From Season Two to Season Six of Stargate SG-1 Lynn Smith served as Location Manager for the series. This included scouting, negotiating with local home owners and businesses for filming, noise issues with P-90s, and everything else involved in turning Vancouver into Colorado or another planet. She sits down with Dial the Gate to talk about her amazing six years, as well as a trip to the Arctic to film Stargate Continuum!
Share This Video ► https://youtu.be/lP8awAhxyeg
Visit DialtheGate ► http://www.dialthegate.com
on Facebook ► https://www.facebook.com/dialthegate
on Instagram ► https://instagram.com/dialthegateshow
on Twitter ► https://twitter.com/dial_the_gate
Visit Wormhole X-Tremists ► https://www.youtube.com/WormholeXTremists
MERCHANDISE!
SUBSCRIBE!
https://youtube.com/dialthegate/
Timecodes
0:00 – Opening Credits
0:25 – Welcome
0:31 – Guest Introduction
1:54 – Ten Years in the Industry
4:43 – Lynn the Location Manager
6:53 – Duties and Responsibilities
10:04 – From Script to Shoot
13:58 – Principal Photography
16:25 – Changes in Weather
18:46 – Saving on Locations (“Chain Reaction”)
23:20 – Private Locations
26:28 – Evolving Locations
28:45 – Government Spaces and Private Businesses
31:40 – Contacts Rolodex
34:45 – Locations Around Bridge Studios
35:30 – Money Buys Everything
39:45 – Favorite Locations
42:10 – Sand Dunes
43:34 – More Favorite Locations
45:45 – Location Tours
48:30 – Filming in the Arctic
53:25 – Guinness World Records
54:49 – Thank You, Lynn!
55:30 – Post-Interview Housekeeping
56:36 – End Credits
***
“Stargate” and all related materials are owned by MGM Studios and MGM Television.
#Stargate
#DialtheGate
#TurtleTimeline
TRANSCRIPT
Find an error? Submit it here.
David Read:
Hello everyone, welcome to another episode of Dial the Gate. My name is David Read; I am your host. Lynn Smith, location manager for Stargate SG-1, is joining us for this episode. I’m really excited to have her and her perspective. She was a critical player throughout much of Stargate SG-1’s production, and she was involved in the Stargate: Continuum shoot up in the Arctic. We’re gonna have some interesting stories for her to share with us. She is the wife of Stargate executive producer N. John Smith and I’m delighted to have her. Here we go. This is a pre-recorded episode so the moderators will not be taking questions. I hope you enjoy. Lynn Smith, location manager, Stargate SG-1, Season Two to Seven. Lynn, this is a treat to have you because it’s hard for me to get people from behind the camera because they’re like, “Hey, I’m used to being back here doing my thing. No need to point a camera at me.” You guys were so critical to the production of one of the biggest sci-fi franchises that have ever existed. I really wanna thank you for taking the time to sit down and talk with me.
Lynn Smith:
You’re welcome. Didn’t feel as important as that introduction when we were working, ’cause we just worked, worked, worked, and there were lots of people higher than me, but sure.
David Read:
When you look back on that body of work, you were in this industry for around 10 years. Does it feel like it was that much of a span of time, or was it always just, “We gotta get to the next thing, we gotta get to the next thing. OK, some break, some vacation over here, now we’re back to it, we’re back to it?” What does that timeframe in your life feel like when you look back on your career with Stargate?
Lynn Smith:
Well, ask me now, in this year, it feels like I was in that industry longer. But now, the time is longer than that I’ve been out. I always feel like that was my life and that’s where I sat the longest. But in hindsight, looking back at the years, it’s not. We’ve done so much afterwards now and moved on. I didn’t realize it was so short.
David Read:
Were you a fan of the show? Did you and John watch it?
Lynn Smith:
John definitely would’ve been. I’m not a huge sci-fi person, but if there was any sci-fi, I was going to watch, it was that one. I think it was really well written. I loved the actors, characters and I was a part of it. But to be honest, now that I can’t get fired as a result of this comment, I don’t think I ever watched one on TV from beginning to end. I would watch snippets of it.
David Read:
You were busy making it. Watching snippets here and there when you could catch it, I completely get that.
Lynn Smith:
Yeah, and watching snippets, I was like, “Is there a bucket in the shot? Can I see anything off?” so, you’re not getting the flow of the show. To be quite honest, it throws you off a bit watching it as a show. I will see the location and then I see the plane take off and we’re somewhere else. I’m like, “Yeah, but we’re not. We’re right next door at that next house.”
David Read:
Absolutely. The magic is never gonna be 100% there for you because you watched the cake get baked.
Lynn Smith:
That’s right.
David Read:
You didn’t just get to eat it like the rest of us.
Lynn Smith:
That’s right.
David Read:
It’s interesting now, on Wormhole X-Tremists, which is our sister show, we’re going through and doing commentaries for every episode. One of the things that we do on purpose is pick the show to pieces. “So, there’s a script in that shot. Oh, we’re on another planet, but there’s a van driving by way off in the distance there.” It’s a new way for us to view the show and see it in a new light.
Lynn Smith:
That’s right.
David Read:
Also, fans love Easter eggs, whether intentional or not.
Lynn Smith:
That’s right. Those fans are good. They are.
David Read:
They are and they’re loyal.
Lynn Smith:
They are loyal.
