choose this field?
I didn’t choose it, I fell into it. I graduated from Columbia College in 1987. I wanted to be a director. I joined Women in Film, and they connected me right out of college with a low-budget movie called “War Zone.” I pretty much climbed my way up in the independent feature world to an assistant director, production manager, producer. I worked for free, interned if you will, for almost three years. I had a girlfriend who got me in as a day player production assistant for the movie “Flatliners.” Then another girlfriend got me another day play on John Hughes’ “Only the Lonely.” Those were my first paid gigs, I think I got $50 a day and worked an 18-hour day. My girlfriend called me one day and asked me if I wanted to come work on “Curly Sue.” And in my 36th hour there, they canned some other poor kid and hired me full time. One of the assistant location managers asked me if I wanted to be her assistant manager (location scout) on “Mad Dog and Glory” with Bill Murray. I said, “Sure.” I didn’t even know what a location manager/scout did.
What is your educational background?
I was a journalism major at Indiana University. I saw not good things coming in journalism, so I went to Columbia College and took radio-TV, film, photography. I have a Bachelor of Arts in film and video..
Describe an average day.
In pre-production, the first thing you get is the script. And there’s usually meetings with the director and production designer. They tell you the look they’re going for: Is my main character living in a bungalow, a tri-level, a ranch? What kind of neighborhood is my main character in? So you get the feel.
When we’re just scouting the movie, we call that the honeymoon because it’s only a 12- to 14-hour day. When you move into production it’s longer. We usually hit the ground running by 8 a.m. And then it just depends on your expertise, how well you know the city. You take pictures of locations; then you’ve got hours of pasteup. We have a particular way pictures are pasted up, a standard in the industry. Typically the designer will go through the pile and decide what he or she wants to show the director.
During production, we find the lunch locations for the crew for the day. We find parking for everybody. We do the maps–every day there’s a map that goes to everybody to get to work We open the set and close the set. Our department operates on almost a 24-hour basis.
And then we protect our neighborhood. You’re making sure everyone on that block is happy, and they know what’s going on. And we clean. The best of us leave a location cleaner and better than we found it.
What’s the best thing about the job?
One of the best parts is the people you meet. I’ve met so many spectacular people. Someday when I write my screenplay I’m going to pull from this rich cast of characters.
What’s the worst thing?
The worst thing about my job is the lifestyle is hard. The hours can be brutal. A lot of people don’t stick with it; there’s a high burnout/turnover rate. In the beginning it was my family who didn’t understand the hours. You’re working an 80- or 90-hour week, you can’t return phone calls, you can’t do the simplest things. But then you get three months off, and you’re free to travel the world. It’s hard to have any kind of relationship. The friends who remain in my life are dear, true friends who understand. Finally, my family understands.
What attributes are essential to doing your job well?
You need a sharp, keen mind. You’ve got to be quick-witted and be able to think on your feet, especially in production. You need a positive attitude because the work is so hard. People want to be around people that are up and positive when you’re spending these outrageous hours together. You need perseverance and stamina. You can’t take no for an answer.
What advice do you have for others interested in this field?
To think long and hard about it and the realities of the lifestyle. It takes such dedication to break in, to get anywhere. You could find yourself five years into it and go, “What happened to my life?” That is something I wish I would have been sat down and told in the beginning.
Where do you go from here?
I’m moving into location manager. The location manager negotiates the contracts for the locations, etc. I’ve been assistant manager all these years. Once I’m fully vested in the Director’s Guild of America in nine years, I have a huge dream: By the time I’m 40, I hope to own as many acres of land as possible in Michigan and I want to have my own retreat, a bed-and-breakfast kind of spa place. And of course I want to write. There are a lot of issues I’m passionate about, and I think a screenplay or two or three will come out of me eventually.
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