stst415's profile

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Tuesday, March 2nd, 2021 8:50 PM

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Film Commissioner ---> Location Management

A few years back, I helped advise on the formerly miscellaneous crew job positions that needed to be migrated into the new location management category, but I noticed today that we missed a major one.  Could you please assist now with moving "film commissioner" (and all of its iterations, such as "film commission assistant", and anything else that starts with "film office", such as "film office coordinator" or "film office assistant") from what is now called additional crew into location management?  All of these job positions are fully part of the location management department, so much so that they even help set up and attend our location scouting.  Thank you!

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4 years ago

Hi stst415 -

 

I confirmed with our editors that "film commissioner" credits should still be listed under the "Additional Crew" section on the site, as such, these should not be moved to the "Location Management" section.

 

 

 

 

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Michelle, as always, thanks for your help!  But... this is actually and factually incorrect, so... please... could you share with the editors this argument otherwise?

The role of film commissioners and film office coordinators is to bring filming to their region and, as such, their entire job deals with locations!  They work directly underneath the supervising location manager by offering location ideas, sharing location libraries, conducting location scout visits, taking location photographs, doing location permitting, providing location support, dealing with location issues,  coordinating location logistics, and more.

Or, think of it this way....

The Additional Crew category is a placeholder until the day when those people get IMDb department headings of their own (such as Production Office, Stand-Ins & Photo Doubles, Accountants, and Production Assistants).  There will never be a category for Film Commissions since they aren't a department of their own.  The ONLY possible place to put them is into Location Management.  I mean, seriously, the category title itself is exactly what they do: LOCATION... MANAGEMENT.  It's written right there in the name.     :-)

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Thank you for your thoughts.  The TL;DR summary and response, though, is that there might be very occasional exceptions (which can move to additional crew, if necessary), but film commissioners are almost always interchangeable with film coordinators.  Examples: Ami Zins of Oakland and Sharon Pinkerson of Philadelphia.  Both have film commissioner titles, but both work in the location departments.  They have extensive IMDb credits that need to move to location department.

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* Sharon Pinkenson   (correction)

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I didn’t say they are location managers, but they do location department work under the direction of the supervising location manager.  And, as I noted before, if somebody has the same job title, but works in a different capacity (the exception to the rule), then that person can stay in additional crew or move where is appropriate.  Thank you!

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EXAMPLES OF PEOPLE WITH "FILM COMMISSIONER" JOB TITLES WHO WORK ENTIRELY IN THE LOCATION DEPARTMENT

Sharon Pinkenson of Philadelphia

Ami Zins of Oakland

Marshall D. Moore of Utah

Andy Edmunds of Virginia

Kenny Boyce of Winnipeg

Guy Gaster and Aaron Lee Syrett of North Carolina

Mikael Svensson and Berit Tilly of Sweden

Thomas Fuchs of Austria

Pere Claveria of Spain

Rino Piccolo of Italy

Wendol Jarvis of Iowa

Lisa Strout of New Mexico

and many, many, many more....

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4 years ago

Hi stst415 -

 

Thanks for your feedback on the current credit policy for "film commissioner" credits. 

 

As our staff actively  review Idea threads when considering changes to credit policies, I have modified the status of this thread to "Idea" so other users can vote on  categorizing these credit types as "Location Management" vs "Additional Crew".  

 

 

 

 

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@Michelle Is this a serious post?

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Michelle, with all due respect, I thought the same thing as Marco.  This is such a no-brainer that suggesting a vote is akin to voting on whether illustrators belong in art department, or DGA trainees in assistant directors.  Any chance, based on my arguments above, you can just make this migration happen...?    :-)

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@Michelle   Good morning.  I am just checking in on the above comments....

What can we do the expedite this migration?  It's win-win because it not only makes the IMDb database cleaner (reducing related jobs that were inadvertently split between categories), but it also improves the visibility and readability for my own location departments by getting us grouped back together.  I am happy to help if you need anything!

Scott Trimble

Location Manager

Walt Disney Studios

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3 years ago

Just to say, as someone who has worked in both the locations department as crew, and as part of a film commission, that I think Michelle is right on this one.

As crew, I would have been baffled to see a film commission(er) or film office employees listed under the locations department, and have never seen them credited as such on-screen.

As part of a film commission, I would equally be baffled by a locations department credit. We aren't crew, and would not consider ourselves to be "working directly under" the supervising location manager either. Working directly with, perhaps, but not exclusively - we are often also engaged by producers, production executives, line producers etc. long before anyone from the locations department has come on board.

Some parts of the discussion above also indicate confusion about the distinction(s) between film commissions, film commissioners, and film offices.

As part of a film commission, we expect only to be able to add credits to our commission page where we receive an on-screen thanks, special thanks, or similar.

There is a separate argument to be had about people/organisations in the wider sphere of this area of production who are less conscientious, and simply grant themselves a credit for any production they've had contact with, regardless of whether they receive an on-screen credit. This is usually particularly obvious when they are listed as receiving a "special thanks" from productions that are still filming. We see you!

TL;DR: film commissions, film commissioners, film offices etc. are not part of the locations department and aren't credited this way on-screen. It is appropriate to reflect their credits, when they receive them, under thanks/special thanks/additional crew etc.