CHRIS NEUMER: Has anything ever happened while you’ve been on set or on any other projects, anything out of the ordinary while you’re shooting fire scenes or scenes where there might be some kind of electrical issue?
JOHN FEDYNICH: No, knock on wood, never! And I feel that that sort of shows the type of people that we deal with in the effects department here in New York, because they’re very talented, and really specialized in their field that they know what they’re doing. And on top of that, we get some great direction and help from the New York City fire department.
CHRIS NEUMER: Okay.
JOHN FEDYNICH: And they definitely know what they’re doing and what they’re talking about, what they’re looking for. So in my case, I can’t think of anything that’s ever gotten out of control at all.
CHRIS NEUMER: Granted, it’d make a far better story if you’d managed to light an entire block on fire, but I guess for your sake, it’s better that you haven’t.
JOHN FEDYNICH: Absolutely. Yes.
CHRIS NEUMER: But is there anything else you can give me just about the shooting of gunfire? It’s just I remember you mentioned that this was sort of a bigger issue than I had expected.
JOHN FEDYNICH: Well, one, we do have noise restrictions, any type of noise; we have only a certain time period when we’re allowed to create any loud noise. And when it comes to gunfire, we have to make sure that it’s communicated, one, to the community board and, two, to all the local residences and businesses, that we’re doing an effect that involves gunfire, possibly police cars and ambulances, or fire trucks, and to not be alarmed, and that we will have on-site police with us. Because we don’t want to scare, obviously, the neighborhood when they start hearing gunfire. So we’ll post notices in buildings, we’ll put them on lampposts and a lot of different community boards have community newsletters so well give them advance notice. And obviously, passing out fliers to businesses and to just let people know that this is going to happen and to not be alarmed.
CHRIS NEUMER: The more you talk about this and the more you tell me what you do, the more impressed I am with the absolute breadth of the job you have to do. I mean, you really have to be aware of every aspect of the production.
JOHN FEDYNICH: For the most part, yeah, and sometimes it can be overwhelming or confusing if you forget something that potentially could be the problem. And the interesting thing is when you’re dealing with all these departments, they’re so departmentalized, all they have to worry about is what’s within their department.
CHRIS NEUMER: That’s right.
JOHN FEDYNICH: And with locations, it’s not that. We have to worry about that and we have to worry about where the teamsters are gonna park, when the set dressers want to get into a location, when the grips and electrics want to rig their lighting and position their cranes, making sure that the notifications are up within the community, filing the permits, getting the people on board with us, whether it be the businesses or other residences. And then there’s the holding areas I mentioned where we’re feeding the crew, and where the extras are going to be waiting until they’re used on set, and…
CHRIS NEUMER: Yeah. It makes sense how you can start out doing something like this and then easily make the jump to producer or, at least, even a production manager.
JOHN FEDYNICH: Yeah. You’re aware of what’s going on, and you’re really involved with a lot of money that you’re responsible for. And when you’re negotiating too, you’re working on behalf of the studio, but you’re also representing the location where you’re filming. So you need to come up with a location fee that’s fair for both. Because you don’t want to take advantage of a location. I want to be able to make sure that they’re satisfied from the film shoot, knowing that there’s a possibility that I’m going to go back to them again and use them for another job. And sometimes you work on these big-budget movies — like Spider-Man — but then I’m going to work on something that a lot less money is involved, and I’m going to want to be able to go back to some of those locations and say, I know I paid you such-and-such on Spider-Man, but our budget is not as great, can you work with me this time? And a lot of times, because of your reputation, they’re willing to take that chance and work with you and know that you’ll be good on it for the next job.
CHRIS NEUMER: Yeah. Well, it’s good to have that reputation. But, anything else that you want to add, anything else you want to throw on the board?
JOHN FEDYNICH: Yeah, I was trying to think of… yeah, I think that doing locations is such an exciting part of the filmmaking process, but yet, it’s the position that a lot of people don’t know what we do. And really, the least appreciated. It really allows you to be creative. And it’s exciting to work with people who have these incredible visions that I can also have some input on. And it does get a little frustrating when you spend days trying to scout locations and the locations aren’t always what the director wants. But, you know, I came from a team-working environment prior to getting into the film business, and that was a challenge for me to go from that environment to an environment where the creative process is what is the priority. I mean, we have to work as a team, but we’re all so compartmentalized.
CHRIS NEUMER: What was the team thing that you were involved in before you got into locations?
JOHN FEDYNICH: I worked internationally with an organization called Up With People. So it was a cross-cultural exchange program that was involved with team-building and motivational activities. You know, to go from that, where the push and the effort was to really work as a team, to production, where there’s a process. Eventually, we all work as a team, but it’s like, the grips only know what they’re responsible for.
CHRIS NEUMER: That’s right.
JOHN FEDYNICH: The electrics only know what they’re responsible for. The set dressers, their responsibility is to get the location dressed. Then I really have to be able to help coordinate that the set dressers are in there, maybe, after the electrics and the grips are in the location. So it’s just an interesting transition I had going from the one to the other. It’s just a great job. If there’s one that I wanted to do in the industry, it would be locations. And I’m just really fortunate to be involved with it.
CHRIS NEUMER: Yes. Lucky you to be there!
JOHN FEDYNICH: Yeah.
CHRIS NEUMER: For now, I think we’ve got what we need. And I will keep you updated on what’s going on. Thanks for your time.