David Read:
You had a huge job as location manager. I would love to hear, step by step, how you went through a script. One of the nice things about Vancouver, especially in those early years, is you had some varied landscape options, especially with the sand dunes, which I don’t even think exist anymore. You could turn Vancouver into a lot of different things. Before I get into that, how did you find Stargate? How did you get involved with this show? What’s the story there?
Lynn Smith:
Well, John and I were already together prior to Stargate, we were working some shows together, but we were working independently. I was still, for sure, going up the ranks. I started as a production assistant, assistant location manager, location manager, so it was just at the cusp there. John was going on the show. It was an opportunity. They did need somebody in locations, so finding it through that sort of realm. It would work perfect for us if he took it and there was an opening and a situation for me. It makes life easier, family easier, holiday-ing easier. That’s how I got on to Stargate, is, if he’s taken it and his wife can get on, it would work. Is there an opening there? So, it was choices at the time. Glad we did it because it had such a long run. As far as the job being so hard, yes, it was, and it had its challenges. But I had a great team. I had the likes of Jamie Lake, who was fantastic and charismatic and great at the job. Later on, after a few years, I had Terry Brooks as a location scout. I think she’s just retired. She went on for many more years after that and she was fantastic at it. The team was great. We had wonderful production assistants, often many of them. I had good people at my back.
David Read:
When someone hears, like me, a layman, “location manager,” my first thought is you pick the location, but it’s more complicated than that. Can you give us a rundown of your duties and the things that you would allocate out to your assistant location manager and to Lake, for instance, and so forth? How would that unspool?
Lynn Smith:
In the early years, when things were just starting up, we didn’t know how long it was going to go and maybe things were smaller, lighter. It was Jamie and I. Everybody assumes I find all the locations, but Jamie’s a big part of that. I send my assistant out. From the beginning, I read the script. I run down the hall. I talk to the likes of production designers, producers. Sometimes the director’s not in town at that point, but the writers, what they envisioned. Sometimes the writers, later on, would say, “When you get to this location, this is what I was writing it around or envisioning.” They’re almost setting you out the door to say, “OK, I’ll see if we can get it for those dates.” Sometimes if the scene was small and there was a larger scene, we would concentrate maybe on a house that we could blow up, but we know that we needed another look of a house. We’re gonna have to piece that together in the same neighborhood. We don’t wanna move all the trucks and all of this. We’d do that in the office, myself as the head of department with other heads of department, and they would give me a picture of where I’m going. Sometimes they’d say, “Try and keep it close to the studio ’cause the rest of it is all in the studio.” Then I would send Jamie out and say, “Look, we’re looking for this particular house, but we also have a school, so try and find them close together. Go find the school. We’ll have parking for the trucks there. We’ll be inside the school. Find the house in that neighborhood.” So, some teamwork. He would go out and look for it. Later on, that was all Terry Brooks’ job ’cause it was so busy doing both series. Jamie would be on set. I would need a separate scout for the locations. They would bring it back to me and I would shortlist it and then I would bring that shortlist when I knew that this house doesn’t work because it’s too far out or nowhere to park the circus, as we called it. Or it’s one-way in and is not gonna work. I’d shortlist it. At that time, we didn’t have digital. It was file folders with pictures all taped together and you would go boop, boop, boop, boop, boop and you would have that panoramic. I would bring that to the writer that wrote that episode, John’s sitting at the helm, production designer, all of this, and then we would often narrow it down to maybe three. Sometimes they knew right away, “Yes, that’s it.” But sometimes we would nail it down to three and then we would go on a survey and see which one would really work ’cause you have to see it live.
David Read:
You have to be there in person. When you’re first handed that script, when you begin the process, how many days, weeks out, ideally, from shooting are you?
Lynn Smith:
Oh, sometimes overlapping. It was fine-tuned. It’s not like sometimes you’re hearing that, “We don’t even have the next script.” Even if it wasn’t on paper or handed to you, you’re talking in the office. The writers are across the hall from me, they’re saying, “Hey, coming up in a couple episodes, we’re gonna be doing something in the snow,” or, “There’s gonna be a big camping scene,” or whatever. Or because we knew it was Stargate, we’d say, “In a couple episodes, we know we’re gonna go to the dunes.” So, you start the conversation. I was given good lead time on where I was going, what I was doing. Sometimes those episodes were a lot of locations, location-heavy. Ahead of time they’d say, “This is location heavy, but the next one’s gonna be all in the studio” So, you had time to come up for air or to work on the one after that.
David Read:
It seems when we look back at these shows, that it was very much a mix of, “OK, this episode is almost, or is exclusively, off-world,” that you could anticipate that the next one was probably going to be in-house. You get the sensation, just in terms of the ebb and flow of a season, that at the beginning of the season, they’re gonna spend a lot of money. Then it’s gonna go down a little bit. They’re gonna do some, typically some more budget-refined episodes. Then the mid-season comes up, we’re gonna give a bigger boom there and it does the same thing on the back end of the season with a bigger finale. Am I getting it right in terms of the ebb and flow of a season, in terms of budget?
