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b'JOHN GRANT is an award-winning location manager who knows the Greater Los Angeles Area like the back of his hand. From feature films to reality TV shows, John has a genuine love for\\xa0finding real-world settings for producers and directors to use in creating make-believe worlds.\\xa0(43:28) \\xa0 \\xa0 EPISODE NOTES:\\xa0 I\\u2019ve lived in the Eagle Rock area of Los Angeles for 20 years and in that time I\\u2019ve seen a lot of film and television shoots on my street and around the neighborhood.\\xa0Clint Eastwood lived in the house behind me in \\u201cMillion Dollar Baby.\\u201d The Italian Bakery at the end of my street had a recurring role in \\u201cSons of Anarchy.\\u201d \\u201cThe Office\\u201d shot at Pete\\u2019s Blue Chip Burgers, and Zooey Deschanel rode down Colorado Boulevard in a pedicab for her show \\u201cNew Girl.\\u201d Pharrell Williams used Eagle Rock High School, our bowling alley All Star Lanes, and the local CVS for his \\u201cHappy\\u201d music video. HBO\\u2019s \\u201cTogetherness\\u201d was not only filmed in Eagle Rock, but actually set in Eagle Rock -- it usually passes for other places. The tidy Craftsman house they used for the series is just a few blocks over. And get this: the male lead character\\u2019s name is Brett Pierson. Talk about close to home. But no matter what part of the city you live in, there\\u2019s a pretty good chance you\\u2019ll see some Lights, Camera, Action! at one point or another. Like it or not, LA functions as a gigantic backlot for film and TV producers. And as longtime location manager JOHN GRANT tells me, there are plenty of people who don\\u2019t like it: \\u201cManaging the location is a lot about public relations. And when you\\u2019ve got a resident or merchant screaming at you about your presence there, I\\u2019ve got to remember that I\\u2019ve got to go back and shoot in that neighborhood again sometime. So, I\\u2019ve got to maintain a level of decorum in the neighborhood so that everybody feels that this wasn\\u2019t a production that screwed them over.\\u201d Of course, there are some people who aren\\u2019t satisfied unless they get something out of it for themselves. \\u201cGratuities\\u201d is the line item in a production budget for dealing with persistent grumblers: \\u201cIf there\\u2019s somebody who feels like they\\u2019re getting shafted, I\\u2019ll say \\u2018Let me pay you a thousand bucks and do catering on your lawn or in your backyard\\u2019 or \\u2018For 150 bucks a truck, can I park 3 trucks in your driveway?\\u2019\\u201d But John says pacifying a vocal local doesn\\u2019t always mean handing over a fistful of cash: \\u201cI remember on Fear Factor I could fix the problem just by giving people a hat. They\\u2019d say, \\u2018Hey, look. They gave me a hat!\\u2019\\u201d With over 30 years of experience in the field, John is a seasoned professional who\\u2019s been around the block \\u2013 actually\\xa0lots of\\xa0blocks \\u2013 many times: \\u201cIn Los Angeles you can get knee-high in the tall grass if you\\u2019re not careful. You bring a large footprint of trucks and trailers and you don\\u2019t prep it right, you\\u2019re going to have trouble in the neighborhood. And I pride myself in the way that I prep things. I\\u2019m very thorough and leave no stone unturned." \\xa0 John\\u2019s serious attention to detail has not gone unnoticed. He\\u2019s been nominated for 8 California On Location Awards and won his first COLA in 2005 for his work on MTV\\u2019s reality show \\u201cThe 70s House.\\u201d The win was a huge surprise for John because he was up against the location managers working on two major network episodics: CBS\\u2019s \\u201cNCIS\\u201d and NBC\\u2019s \\u201cER.\\u201d John won a second COLA in 2013 for \\u201cFace Off\\u201d on the SyFy Channel. In talking with John it\\u2019s clear that he truly loves Los Angeles. He grew up here; went to Hollywood High; and knows the city like the back of his hand. He\\u2019s got a long list of spots around town he loves to shoot in \\u2013 and a very short list of spots he hates shooting in. In fact, it\\u2019s just one place. And you might be surprised to hear where it is. (No, it\\u2019s not Eagle Rock.) BP \\xa0 Many thanks to the Blue Dot Sessions for the music featured in this episode royalty free through Creative Commons licensing: 1. "The Zeppelin"\\xa0 2. "Anders" 3. "Faster, Faster, Brighter" 4. "Copper Halls"'