{"id":298157,"date":"2026-10-02T16:34:29","date_gmt":"2026-10-02T16:34:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newhampshiredigitalnews.com\/index.php\/2026\/10\/02\/landscape-collector-the-scout-behind-hollywoods\/"},"modified":"2026-10-02T16:34:29","modified_gmt":"2026-10-02T16:34:29","slug":"landscape-collector-the-scout-behind-hollywoods","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newhampshiredigitalnews.com\/index.php\/2026\/10\/02\/landscape-collector-the-scout-behind-hollywoods\/","title":{"rendered":"Landscape Collector: The scout behind Hollywood\u2019s\u2026"},"content":{"rendered":"


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In Christopher Nolan\u2019s The Odyssey<\/i>, ancient Troy is played by the Ksar of A\u00eft Benhaddou, an 11<\/span>th<\/sup>-century Moroccan fortress known for imposing mountain ranges nearby, golden Saharan sun and a\u00a030<\/span> per cent tax rebate. The film has attracted considerable debate about historical authenticity, with intrigued onlookers scrutinising everything from costume to casting. Nobody, however, seems particularly troubled that Troy is in Morocco rather than northwest Turkey<\/a>. And why would they? Cinema has often understood that a\u00a0location is not about latitude and longitude but whether a\u00a0place evokes an unshakeable texture, mood or feeling.<\/p>\n

What has changed for Hollywood is the direction of the substitution. For decades, California\u2019s gravitational pull was so strong that the world was recreated on its own doorstep. Century City stood in for New York; the Santa Clarita Valley hosted historical battles, alien planets and the entire American frontier. Los Angeles didn\u2019t need to go anywhere because everywhere came to\u00a0it.<\/p>\n

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Get more Little White\u00a0Lies<\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

Now the reverse is true. Atlanta has become Hollywood\u2019s domestic surrogate, beloved by the MCU<\/span> and prestige TV<\/span>, while Vancouver has doubled for virtually every corner of America. Hungary\u2019s architecture became 1950<\/span>s America in The Brutalist<\/i>, Jordan\u2019s Wadi Rum transformed into Mars for The Martian<\/i> and Abu Dhabi\u2019s Liwa desert became the arid spice planet Arrakis in Dune<\/i>. The first task is how to accommodate the story, then it\u2019s all about checking the rebate. It is a\u00a0compromise that has come to define modern Hollywood, now more of a\u00a0brand than an actual locale, and few understand its shift better than Lori Balton. As one of Hollywood\u2019s most celebrated location scouts, she still has an eye that has shaped the visual language of films from Heat<\/i> to Inception<\/i>, The Aviator<\/i> to Top Gun<\/i>: Maverick<\/i>. But even at the top of her game she describes how, \u200b\u201c<\/span>I used to get handed a\u00a0script and they\u2019d ask me where we should shoot. Now I\u00a0get handed a\u00a0script and they tell me which countries I\u00a0have to shoot in according to incentives.\u201d That shift, from creative fluidity boxed in by rigid financial and political concerns, is a\u00a0microcosm of where \u200b\u201c<\/span>Hollywood\u201d actually is right\u00a0now.<\/p>\n

Location scouting is one of cinema\u2019s least lauded crafts. When Balton found the windswept Montana rivers that gave Robert Redford\u2019s A\u00a0River Runs Through It<\/i> its sun-dappled elegance, nobody thought of the months she spent scouring the great outdoors. When she scouted Yellowstone\u2019s geysers for The Lion King<\/i>, nobody considered it a\u00a0federally protected landmark, accessed only after Balton personally persuaded park officials that a\u00a0film credit would send families streaming to visit. The location disappeared into the story, which, as she stresses, is the whole point. \u200b\u201c<\/span>We always used to refer to ourselves as the red-headed stepchild of the film industry,\u201d she says, laughing. \u200b\u201c<\/span>We\u2019re doing something so important, and yet if we do our job well, nobody thinks of\u00a0us.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2013<\/span> Balton became the first location professional invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Her early work on Michael Mann\u2019s Heat<\/i>, one of the most iconic portraits of Los Angeles committed to film, illustrates how great scouting actually elevates a\u00a0movie. Mann wanted the city to feel \u200b\u201c<\/span>discovered rather than filmed\u201d, insisting on locations that had never appeared on screen before. Not a\u00a0single soundstage was used, and the crew nearly lost their shot at Los Angeles International Airport when the Unabomber threatened the facility.<\/p>\n