Lynn Smith:
I’m sure you are getting it right. In terms of budget, that’s gonna be more where John steps in with some answers. I didn’t see it as that. I was just too into what I needed to do for locations. As you say, the locations weren’t the hard part often, especially years down the road, because we already knew, “We’re going back here. We’re going back here. We’re going back.” We knew where things parked, who to talk to with the city rep. The hard part was if it was production assistant heavy. At the time, you had a hard time getting maybe 20 production assistants ’cause you’re gonna be on Robson Street. Or you’re talking to the liaisons for the city, and as you know, much of our show was gunfire and explosions. That was the hard part, because you had to get their blessing. If we’re going to the dunes, that’s me talking to the tower at the airport for a flight path. Believe it or not, yes, sometimes they would work in our favor. Not with the big stuff, but they could keep the small stuff away from us. Or they would tell us if, “Oh, you’re gonna run into a problem that day,” because they had something going on, whether it be training or winds, whatever. That’s the part that people don’t see. They see the location manager; you find the locations. Well, no. My assistants and my scouts find the locations. Mine is often office-heavy and dealing with all the reps from the cities, the liaisons, the towers, gunfire. It started in my 10 years in film, that you could just call that in. A few years later, you had to have a police officer on set even if there was a gun visible, even if it was plastic, rubber, because of an incident that happened. It was booking all your people.
David Read:
It makes sense, too, that regulations evolve as you move forward. I’ve been fortunate to talk with a number of different people in different arenas of the backend of this process and things just aren’t done the same way from decade after decade. Things are refined, some things are added, some things are taken away. The process is streamlined as you move forward. You’ve selected your locations, John and his team, production, they give their blessing on it. Are you there for principal photography on these locations, to rub elbows and grease gears and things like that? Where do you fall in when the cameras are rolling? Or are you busy working on the next episodes?
Lynn Smith:
I am busy working on the next episode. Again, that’s a harder part than filming now. It’s all set. The trucks are parked. Because it’s a long day, Jamie and I had to overlap. Often, I’m still, as a result, an early riser. I would take the early shift, the 4:00 or 5:00 AM. I do wanna go down there. As location manager, it’s my responsibility, and my conversations with the rep and my organizing, putting up those signs, “No Parking.” I wanna know when the cameras are rolling at 7:00 AM, they actually can roll, or the trucks can get in. I typically would go early in the morning, make sure the trucks can get in. If it was the night before parking, the trucks are parked. I wanna make sure it’s set up ready. Often, we could be there for a day, but we could be there for several days. I wanna know the cones are lined up along the circus on the street. I wanna know that the PAs showed up. I wanna know that simple things like the garbage cans and buckets, they’re set up and we’re ready to go for this day or days. Jamie would come in, typically at call. Say if it was 7:00 AM on a Monday, he would come in, I would overlap. We’d have conversations how I want the day to go, what my promises were to the reps, what we talked about on the survey. He would be there at 7:00, I would be there at 7:00. I’d overlap maybe an hour, grab that delicious breakfast and then I’d head to the office and off I go to the next episode.
David Read:
Gosh. Man, oh, man. You go back and you watch the show and you watch from shot to shot; one side sunny or cloudy, the other side, rain. They’re doing a pretty good job of hiding it, but it’s definitely raining. How often would rain be an issue for production? How often did you have to change plans? How often was it like, “We can’t shoot today.” How often would that be a problem, Lynn? I am curious.
Lynn Smith:
Not my issue now. No. I wouldn’t say it really affected things.
David Read:
You have to talk to the big guy upstairs.
Lynn Smith:
They were more scrambling. I wouldn’t say it affected myself personally or my job a lot. They know we’re in Vancouver, they know it rains, they know it rains and then stops, they know it’s not always scheduled and it can start. I think they had it dialed in, they always had that in the back of their mind, “What if…” The locations are picked a week prior. You can’t flip some things. You can’t say, “We’re not going to be outside the art gallery,” because that day is outside and inside and we’re booked with them. You can’t just say, “We’re gonna flip there till tomorrow.” That doesn’t work for them. They could change things in the day. “OK, let’s go inside instead of starting out and hope it subsides if it’s absolutely coming down.” They have the means and the technology to cover up, or they’re quick on paper and in their heads that, “OK, you’re not gonna walk from the door to the car. It’s pouring out. You’re just gonna stand and do that scene standing at the door or inside the door now.” I don’t think we actually ever had to change days. We could flip hours, or morning and afternoon. Snow maybe a little bit more. John was hands-on so he often had a shovel and was helping it. You can move it.
David Read:
Team players!
Lynn Smith:
I would say if they had to do that in a real pinch, it’s moving it from an outside scene to inside. Close the blinds.
David Read:
One of the things that I love, it was probably something that you internalized from the beginning to time and picking of location: if you can make one space look like many spaces, you’re gonna save on time, you’re gonna save on budget, you’re gonna save on the amount of gasoline. I remember we’d just watched a Wormhole X-Tremists episode from Season Four. I’m 40 now so the episodes don’t fly in my brain as much anymore. I used to have these things on a Rolodex in my brain, the episode was, ’cause I wanna have it, “Chain Reaction.” In it, you have Senator Robert Kinsey’s house, played by Ronny Cox, and you had Hammond’s, either Hammond’s house or his child’s house in this episode. We went back and behind the house there’s a lake, there’s a lot of shrubbery. Then the other house, it has Greek columns. It looks like it could be a government building. It’s the same building. It’s the same one. You just used the same location for two different ones.
