Two sisters scour the streets of Merseyside to find the perfect locations for blockbuster films and TV shows.
Liverpool Locations is run by Faye and Claire Newton. Since it was founded in 2015, Faye and Claire have helped the productions of Peaky Blinders and the 2009 Sherlock Holmes film find the perfect locations to film.
The pair, from south Liverpool, pound the streets of Merseyside and scour the internet for the perfect locations for the enormous amount of film and TV shows filmed in the region, from St George’s Hall to old reservoirs and ordinary houses. Explaining to the ECHO what a typical day on the job involves, Faye, 40, said: “It is like being a detective.
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“Some places are really easy, you know they're open, you can get in. Other places, you definitely have to do a lot of groundwork.”
She added: “You'll realise you have to go back to somewhere at different times of the day, someone might not have answered.
“And obviously, of course, if they're not interested, they're not interested, but at least you've got an answer, because the production will want an answer if they've said, we love that building. We need to kind of get an answer for peace of mind.”
It’s a big task for the business, as a production company can decide where its project will be filmed based on the sister’s recommendations. Faye said: “It could be a job, say like Peaky Blinders. They might not even know where they want to base themselves yet in the country.
“So they might have scouts all over the country and they say, we want you girls to scout Liverpool and show us what exists, here's the script. They might have someone in London scouting for the same thing, someone in Scotland. So they'll have scouts all over the country, possibly all over the world, and we'll show what exists in Liverpool.
“It's kind of an interesting one to try and bring it to the city. It could be a big decision, whether a job comes to a whole feature film or a whole job comes to the city, depending on what we've scouted, really. So we give them everything we can and show them how great the city is.”
No day is the same in her field either. Faye said: “Every job is completely different. It could be from period dramas to modern day.”
Faye and Claire have a combined 40 years of experience in the film industry, despite Faye initially having little interest in working in the field. This changed thanks to Claire, who studied media at university, and one summer holiday.
She said: “Claire got work experience with someone in the locations department with a location manager, and just absolutely loved it, and then got a job with him, and never stopped really. She learnt everything on the job, and then she got me in as a runner on one of her jobs.
“I hadn't even thought about it at all. I was only a year out. I was planning to do a business management degree, which I still did go and do, but that summer was amazing. I worked on a gangster film in Liverpool, and it was just so much fun, just an amazing crew, just such good vibes.
“That was when I first thought, yeah, this is definitely something I want to do. I went to university and did my business management degree, but all the way through university on my days off and my holidays I'd work.”
Faye credits Claire for “opening her eyes” to the industry. After building up extensive experience working for other production companies as location managers, Faye and Claire felt confident enough to start their own firm in 2015.
Faye said: “We'd had such a huge database of Liverpool locations, we kind of just wanted to make sure that everyone knew. We just knew how fast and how quick we can find things, because we've done it so many times before.
“I think it was quite exciting for businesses to know that as well. Other companies or people that weren't from Liverpool found us quite quickly and knew we could get something for them quite quickly and get the permissions. If it was a car crash scene or a huge thing where we'd have to close roads, we'd speak to the council, the police, traffic management, we've got all the local kind of suppliers and contacts.”
Liverpool Locations also offer short courses to those just starting out in the field. As someone who knew little about the world of media production before work experience, Faye is keen to offer others a similar chance and break down the sometimes confusing jargon and approaches.
She said: “I knew nothing about the industry and just learnt everything on the job. And I personally think that is the most amazing way to go about it.
"Myself and Claire, we do a lot of different courses. Just one day intensive courses to teach people either the basics in films and TV. The basics that you would need to know if you walked onto set because it's like a different language.
“I think sometimes I've had people walk onto set, people are talking to each other and there's so many different names for some of the equipment. We teach a lot of that because I remember thinking, I don't know what anyone's talking about.”
You can find out more about Liverpool Locations by visiting its website here.
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