In conversation with Georgette Turner
Location Manager Georgette Turner
1. Introduce yourself
I have been working in the locations department for fourteen years and for the past five have been working as a head of department either as a supervising location manager or unit production manager. I have two children - Violet aged 7 and bill aged three. Im also a foster carer to my 16 year old Elliot.
2. What is your job title?
The role of a location manager is based around numerous skills. The key skill is being a people person - you literally have to be able to go anywhere in the world and convince someone to let you into their home, authorities to let you close down streets and have high speed car chases, and convince people this is for their benefit. I feel like the luckiest person in the world. Ive filmed on council estates, high profile properties, all over Europe and have been offered work literally all round the world. Just recently I have had a slight change of career direction - I’m now working as a Covid UPM handling all the testing requests in line with the US and UK studio policies and implementing protocols to create a safe working environment.
3. Who looks after the kids when you are working?
I have a full time nanny, My husband can also work remotely two days per week and if we are not shooting I always work one day per week from home. I’ve been incredibly fortunate to work for really supportive people that have never let this be an issue - a few years back I was on a show that was really unsupportive and that was a bit of a culture shock I had heard about bad practices but never experienced it, I think that the lockdown will change a lot of peoples mindsets about working from home and hopefully be one of the positives to come out of this whole experience.
4. How long did you take off work after having your baby?
With Violet I had five weeks off and went off to do a five-week stint on a movie. The production were incredible and very flexible with me. With Bill we were out scouting together when he was four weeks old. It was a beautiful summer and I had a brief to find beautiful pine trees for the Art department to be able to take a mould from for the Harry Potter tour. It was literally the best job ever. Me and my little newborn, in the sunshine going for long walks in beautiful parks.
5. Would you say that you have a good work/life balance?
Yes absolutely, I have a rule where I only work with people I worked with before I had children. That way they know my work ethic and how hard I work so don’t really question if I want to work from home as they know I will do my job. Funnily enough the one time I broke that rule was on the job that I left.
6. Are you job sharing or working flexibly?
I have never job shared per say but as a HOD I have a team that works with me - if I’m on a project early on that has only cash-flowed for me, I will often split some of the work with my team and that way it takes the pressure off a bit.
7. What do you think is the hardest part working in media/film/tv industry and being a parent?
For me the hardest thing is not knowing where the script will take me - I have tried to stay on projects that shoot in the UK since I had Violet and only this year have I considered working abroad again. The travel element is really hard as I just don’t want to miss them and they do suffer if you’re away to much. When I’m working on a UK production I tend to have a good balance. Now that they are a bit older and can understand Mummy working, I’ve been taking work away but in short bursts as opposed to months long periods of time.
8. What are your tips for any other women out there wanting to have kids and keep a career in film?
I do tend to take at least five weeks off in between projects - If you don’t get sufficient rest you just burn out. I would encourage all mums to do this - and only do what you can. I still now end up putting in more hours than I ever did before I had children as I feel I have to prove to everyone that I haven’t dropped the ball - I’m not sure why us women put so much pressure on ourselves but we do. I do however, try to never miss a parents evening, sports day or milestone in their lives - it’s a constant battle to find the balance but somehow it just works.
9. Any advice for anyone about to return to work after maternity?
Give yourself a break - there is no right or wrong, everyone in a while stop to give yourself a pat on the back. I tried to put 100 percent into being a mum and 100 percent into work and 0 percent into me. Its about prioritising and letting go of the things beyond your control. You really can do it - you have just had a baby, you can do anything.
10. What advice did you wish someone had given you?
I was given the best advice by a fellow location manager Teresa Darby. She said to me - get somebody for everything. If you want to work, work but make sure when you come home you leave work at the from door and be fun mum. If this means you need to get someone to help with cleaning, ironing, washing - just do it. Make your time valuable. This advice was invaluable and I pass it on whenever I can.
11. Can you tell us a bit about what you have been up to in lockdown?
At the beginning of lockdown I was thinking about what it meant for me and my team. It occurred to me that even when things do resume it would be even longer for location managers as there was a huge emphasis on being able to work in a controlled environment. I contacted other location managers to see if they were interested in setting up a Go-fund-me page for crew who were out of work. The government gave little help to film crew and many people suffered. The fund became a huge success and we raised just under £40k. Ben Ahmed, one of our board members came to us with the idea of running a Friday-Fiver completion and we loved it; and it quickly grew. We had over 7000 members in our Facebook group, the idea is that you put £5 into a pool - 20%goes to the charity and 80% to the pool. The random name generator pulls a name out of the “hat” and that person is entitled to the 80% of the pool. It was hard work but hugely rewarding and great fun.