Lynn Smith:
Always. We have to. You can’t keep moving hundreds of people and hundreds of feet of trucks to stand at a door and do a talking scene. I would say that’s where I prided myself. It was where I tasked myself to go, “Oh, we’re at a school and then there’s a house and then there’s a parking lot? I really want that circus to stay parked.” I feel that I did a good job at that. There’s lots of opportunities to do it and that’s why I would start with where the bigger the locations were. If it’s a school, obviously it has to be now worked on a day that they’re out, or in an area of the school that they’re not and you’re not hearing kids outside at recess and bells and everything. That would be my concentration. Once I found that, we could find a house. We can find a house in that neighborhood, or we can find a church because five days a week the church is quiet. We can figure that out. That’s how I started with the location of where we’re at and if we can get several locations in one stop for those trucks, obviously, a lot of it is moving those trucks. We’d have the bulk of the trucks in one place, and we would have to move maybe the camera truck. The task of a location manager is figuring out that aspect. You’ve gotta get a lot of hours done in a day. You don’t wanna waste it on a move, but inevitably there are moves in a day. Even now, there’s a local film in town and I look and I see, wow, why would they be moving two and three times in a day to go from house to house? I don’t think that’s always necessary. Now, maybe their hands are tied and they’re saying, “No, we want that particular house. We want that particular house that’s 10 miles away.”
David Read:
Is it really necessary, though?
Lynn Smith:
Is it necessary?
David Read:
How much can you save to put toward other things? Not just money, but time. How often would a pickup need to be done at a location, where you’d have to reach out and schedule more time at a place? Did it ever happen, from time to time that it would be, “We need this shot. We didn’t get this?” Or, “Something has changed. We have to go back to this spot.”
Lynn Smith:
Yes, we often had to do that. I don’t think it was ever a huge hiccup to go back. You could still say, “We missed this scene,” or something didn’t look right when they watched the dailies and you’d have to go back. Typically, they would go back with a second unit or a handheld camera to do something, if it was doable. If it was an actor, that’s more the producers because now you’re bringing that actor back or having to ask that actor if he’s even free. Or has he gone on to another show? They did a great job of it too. It could be having a voiceover of the actor but he’s off camera now instead of on camera.
David Read:
Movie magic. It’s a lot of moving parts.
Lynn Smith:
It is.
David Read:
I would imagine that dealing with public entities versus private individuals would be a little different. One of the big locations, at the Gatecon events, which was always in the circulation for the bus tours was Carter’s house. It’s a private residence. When you approach a private residence for a house, what’s the policy? Do you just knock on the door and slip an envelope under the door if we missed you, saying, “Hey, we’d like to consider this house for our location. Here’s the budget we’re looking at.” “Here’s the money we’re offering you.” I wanna get to public in a little bit and government. What was the process for a private home?
Lynn Smith:
Pretty much you nailed it. If we knew we wanted a house in that neighborhood, I would draft a letter up saying, “We are filming this show” and always be throwing names of the actors; stars Richard Dean Anderson, da-da-da. “We’ve been on our second or third season and we are looking for a location in the neighborhood that calls for a house.” We would do it to the whole block maybe, in the vicinity of what we’re trying to marry with. Sometimes we’re not trying to marry with something, but we’re going to all the houses on that street. If you like this house, typically the neighborhood is similar, and we don’t know if it’s going to work until we go inside. If they’re hoarders, it’s not going to work. Or if the house is very chopped up, it’s not going to work. China and stuff we can take out, but some things you can’t change. You don’t know from the exterior if the interior works. We might need a backyard, and I can’t see the backyard from not meeting the people yet. We’d do the block, or block both sides, and then Terry would often take all those fronts of the houses, and we’d see a few that they would like and then she’s knocking on the door. “Hi, we put out a letter a couple days ago. Did you get it? Yes? No? Well, here’s what we’re up to.” Then we get a yes or no. And sometimes it’s an absolute no. “Oh, yeah, with twin month-old babies, it being inconvenient.” There’s a wedding, they’re leaving town etc. Then it starts narrowing it down and we find the house. Carter’s house was… those people were fantastic. Thank goodness, because you always go into a location thinking you’re using it possibly once or twice and then it becomes a recurring location; the cabin that Rick always went to. You find a location and you are blessed if the people aren’t crazy and they’re easy-going and it all works out. We can move and groove in there with cameras and dollies and all this stuff.
David Read:
I would imagine, in a situation where you have a really amazing spot, you would wouldn’t want to be in a position where one of your people would have to tell the writers, “I know you really want to go back to that location, but they hated this process. We’re not gonna get it again. We’re gonna have to find something similar.”
Lynn Smith:
I have to say this, I’ve never had that comment where they’ve hated the process. I’ve had the comment where, “We’re moving.”
David Read:
Oh no.
Lynn Smith:
If you go and you see a for sale sign, you’re like, “No, let’s hope the next people want us.” The crew was fantastic.
David Read:
“You didn’t tear up our walls with tape.” Something like that.
Lynn Smith:
I was strict. I was younger then and I’ve relaxed a bit now, but I was really strict. I would not be happy if I walked in there and something was not protected, or they decided, “Oh, we’re not gonna go that way with the camera. We’re gonna go this way. Now, that wasn’t the plan, so that room wasn’t protected,” or whatever. It happens. I remember starting in this industry. When John and I were working together they sometimes would want to just, “Hey, we’re just gonna go down to the sea wall and do this one scene of the guy walking.” It’s like guerrilla warfare. It’s like, “No, you can’t do that anymore.” But they lived in the day when you could just grab a camera and out you go. Those days are over. It’s on my name that signs at the city. So, no, we don’t just change direction and gears and run out with a camera. I need to make a call. Usually asking, it worked. They’d say, “No worries. Thanks for letting me know.” They didn’t like it when all of a sudden the public would call and say, “Hey, did you know there’s a film crew down here?” “No.” “They were supposed to be here.” Sometimes, the camera ran faster than me.