It was the beginning of a\u00a0run of films Balton looks back on with warm nostalgia. \u200b\u201c<\/span>I\u2019ve worked in a\u00a0lot of movies, right before this last downsurge, where they were still making good storydriven films,\u201d she says \u2013 Seabiscuit<\/i>, Gary Ross\u2019 Depression-era underdog story; Memoirs of a\u00a0Geisha<\/i>, Rob Marshall\u2019s ravishing portrait of prewar Kyoto; Catch Me If You Can<\/i>, Steven Spielberg\u2019s sun-drenched chase across mid-century America. Since then she has travelled the length of the Amazon River for Disney themepark adaptation Jungle Cruise<\/i> and spent time in the highlands of northern Vietnam, staying in people\u2019s homes, for the MCU<\/span> saga Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings<\/i>. Hers is a\u00a0career that charts Hollywood\u2019s own expanding geography.<\/p>\n

The map, today, looks nothing like it did when Balton started. The UK<\/span> pulled in \u00a36<\/span>.8<\/span> billion in production spend in 2025<\/span>, offering rebates of up to 53<\/span> per cent and a\u00a0landscape of remarkable range: Georgian townhouses, medieval castles, the post-industrial north. Hungary has become a\u00a0go-to for productions that need the Continent on a\u00a0budget. Australia offers red-ochre vastness and turquoise coastline at 30<\/span> per cent back\u00a0end.<\/p>\n

In every direction the reshaping continues. Wadi Rum has become the default for the otherworldly; Rogue One<\/i>, Andor<\/i> and a\u00a0succession of streaming productions have planted their stories in the rose-red desert, while the rain-sodden streets of Glasgow became Gotham in The Batman<\/i>. Saudi Arabia\u2019s AlUla, which comes with a\u00a040<\/span> per cent rebate, is emerging fast as a\u00a0popular filming location, while Japan\u2019s 50<\/span> per cent scheme is already drawing significant productions. South Korea, cultivating the momentum of Parasite<\/i> and Squid Game<\/i>, is a\u00a0serious draw for nonwestern aesthetics backed by experienced crews. And California? \u200b\u201c<\/span>There\u2019s just no work in LA<\/span>,\u201d Balton says simply. \u200b\u201c<\/span>Sad.\u201d<\/p>\n

The financial logic is not complicated. Incentives reduce costs and international infrastructure has improved to the point where many more locations can sustain studio-scale filmmaking. \u200b\u201c<\/span>There are whole departments now for people who just work on incentives. That\u2019s all they do. Because they change constantly. And everything is fudged a\u00a0little here and fudged a\u00a0little there,\u201d Balton explains. \u200b\u201c<\/span>The question is how little can you do it for. And you\u2019re starting to see that there\u2019s a\u00a0lot of content, and a\u00a0growing percentage of it is just shit. But occasionally when you find something great, everybody tells everybody about it. Because we\u2019re all dying for something that has a\u00a0great story and great locations.\u201d<\/p>\n

The studios, she argues, were once driven by taste. \u200b\u201c<\/span>It could have been bad taste, but at least they had a\u00a0taste. There was a\u00a0personality behind things that were made, and now it\u2019s just a\u00a0dollar. The thing that rankles is that incentives rob you of serving the director with the best options.\u201d She has developed her own form of resistance, always including the most compelling location regardless of the numbers. \u200b\u201c<\/span>My drive is to give the director the right location. They might not know what they want. Once I\u00a0showed Michael Bay the opposite of what he asked for and he said it was perfect. Is it evocative of the story? That\u2019s all that matters.\u201d<\/p>\n

