Michael Klick is My Hero

Let's have a round of applause as we induct a new Hero to the Filmed in California Heroes Hall of Fame. Read Mr. Richardson's 24 reasons why it makes sense to shoot in LA, and you'll see why Michael Klick is our new inductee.
Sharon


24 Reasons to Shoot in LA
by Steve Richardson
Michael Klick is the Unit Production Manager for "24," the wildly successful Fox series, just completing its 4th wildly successful season. As UPM, Michael oversees it all when it comes to production -- personnel, equipment, props, right on down to catering.

"My job is to spend the money and to spend it well. Once you do the math, LA's the place. LA's the place to get more bang for your buck."

A San Francisco Bay Area native with 35 years in the business, Michael gives us the 24 reasons to shoot in LA:

1) Talent pool - "Deeper than anywhere in the world. In Atlanta, there's maybe two A crews. Here, I've got a directory of 35 Key Grips who I know personally, can count on. If somebody's sick or booked, I can always find a top quality replacement."

2) Support structure - "There's 100 years of people, businesses, and experience here knowing how the film and TV business works. If I call a caterer in Kansas City, can I be sure they'll handle it if I want to push a meal back an hour and a half?"

3) Rental - "Camera, props, everything - I've got it all just 15 minutes away. If I want a specific, unique prop, I've got ten places that can turn on a dime to get it to me."

4) Repair - "If a camera breaks in Des Moines, I'm down for who knows how long? Here, I'm 15 minutes from Panavision."

5) Save a penny, lose a dime - "I might be able to save a little money on locations and permits by shooting in Montana. But I've got to bring two extra sets of equipment, of everything, in case something goes down."

6) Time is of the essence - "Especially in TV. I've got to turn a show around in 8 days. If my dolly tracks get damaged, I'm out a day or more trying to fly in replacements. I can't afford that. It's 12%-25% of my shooting time down the drain. For dolly tracks?"

7) General understanding among vendors - "All the stores here know the deal, know about 'clothes taken on approval.' They let you take the stuff, try it on the actors, bring back and only pay for what you keep. You think Marshall Fields in Chicago's going to let me do that?"

8) Vendors with savvy - "I sign to rent something, then the schedule changes and I don't need it. People in LA understand -- constant change is a part of the process. They want your business in the future. In Charlotte, I'm going to run into some guy who's just not flexible, doesn't understand the specific needs of TV."

9) Geography - "I can shoot in the high desert one day, mountains and streams. Then the next day I'm on a dock in Los Angeles Harbor. What other place in the world offers that?"

10) Diversity of a big city - "Different ethnicities for backgrounds, the World War II bunkers in Palos Verdes, the old Unocal offices downtown. There's just so much to choose from here -- people and places."

11) Specialized personnel - "I shot a pilot in Florida once. We had to fly people in from LA to do all our special effects, green screen. Here In Los Angeles, I've got 13top-notch vendors in my office after a few phone calls."

12) Monitoring - "We can look in on locations, check out production gear. See how the special effects are going. All within a few hours, all within the city limits."

13) Life on hold - "Your life's not on hold in LA. You go home every day. It's no fun being in an apartment in Nebraska for 9 months, by yourself. How many magazines can you read?"

14) Family - "People here can take an afternoon off to make their daughter's piano recital. They can sign up to coach their son in little league. You just can't do those kinds of things if you're far from home."

15) Dentist - "She's right here in town with all my info. Same with my doctor, lawyer, everything. It's all right here."

16) Landmarks, location - "We shot this amazing scene in the LA Coliseum, climax to the Season II. Beautiful. Wow. For Season III we just landed a helicopter in Pershing Square on a weekend Sunday morning. Last week we staged a shootout involving two helicopters, landed another copter on a 14 story helipad, on top of a parking structure, at night. Incredible view of downtown LA. Fantastic."

17) Motel food - "Did you ever really want a nice plate of sushi? In Western Pennsylvania?"

18) Weather - "Have you ever shot in Alaska, outside all day? Dealt with keeping equipment up and running in freezing weather? Ever shot in Guatemala with the humidity? Or shut down for a week because of the rain in London?"

19) Cooperation from the locals - "We just shot six nights straight in a 128 unit apartment building complex. The people there were really great, amazingly cooperative. Maybe it's because they understand how important the business is to the local economy? I don't know, you just generally get a lot of cooperation from the local people here in LA."

20) Golf, tennis - "People have their golfing buddies, their regular tennis dates. They can actually make reservations and be there every weekend. If you're out in the middle of nowhere in Missouri, you're a five hour flight from your regular Saturday tennis game. The nearest golf course might be 30 miles away."

21) Location scouting - "I know the area, my scouts know the area. They can find me what I want in no time. You don't have to re-discover, you know where to find a nice rocky hillside."

22) Actors - "The major actors, the character actors, so many of them live in the LA area. There is such a lot of talent to draw on, and you don 't have to fly them in and put them up in a motel. They drive themselves to the set."

23) The "back door" - "My job's not just 'can I get us up and going,' but 'what happens when there's a problem?' Is there a back door for me to get through, a solution. The depth of talent and equipment makes my life easier when things go wrong. And things always go wrong."

24) Surprises -- "I'm in this business a long time, and I'm still discovering places. My location manager and I stumbled on this enormous warehouse where they refurbish the space shuttle fuel tanks. Wow, what a place to shoot. There's so much going on in LA, so many different possible locations, so many different new things. I'm constantly happily surprised. I like that. A happy surprise."

Michael Klick has worked in documentaries, commercials, and television as a successful producer, director and UPM for over 35 years. Like many of us, he's still trying to figure out what he wants to do when he grows up.