David Read:
That makes a lot of sense. So, that’s private individuals in private homes. Was the process for public spaces, for private businesses and government spaces, can you tell me about those kinds of situations and how different were they? Or was it pretty much the same thing?
Lynn Smith:
No, much more challenging. Much more challenging because they often are giving a certain corner of their space, or they’re allowing you to come into their space knowing that there’s still public around. They may not be in the room that we’re giving to you, but you’re gonna hear them in the background, or there’s a door opening and closing, or people forget. “Oh, the guy was coming to fix the alarm today,” or to fix something that’s noisy and a drill. You’re dealing with stuff that wasn’t expected on the day and you’re running around. I can’t tell you how many times it happens in public, private, homes as well. Everybody starts up the lawnmower on the day just to get some money. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve said to Jamie, “Run and give them a Stargate hat. Run and chat.” He was on radio, he knew when they were rolling and cutting and he would sit with them and chat and go, “OK, guys, stop the drills. Stop the this, stop the that.”
David Read:
Someone would start, at some point, theoretically, a lawnmower in order to get a payout for them to stop?
Lynn Smith:
They would start things so that you would buy them out and say…
David Read:
Wow.
Lynn Smith:
“You need to…”
David Read:
What gall?
Lynn Smith:
It’s the leaf blower. It’s the lawnmower. Yes, it would happen.
David Read:
I would think that you would have to have a piggy bank set aside for things like that, just for incidentals, for overhead. I’m sure every episode had ’em. You’d have unforeseen circumstances.
Lynn Smith:
They wanted money but we outsmarted that. Stargate was quite popular so they would love to have a Stargate hat. The guys doing a job, I don’t know, for some other company, they would love to have a case of beer at the end of the day. We reinvented. Instead of always handing out money, we would just have gak. Jamie was a gem at this. He has gift of the gab. He’s very charismatic, as I say, and he was very good at that.
David Read:
That’s awesome to have resourceful people on your team who are like, “OK, dollars are not always the answer. We have a popular show now.” “What else can we do to accommodate people?” You’re interfacing with the public constantly. You don’t wanna leave a bad taste in their mouth. Word gets around, around town. I would imagine so. Did you have a Rolodex of contacts after a while, in terms of places, in terms of locations? I imagine you documented everything, names, they like sushi, you know?
Lynn Smith:
I am very list-oriented and I’m very organized. Every season, every episode, you’re rolling off “this person’s house, that person’s house, when you did this scene,” that means nothing to me. Many years later, I couldn’t tell you. I’d be looking at this, I always had this. When they would say, “Hey, Lynn, back when we did, ‘In the Line of Duty,’ we were at someone’s house. Can you see if we can go back there?” I would just pull out my cheat sheet, look at it. Well, now there’s not a house, but it was…
David Read:
It’s a hospital, it should be.
Lynn Smith:
Yep. Shaughnessy Hospital. Look at you.
David Read:
Yep.
Lynn Smith:
Wow.
David Read:
“In the Line of Duty.”
Lynn Smith:
Shaughnessy Hospital and Buntzen Lake. “Prisoners,” Buntzen Lake. “Gamekeeper,” Foxglove Farm, Bloedel Conservatory. I could roll off of this. I have the contact’s name and number. I have all my cheat sheets, who I had to go through, what incident might’ve happened that we could be running into again. I have it all, I have it all here and then it came in handy when I started doing the bus tours.
David Read:
I’m sure that those relationships, there’s nothing wrong with networking. Especially if you connected with someone and it’s like, “OK, this is a great human being. This is a great person. We have this coming up. I’d really like to use them again ’cause” I’d like to give them another opportunity, but B, they’re great to work with.” I suspect it had happened.
Lynn Smith:
Or even just the neighborhood dynamics. If there was another house and I knew that we had filmed at this particular house on this street and there was a church that was great for parking and the neighbors were fantastic and the guy next door let us put the caterers, instead of a tent for eating, we used his empty, beautiful, big garage, then the next time I had a house, I’m looking on that street. I can’t have the same house, but I could be down the street and know where my parking is already going, where the tent is already going. The people are nice. It makes it easier. Call it cheating, but that’s what you do. That’s what you’re supposed to remember and do.
David Read:
We had Mel Harris on, played Oma Desala. She said, “We’re illusionists.” As long as you change things just enough, the most fastidious person probably won’t tell.” At the end of the day, you’re making it work.
Lynn Smith:
Just turn around the camera and you’re in Colorado.
David Read:
No big bodies of water.
Lynn Smith:
I’d add that. Trucks didn’t move.
David Read:
That’s it. I was amazed when I would go to Bridge, how many locations were just right there. There’s a coffee shop in Season Seven where Amanda Tapping goes to meet David DeLuise. In the shot, you can see the red girders of the studio in the background because the coffee shop was right there. The crew was probably there all the time.
Lynn Smith:
They did the motel; the Stay & Save was a motel scene. A minute later, it was a coffee shop, not supposed to be right there, but it was right there. Then a scene on the roof, coming out of the studios and the trucks didn’t move from our Bridge Studios lot. That’s money at its best.
