Jonathan Wymer is photographed on the set of the Cinematic Arts function movie “Commander” on the Bedford County Burn Coaching facility. (Picture by Joel Coleman)
Story is the whole lot, in filmmaking and in life. So for those who ask Jonathan Wymer about his work as a location supervisor within the skilled movie and tv business in Atlanta, he’ll begin with the story and he’ll finish there, too.
“I like to start out off any undertaking by approaching the web page, as a result of that’s what I really like essentially the most,” Wymer states. So whether or not he’s working or ready for work, he’s always writing shorts, indie movies and tales of each kind possible.
That is the place his personal story started — in Central Virginia.
“I’ve been writing quick tales since I used to be a child. Then, I began doing dwelling motion pictures and quick movies after I was about 14 years outdated,” Wymer says. “By the point I used to be 15, I needed to direct motion pictures.”
So he picked up his dad’s VHS camcorder and ran with it. Straight out of highschool, he headed to movie faculty at Zaki Gordon Middle for Cinematic Arts at Liberty College in Lynchburg, Virginia. And there, by probability, he discovered a distinct segment in filmmaking that ultimately helped him get work within the business.
“I obtained fortunate in movie faculty as a result of there was a low-budget movie manufacturing that got here to city,they usually wanted a variety of college students to fill the roles of the manufacturing crew,” he says. “Out of the 30 college students in this system that yr — the movie program’s inaugural yr — I turned the situation supervisor as a result of I had lived on the town the longest.”
Scouting and managing places, Wymer realized, was an integral a part of telling the story and setting its stage. And it was an space the place he may start his profession, telling the tales all of us like to see on the display screen at this time.
After movie faculty, in 2014, the younger film-maker moved to Atlanta.
“I didn’t know anybody within the movie business down right here, and I needed to form of discover my manner,” Wymer admits. “So I ended up assembly folks and getting on set as a day participant.” (A day participant is an actor employed for a short while — oftentimes only a day — for a talking position in a tv or movie manufacturing.)
Day participant work led to regular work as a location assistant on a manufacturing and ultimately to places work on an enormous union set, the place Wymer says he realized the hierarchy that’s in play. “So I took that have and met some individuals who have been the founders of the Location Managers Guild Worldwide (LMGI, primarily based in Los Angeles), they usually have been bringing new members in on the time,” he says.
By 2016, filmmaking in Atlanta and all through Georgia — because of the state’s ample places and glorious tax incentives — was on hearth.
“I used to be fortunate to work with a group through the large Marvel increase — movies like Ant-Man, Captain America: Civil Struggle, Avengers: Infinity Struggle, Black Panther, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 and Spider-Man: Homecoming,” Wymer says. “That was fairly an expertise. Trial-by-fire, for certain.”
Throughout this era, the situation supervisor additionally joined Teamsters Native Union 728.
“I had nice skilled steerage and mentors who have been each a part of the teamsters and the LMGI, they usually educated me up proper, and I adopted the trail,” Wymer describes.
There was a lot occurring that Wymer was working 12-hour days. “I used to be working upwards of 80 hours every week, and I did that for the primary three to 4 years I used to be right here,” he notes.
He would work that manner for three-to-four-month home windows on a function movie, as an example, with intermittent home windows of downtime between tasks.
Then, virtually as rapidly as Wymer’s motion started, it slowed down in late 2023 in Atlanta, throughout the nation and all over the world. The writers’ and actors’ strikes, adopted by crew member strikes, would take their toll in Georgia and elsewhere.
Wymer says he noticed it as a chance to re-evaluate and return to the web page.
“I’ve gotten along with associates of mine that I’ve recognized for 12+ years, the place we’ve gone to highschool collectively and labored in the identical business right here in Atlanta,” he says. “Now, we mainly companion up simply to assist one another with our particular person tasks.”
Wymer continues, “So if certainly one of them has a brief movie [project they’re working on], I’ll often come on as a producer, a primary assistant director or a location supervisor. Or, if I’m directing a movie, I’ve a extremely good good friend who’s a cinematographer, and we have now one other good friend who’s a sound mixer, and a increase operator and so forth. Collectively, we’re always working to create issues.”
Wymer provides, “I location managed an unbiased horror movie for a good friend up in Virginia through the strikes.”
In some methods, the slowdown in manufacturing has given unbiased filmmakers an opportunity to launch their very own tasks — though Wymer admits that many of those tasks have been self-funded and carried out on very small budgets.
“The strikes [and the aftermath of them] have been type of a great time for filmmakers within the unbiased sector to get their movies off the bottom with actually nice, skilled crews — for very low-cost — as a result of many people weren’t working,” Wymer says.
“It gave us all a bit extra leeway to get our personal particular person inventive tasks off the bottom, and [to pay attention to] our personal unbiased movie tasks,” he notes of the brilliant aspect that he can see.
“You get to work by yourself mental property and to construct up extra skilled relationships that you simply need to incubate over time,” he provides.
Does Wymer ever remorse selecting Atlanta as a house base for his profession following movie faculty? Completely not, he stories — and right here’s the big-picture motive why: Robust enterprise cycles within the movie business will not be a brand new factor, Wymer is aware of from faculty and from his personal private expertise. “If it’s gotten gradual right here in Atlanta, it’s gradual nationwide,” he emphasizes.
Then he provides, “Throughout these intermittent durations — and we’ve all been by means of it in every single place up to now 5 years within the movie business — I all the time take it upon myself to return to the web page. So I’m all the time writing and dealing alongside longtime inventive associates. I’ve a brief movie in pre-production proper now from a script I wrote, and I’m slated to direct it this winter.”
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Carol Badaracco Padgett is an Atlanta-based freelance author who focuses on movie and tv, the automotive business, architectural design and collaborative storytelling tasks.