Today we’d like to introduce you to Keaton Ross.
Hi Keaton, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
How did I go from living on a couch, sending endless applications and calling my mother in tears, to working on set as a location manager, on some of Hollywood’s biggest productions? While I could age back to my years of childhood addicted and glued to the big screen, and the moments spent with my mom and dad spending our weekends at the theater, but the pivot that really meant the most was time spent with my college roommate Jackson Lipps.
I remember staying up with Jackson spending hours discussing films and actors, the motifs of stories and the pipedream of us making a film, with myself being the actor in one of his student films. But looking back, I was never an active participant in my own goals. I wasn’t in the pursuit of dreams. In fact, I even dropped out of college my senior year after living aimlessly, using it as a distraction to the chaos and loss that was present in my family life. It wasn’t until the following years of working under my father that I realized what was important to me, and that we all have a choice in how we approach the struggles. During this time, Jackson would constantly remind me through his own choices, that the choice of what you do for a living is always yours.
The story I always tell people; I went to my father’s office and told him I was going back to college to graduate, to then head to Los Angeles to work in film. Of course, him like many others, he had subtle laughs and told me good luck. But what I have come to find is, it’s hard for anyone to say no when you are passionate about what you want.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
I don’t want to meet the people who have had a “smooth road” as I think it’s the struggles that define us; when the time comes it all falls on how we react. I have had countless emotional struggles from the loss of my eldest brother when I was 15 to knowing what is worth fighting for after failing so many times. I think now more than ever, kids struggle with finding their purpose in this world as we are bombarded with social media that exposes us to lives that we hold more valuable than our own. This was my deepest struggle, to find purpose in myself and to rediscover the road that would lead me to what I wanted to do.
One thing you come to find in the film industry is family connections, as the entire industry is run by “who you know”. While I did have a friend who worked as a Production Assistant, he was a bit reluctant to help and was only able to get me on set for one job. That job was all I needed to understand the dynamic. Everyone on set was a freelance worker, and at any moment you could lose your footing and be back to the job board hustling for the next gig. The veterans remained relevant by being attached to entities, such as unions, and that is where you wanted to be to acquire job security.
Well, that’s exactly what happened. I worked for a day with my friend and then didn’t find work for months after. I started putting myself into different positions and learning what I could online. Of course, this was in the midst of what we now know as COVID, as all I could find was some non-union location work and production assistant jobs for a few days. I even worked for free at a “production service” company that ended up being run by some scummy producer. I was all about to give up on my dream as the door seemed to be closing.
Luckily, I didn’t give up too soon. COVID seemed to be a blessing and a curse, as the job window expanded into the world of “health and safety”. While having little to no experience other than working on set, I applied and got a job on an ABC pilot. I didn’t mind cleaning tables and getting yelled at by crew as the “mask police”, as I knew it was only to get my foot in the door. Quickly I climbed the ranks until I was working on the hit show, Station 19, whom had a created a specific team for health and safety on location. I became the lead and worked side by side with location managers, as I began ordering supplies and planning logistics for testing on set. It was my passionate attitude to learn more that drove my success.
This drive brought me to being a health and safety manager on the blockbuster movie, Spiderman: No Way Home, to then joining Local 399 and winning two prestigious awards as a union location manager on Ryan Murphy’s show, “9-1-1”.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
Since my days of questioning my career and hustling for the next gig, things have become more consistent and expansive. After joining Tim Hillman’s team on the show ‘9-1-1’, I learned the power that comes from a filmmaker’s hand, as the entire city of Los Angeles has been built to support this ecosystem and location managers are at the forefront. On a show like 9-1-1, we had the funds to accomplish things that I never even dreamt possible. For one episode, we were able to shut down the entire street of Hollywood Blvd between La Brea and Highland Avenue, trashed the entire street and brought in a circus of animals. This is no easy feat and requires the approval from a chain of city officials. From countless explosions to car crashes, we were able to do it all. For our finale, we threw a fire truck off a cliff and watched as it crumbled between the rocks. I then worked on the hit Netflix show, Griselda, starring Sofia Vergara. For almost a month, we took over the town of Wilmington, shutting down streets, redressing a theater into a brothel, filming car chases and big gun battle shootouts in the middle of the street. It was a blast.
The process of what I do comes in steps, and many times the dynamic of a team is different per show. There is a pre-production phase, where locations are hired on to create viable options for locations that are planned in the script, which include the logistics and cost breakdown. When locations are picked by producers and directors, it is our job to go through the proper channels to acquire permitting and permissions, hire vendors and supplies, as well as make a presence in the neighborhood so production can get what they need, when and if the time comes. Depending on the rhythm of the show, we often have to do this on short notice and turn a location around in a few days, and in some cases, the very next day. The cherry on top is we are the middleman between production and anything regarding the location. This makes the job very high strung, as we are the first in the door and the last to leave. We have to engage in the upmost respectful way to our neighbors, to make sure both sides of the camera leave happy.
It’s sufficient to say that the job comes with its perks. I have used this success to travel the world and meet international location managers and film commissions, to see the world’s most intriguing locations and to understand how to make things happen around the globe. During the writer’s strike, I backpacked through 9 different countries and met with their commissions, as well as attended events that introduced me to filmmakers and location teams in over 30 countries.
While I’d like to say all location managers do this, I have tried to set myself a part. Often there are events called, “FAM Tours” that bring scouts to specific areas to promote filming locations domestic and international; I was one of the first to do this solo and on this type of scale. I had the opportunity to scout Jordan’s monumental desert with the location manager, Ghaith Al-Kurdi, who managed Dune: Part 2 just months before my visit. Among my travels, I was able to sit down with commissioners from London, Scotland, Serbia, Dubai and many others, expanding my network for future projects that I hope to manage someday.
How do you think about happiness?
Passion. It is hard for anyone to say no to someone who is passionate. It is the blinding force behind what I do, what I strive to do, and what has got me this far. It keeps my purpose pre-occupied because I am not worried about who I am working with or the challenge ahead of me, I just know that I can do it because I love it.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://filmlocs.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/isaidasap/
- Other: https://www.imdb.me/kjr