David Read:
Were the local government really typically easy to work with? I’m imagining that Stargate got more name recognition as it went forward. Were things easier to pull off? Were there places that you just could never get?
Lynn Smith:
Nope, money buys everything. Spend a little money here and less here. Yes, there were some we couldn’t get because of dates or timing. Some other film crew was there or it didn’t make sense that we really wanted to be here, but we really wanted to be there. It’s in the same episode and too much in a day. We’d change that up. We’d think we’re doing that and then we’d say, “Oh, camera needed a little bit more money, so something’s changing in location. We’re not going to that house. We’re going to build it in studio.” Things like that happen, for sure. The more studio, the easier for me. These recurring GVRD and stuff, I love my GVRD reps and the Burnaby rep at the time. I don’t know who’s sitting in the chair now, but it was easy and that was our home, in Burnaby. If we stuck close to the studio, the trucks could be there or we could be going back and forth, that rep was fantastic. The more years you’re in the game on that same series, the easier it got because now people know it’s a popular show; now you’re a priority. If you wanna do something simple and all of a sudden you find out that a feature film was there a week before and paid three times as much as you’re capable of, that was hard to follow. You were talking about buying people out, I remember being in Fort Langley. Don’t think he’s still there, so without saying too much of a name, it was a pizza place. He was just going to say that he was losing out on a ton of business. He wasn’t. He was just saying that and we thought, “Well, you know, he wants thousands of dollars. Well, we’ll outsmart him.” What I did is I went in there and I bought pizzas. I said, “Well, how many pizzas would you sell?” “Well, probably 30 pizzas.” “OK, you know what? We’ll take 30 pizzas. I’ll take them tonight and I’ll put them all out,” and that was a treat for the crew. At least he’s getting his money. He wasn’t happy. It’s like, “You’re getting your money. You just said $300 or whatever, here’s $300 for the pizzas.”
David Read:
“This is what you said.”
Lynn Smith:
Coffee shop’s the same. Flower shops, I would just say, “Well, how much do you think you’re out?” “Well, at least 300.” “OK, can I have $300 in gift certificates?” Now I have gift certificates to give to some neighbors as a thank you or somebody that’s doing something kind, or a crew member. We started to outsmart them.
David Read:
Talk about rolling with the punches. That’s just how you do it. Yes, it is outsmarting their position, but at the same time you’re taking care of them. I can’t tell you how many times, Lynn, I have been up in Vancouver, I call a location because I wanna do a little bit of photography at a spot and they’re like, “Who are you with?” I’m like, “Well, I’m with myself now but I’m going because this was used as a Stargate location.” I cannot tell you how many times the people on the phone are like, “Oh, I remember Stargate. They were great” and it gets me in. You guys took care of people. You made it work.
Lynn Smith:
I’m gonna toot John’s horn: he picked a lot of that crew. A lot of the crew followed him around because he was a good boss. I don’t think very many people can say very many bad things about him. So, accolades to him for picking a good crew, but they were respectful. They were good. That was my family. I saw more of them than my own family. It just gets easier as far as, “OK, we know that personality. We know we need to dance around them,” or, “We know that guy’s really grumpy in the morning, just don’t set him off.” You get to know people. We were a family.
David Read:
What are some of your favorite locations from the show? You mentioned the GVRD, that’s the Greater Vancouver Recreational District. I wanna get to the Arctic.
Lynn Smith:
I was the location manager on the North Pole.
David Read:
So, the Greater Vancouver Recreational District, am I saying that right?
Lynn Smith:
GVRD, yes.
David Read:
That was used a lot for forests/
Lynn Smith:
Yes, it was.
David Read:
Was that one department? Was that one group of people who managed that whole area? Was that one contact?
Lynn Smith:
No, there was a couple. It was basically one guy. In fact, I don’t think the crew cared for him. He was really, really strict. Really strict. If he caught somebody going a little bit over the speed limit, they were out.
David Read:
Wow.
Lynn Smith:
It is his power.
David Read:
He was king of his hill.
Lynn Smith:
If he caught one of the guys peeing in the morning or something in the truck, he’d have a fit and everybody’d be going, “Is he kidding? There are deer and bear,” and doing all the stuff I said. But he is the rookie cop. You have to abide by his rules. He just doesn’t like that you could dishonor his rules. He and I got along because I knew to baby him. Jamie was great with him, I think they were buddies. He liked Jamie and I.
David Read:
It’s the people that you put in front of the people. You wanna get people who are compatible.
Lynn Smith:
The crew didn’t have to get that location the next time. They didn’t have to play to his rules all the time. If it was a reoccurring location, sometimes we would have to have talks and put it out there saying, “Guys, GVRD is important to us. This guy needs us to respect his rules and absolutely nobody is to speed,” and it would go like this. There were times where we had to park down by the gate, as a punishment, instead of being able to drive to set. People realized, “Yeah, I better slow down or else I don’t get to drive to set. I have to park down in a parking lot.”
David Read:
It’s a good solution. I get where he’s coming from.
Lynn Smith:
We figured it out over the years and going there a lot. We were probably his favorite crew.
David Read:
You guys did a lot of business there.
Lynn Smith:
Yeah, we did.
David Read:
The dunes. Correct me if I’m wrong, this is a patch of largely sand that was near the airport if I’m not mistaken. What I was told was that it got smaller and smaller with each passing season.
Lynn Smith:
Yes.