The question of what makes a\u00a0location cinematic rather than merely scenic reveals something essential about how Balton sees the world. Tourist boards want to show her their greatest hits, but, as she puts it, \u200b\u201c<\/span>I\u2019d rather see beauty in odd things. Show me something gritty and off the beaten path.\u201d The favelas of Brazil are a\u00a0case in point. \u200b\u201c<\/span>That is one of the most beautiful things about Brazil, the favelas and the life that\u2019s packed in there. It\u2019s amazing.\u201d She has watched productions recreate them elsewhere and found the results wanting. The real flavour of a\u00a0place, when a\u00a0production is bold enough to use it, is irreplaceable. It is a\u00a0philosophy shaped by decades of travel, and she cites Mark Twain: \u200b\u201c<\/span>Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry and narrow-mindedness.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her favourite destinations reflect this ethos \u2013 Iceland, for its wild terrain that has made it one of the most filmed landscapes on earth, and Namibia, possibly the most \u200b\u201c<\/span>breathtaking\u201d country she has ever visited. \u200b\u201c<\/span>The locations there are unlike anywhere else. It\u2019s so underpopulated that you can travel vast distances without seeing another human\u00a0being.\u201d<\/p>\n

The rise of VFX<\/span> plate work has given Balton a\u00a0new kind of freedom. On Barry Jenkins\u2019 live-action version of The Lion King<\/i>, a\u00a0location needn\u2019t have a\u00a0nearby hotel or airport. On Shang-Chi<\/i>, the rainforests and terraced rice paddies of northern Vietnam could be captured after long treks on foot and then carried home. Recently, going through her hard drive, she found herself overwhelmed. \u200b\u201c<\/span>It almost brought me to tears to just see all of the places in the world that I\u2019ve been.\u201d Decades of landscapes, quietly accumulated in the service of other people\u2019s visions.<\/p>\n

There is a\u00a0dimension to the global production story that shapes everything: labour. Hollywood\u2019s union structure \u2013 SAG-AFTRA<\/span>, the DGA<\/span>, the Teamsters, etc \u2013 was built to protect workers, but field production doesn\u2019t always honour those protections, and structuring shoots to sidestep union jurisdiction is a\u00a0growing concern.<\/p>\n

Balton, a\u00a0proud Teamster for 35<\/span>\u00a0years, is characteristically direct. \u200b\u201c<\/span>Unions enforce wage rates, work hours and mandatory safety protocols. I\u00a0built my career and my future being a\u00a0union member.\u201d She is withering about exploitation dressed up as opportunity. \u200b\u201c<\/span>They have this attitude that you should be grateful. I\u2019ve been doing this for 35<\/span>\u00a0years. You are not hiring a\u00a0minimum-wage person when you hire me.\u201d The real casualties are not the titans of the industry. They are the crew members, the drivers, the technicians, the workingclass infrastructure of a\u00a0film industry that took generations to build and is now being quietly dismantled, one incentive table at a\u00a0time.<\/p>\n

California\u2019s refusal to establish competitive incentives handed Atlanta, and then the world, the business. \u200b\u201c<\/span>We educated our replacements,\u201d she says of the years training local crews who eventually rendered the imported Californians redundant. The state that built its tourist appeal on cinematic visibility has ceded immense ground and is only beginning to reckon with what it has\u00a0lost.<\/p>\n

Asked what gives her hope, Balton finds something sustaining in the international films she screens as a\u00a0member of the Academy. \u200b\u201c<\/span>The international films are a\u00a0revelation. No major talent, no major special effects, just a\u00a0well-written story and locations you\u2019ve never seen before. When I\u00a0see what\u2019s coming from all over the world I\u00a0appreciate that what\u2019s beyond Hollywood is sustainable. So I\u00a0think cinema will limp\u00a0on.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the end, what Balton offers is not just expertise but a\u00a0reminder of what the whole enterprise is supposed to be for. \u200b\u201c<\/span>I think you have to be a\u00a0very curious person to be a\u00a0good location scout,\u201d she says. \u200b\u201c<\/span>Curious, interested in people and you have to believe in the potential of movies.\u201d In an industry that has mistaken a\u00a0brand for a\u00a0place, that curiosity may be the most radical position of\u00a0all.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n