STEFAN NIKOLOV - Location Manager

Team Deakins

James Ellis Deakins

Tv & Film, Filmlighting, Deakins, Movies, Filmmaking, Production, Film, Cinematography, Film Interviews

4.8 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 16 April 2025

⏱️ 65 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

SEASON 2 - EPISODE 137 - Stefan Nikolov - Location Manager

Location manager Stefan Nikolov (SOMEBODY SOMEWHERE, JUSTIFIED: CITY PRIMEVAL, SHAMELESS) joins us in this episode of the Team Deakins Podcast. Originally from Bulgaria, Stefan followed his journalist parents around the world before landing in Chicago where he has since built a career in the locations department. We discuss how he worked his way up the ladder, and Stefan breaks down the different roles in the department. Throughout our conversation, Stefan shares many stories from his career, and we learn what to do when an alligator hunt prevents the crew from parking the vans where you need them. We also learn about the potential consequences of living in a home made famous on television, and we discuss why a film would come to Chicago to shoot for another real-world location. And at the end, Stefan gives his advice to anyone trying to break into the locations department.

This episode was recorded in front of a live audience in Chicago at the Athenaeum Center.

This episode is sponsored by Aputure

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi and welcome to Season 2 of the Team Deacons podcast,
0:07.0	a collection of informal conversations between Roger and James Deacons and a guest.
0:13.0	We never know where the conversation will take us, so listen in and see where it goes.
0:19.0	This episode is sponsored by Aperture. listen in and see where it goes.
0:28.8	This episode is sponsored by Aperture, a premier manufacturer of LED lighting with the industry's greatest variety of fixtures for your complete lighting needs.
0:33.9	Aperture recently announced the new storm family of lights.
0:47.5	With LED white light quality that matches natural daylight and classic tungsten bulbs, plus extreme low-end dimming while maintaining color quality.
0:55.8	Discover more about the new storm lights and the complete aperture lighting ecosystem at Aperture.com.
1:01.0	Today we're doing something different.
1:05.1	We're recording this episode in Chicago with a live audience.
1:10.3	Our guest is a location manager from Chicago whose credits include Somebody Somewhere, Jupiter
1:12.3	Ascending, Chicago Fire and Transformer Age of Extinction. We're pleased to welcome Stefan Nikoloff.
1:21.4	Stefan, thank you for doing this. Thank you very much for having me. And as I said,
1:25.7	it's a true honor to be a guest on your show.
1:29.2	Now, we always start with the same question, which is basically, how did you get to where you are today?
1:35.2	Where did you grow up? Were you always looking at buildings when you were a kid?
1:40.5	So what's your story? How'd you get here?
1:43.4	Well, my story is, I'm originally from Bulgaria, and I spent the first 20 years of my life
1:50.4	in Spanish-speaking countries because my parents are journalists, and they were, back in the
1:56.5	day, there was no internet, so the only way for people to get the news was to send somebody to a country
2:03.6	and send the news from there. So my parents used to work for the Bulgarian news agency. And they were
2:09.6	sent first to Cuba, then to Spain, then to Mexico. And they used to have this big bulky machine
	...

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