David Read:
It was zoned out or something was changed.
Lynn Smith:
It was an auto mall or something. I remember one time, probably on a bus tour – because when I would put them together, sometimes we’d drive around, make sure things looked the same or you could have access or the roads were the same access. I remember going there, going, “What?” It was full of, I wouldn’t even say cars. It was like an auto mall of big, huge trucks and buses and all of this. I thought, “Well, we can come here and they can see. Hey, look what happened here.” I don’t know what it is today. I should maybe take one of these tours and go around, see which locations are still around. But favorite locations? Stokes Pit I liked. That was, South Surrey, 192 and 24th. I liked the locations that made it easy for me. If the trucks could park once and if the neighborhood was friendly and if the noises weren’t around, I liked it.
David Read:
That made a lot of sense. There were some cool ones. You guys had a, in “1969,” you went to an observatory.
Lynn Smith:
Yes.
David Read:
That was in the location tours as well. The name is escaping me at this moment. Before I get to the Arctic, what was it like doing the location tours?
Lynn Smith:
By the way, I love “1969.”
David Read:
It’s a great show.
Lynn Smith:
It was fun. It was a lot of running around here, there, and everywhere. It was fun, it was really fun. We had fun doing that.
David Read:
Crossing… going cross-country in America. How can we make these locations look this way?
Lynn Smith:
It was fun.
David Read:
It’s an illusion.
Lynn Smith:
It was good. Some of the challenging ones… Like the art gallery, I love the rep there, but it had a lot of surprises on the day and parking was a challenge and that is when I wouldn’t sleep the night before. I loved when the trucks parked the night before, before the morning.
David Read:
‘Cause you were in. You were ensconced.
Lynn Smith:
If there’s any surprises, you have time to deal with it. But when the trucks were pulling in at 5:00 AM, I don’t know, on a Monday, when everybody might have been downtown over the weekend and drank and left their car there and didn’t see the sign or whatever and now I’ve got tow trucks. You legally couldn’t tow a vehicle, even though we had signs saying, “Do not park here. Film crew coming in.” We couldn’t tow them unless they were ticketed, to a tow yard. What I would do is I would tow it down the street out of our way so we can pull in the trucks and then when you saw a person doing this, “Did I drink that much? I thought I parked here.” We’d say, “Excuse me, you looking for your car?” They’d go, “Yeah, I’m pretty sure I parked…” I said, “Don’t worry, we did you a favor. We just towed it to the end of the road. We didn’t tow it to the yard where you would have to pay $200.” “Oh, thank you so much. Thank you so much.” They weren’t mad you moved their vehicle. They were thinking, “Yay, I don’t have to pay and it’s still conveniently right there.” We would just tow it across the street or at the end of where our trucks needed to be.
David Read:
Wow. That’s very smart. That’s great. What was it like meeting fans and doing the location tours for the show?
Lynn Smith:
You mean after I was over and done off of Stargate?
David Read:
Yeah.
Lynn Smith:
I liked doing those. It was lots of fun. And man, they would outsmart me. I was a few years out of it and they’d say, “So, when so-and-so dipped his toe in the water, was this at a pool or was it right at Stoke…” I’m like, “When did he do that?” They’d name the episode, “In the second part of this episode…” I’m like, “OK, you got me.” I’d have to look at the scene.
David Read:
Now, we can pull it up on our phones and say, “Where is this?”
Lynn Smith:
Yes.
David Read:
You have a better shot of “OK, it’s one of these two places.”
Lynn Smith:
Or they would correct me. I’d say something, they’d say, “I don’t think so. I think he did that at such and such. Because when you turned around, I saw the writing on the building,” or whatever. I’d go “OK, you’re right, I’m wrong.” I started to really do a lot of prep for those bus tours, because they paid a lot, so I didn’t wanna sit there on a mic, this, that, and the other thing. I started to get the buses that would have the VCR. I’d have the tape of the show, and I’d put it in and I’d literally have my notes, “Go to six-minute, 28-second mark.” As we are heading to that location they would see the scene, maybe at the art gallery, and then I would stop it, we’d arrive at the art gallery and then we’d talk about the scene. I tried to do that. I started having a silent auction. I had, maybe, a Stargate hat. I had toques made. I shaved my head to raise money for cancer. I had toques made that had Stargate on them. Richard said to John, “I’ll give you X amount of money if you shave your head on the day.” John was not prepared for that. He did, then I did and then two weeks later we moved into a new neighborhood, and I had to location manage my own neighborhood going, “Hey, we’re John and Lynn Smith, we just moved here and we are not Hare Krishnas. We shaved our heads for cancer.” Anyway, long story short, I had toques made and they were beautiful. I still have some. I would bring one of those on the bus and I’d bring something else and I would silent auction them. By the end of that bus tour, sometimes people would pay $100, $200 for whatever I had, signed script or whatever and then I’d give that to charity. We made it more than it was cut out to be, those bus tours. It was fun.
David Read:
Tell me about going to the Arctic. What an experience! We’ve talked with Barry Campbell who set it up because.
Lynn Smith:
It still sits front and center. I loved that. I was not location manager when we went there.
David Read:
The show was over, you were doing DVD movies at this point. Arc of Truth and Continuum were both done in 2008, I believe, 2007. What an amazing experience. What was it finding out this is happening and “would you like to go?”
Lynn Smith:
My title was photography; take pictures of things happening.
David Read:
So, you worked with Ivan a lot?
Lynn Smith:
Yes. We had a great time. That was an experience, from traveling with Richard there to almost being weathered out getting there, to the whole prep of it. Learning that you can only have a little tiny bit in those, 40 and more below weather with wind chill. It was such an exciting situation, just the prep, and having to put cream on every little inch of your face. Because it was military that allowed us to go there, I couldn’t stay in a hut with John. You can’t male-female this up.
David Read:
You were with Amanda.
Lynn Smith:
I was with Amanda, and who else was I with? A couple of the gals, hair and makeup, I think. We learned that when you wake up in the morning, we’d say, “Oh, why is there a window in the door? That’s kinda silly, on the ice.” Well, because you have to peek out there and make sure, before you open that door and step out, that the ice hasn’t broken throughout the night and you’re stepping, bye-bye.
David Read:
And polar bears.
Lynn Smith:
Oh, polar bears, and they’re top of the food chain. They have to almost have your head in their mouth before the guy can tranquilize them. He’s not gonna shoot them, he’s gonna tranquilize, but we had a guy at the ready to do that. Even the submarine coming up, X marks the spot. It really is, there’s an X. I don’t know how they do it, there’s currents and all this kinda stuff, but they come up at that X.
David Read:
Yeah, it was the second or third try. It was the last one and they got it.
Lynn Smith:
Yes.
David Read:
I can’t imagine what that even felt like coming up through the ice beneath you.
Lynn Smith:
I know, I get a little shiver just you bringing it up right now. The meals and how they coordinated that. I still have a recipe book from that gal that made the meals. The ice blew. Chopping the ice. We put Styrofoam cups… Oh my God, I think I have our Styrofoam cup. One moment. ‘Cause we’d put it down. We have a lot of West Coast native art in our house. We have lots of little cups and stuff. Applause. Rick and Ben. So, that’s 2007. I put one down for our family because we were putting them down. You would bring them up and then get to keep this. So, there we are. There’s the Northwest reading.
David Read:
How many days were you up there?
Lynn Smith:
I don’t know. John, how many days were we in the North Pole? Four? Six. Not a good memory.
David Read:
I can’t imagine how itinerant you had to be, how careful you had to be. I know that there was a must-have shot list and it’s, “Oh, this would be awesome if we could get these.” Martin Wood was brilliant. How you guys pulled that off at that temperature? You set a record, I think.
Lynn Smith:
Yes. It’s on our wall here as well. Also, what we were told, but you, not that you don’t believe, but you realize how important it is. We couldn’t work at the pace that you work anywhere else, in a studio or on the streets or in snow. You literally, you would run to get some, “Oh, can you go get me that?” Someone ran, “Stop running. Stop running.” It was a very serious thing. It’s “Walk slow. You can’t speed up the game when you’re in the North Pole.” But yes, you want to see this.
David Read:
Absolutely, I want to see this.
Lynn Smith:
There’s two on the wall. Here’s the one. Can you see that? The eight 15-to-20-minute-long webisodes of Sanctuary. OK, so this is Sanctuary’s. That was Sanctuary and then there’s another. We have both.
David Read:
The Guinness World Record, well done, Sanctuary. I’m trying to get Damien Kindler on the show. I’ve had trouble reaching him. Wow. The longest running TV sci-fi series is Stargate SG-1 which has notched up over 203 consecutive episodes since first being aired in 1997. To N. John Smith, executive producer. That is so cool.
Lynn Smith:
We don’t have much Stargate stuff in our house, but we have a few here. Here’s another. Here’s another one. That’s the last one.
David Read:
Ran without a break for 10 seasons. The first episode, “Children of the Gods,” broadcast 27 July ’97, ending in 2006 with the episode 203, “Company of Thieves.” It beat The X-Files, Fox, which ran for 202 episodes. I’ll never forget the day that Smallville dethroned you guys. Ugh. But you had it, you guys got it.
Lynn Smith:
We did have it.
David Read:
No one can take that from you.
Lynn Smith:
That’s right.
David Read:
Lynn, this has been a treat for me. I’m really thrilled that we got to sit down and talk.
Lynn Smith:
Aw, thanks for the invite.
David Read:
Absolutely. That was Lynn Smith, location coordinator for Stargate SG-1, Seasons Two through Six. As you heard as well, she was also involved in Stargate: Continuum. Really excited to have her perspective on the show in terms of the back end and how a lot of this stuff gets made. This is why I do Dial the Gate; to get these stories and hear how the cake is baked, ’cause there’s a lot that goes into our favorite shows. Before I let you go, if you enjoyed this episode and you wanna see more content like this on YouTube, Stargate content, click the Like button. It makes a difference and will help continue to grow our audience. Please also consider sharing this video with a Stargate friend and if you wanna get notified about future episodes, click Subscribe. Giving the Bell icon a click will notify you the moment a new video drops and you’ll get my notifications of any last-minute guest changes. Clips from this episode will be released over the course of the next few weeks on the Dial the Gate and GateWorld.net YouTube channels. That’s all I’ve got for you this episode. My thanks to my moderating team; Sommer, Tracy, Jeremy and Marcia, as well, for bringing this episode together. Big thanks to Frederick Marcoux at ConceptsWeb. He keeps the website up and running. Brice and Matt, EagleSG, my talented VFX team, they keep all the parts of the show going. My name is David Read for Dial the Gate and I’ll see you on the other side.