From the whirlwind of organizing 50 locations in just 30 days amidst the chaos of downtown Toronto to dealing with unexpected rejections due to the film’s controversial subject matter, read on for an insightful look into how creative solutions and a dedicated crew made The Apprentice a Cannes hit.
Jeremy Strong and Sebastian Stan in The Apprentice (2024). Photo © Scythia Films
Can you tell us how you first came aboard The Apprentice and some of the challenges you faced as the Location Manager?
Location Manager Richard Hughes: The Apprentice is a low-budget, very ambitious feature film. The script is excellent. It all basically takes place in the 1980s, and many of our buildings in Toronto haven’t changed a lot since then. You just add some 1980s Picture Cars here and there, and then suddenly the street comes alive. It was a very overwhelming project in the sense that it involved 50 locations in 30 days. Initially, it just sounded completely unmanageable, especially with the strike going on. We did some road closures and some weekend work. It was a real whirlwind tour every day. We had to move the unit because we were trying to squeeze in that many locations per day. Many of these places had already been chosen before I started by the film’s previous Location Manager and the Production Designer, Aleks Marinkovich, so my role was organizing this giant chaos and making sure that it all went smoothly.
The beauty of it, though, was that you could start reaching out to senior people who would normally be working on a big-budget production and ask, “Do you want to work on this little indie project?”
What are some important considerations when you’re organizing the logistics of a low-budget film with many different locations?
Richard Hughes: The script goes to a lot of different locations, like Mar-A-Lago and the Penthouse Suites. Sometimes when you’re in a lower-budget project, you want to try to cut some locations or try and combine them. But when I was hired, I said to the Producer, “You can throw anything difficult at me, that’s no problem. I know we’re working with a smaller budget, but as long as we have the staff, we can do it.” We did, and I feel quite proud of it. It was one of those indie projects that didn’t have a lot of lighting or special effects involved. It was just getting back to the bare bones of moviemaking. That first promotional still from The Apprentice, the scene with Jeremy Strong and Sebastian Stan in the backseat of the limo – I was working on set with a Locations PA when the scene was shot. Generally, I work from the office, but I happened to be there that day. We were on University Avenue, just doing a circle with the limo. I remember sitting in the back of the van, watching that exact shot live, and I just thought it was such a cool moment. There was something about being there on set for that scene that was so exciting and made me think this film was going to be really, really good. I was thrilled to hear that it was going to Cannes, and we’ll see where it goes after that.
But we did have one interesting scenario where we were supposed to film at a particular office tower. As soon as the office tower execs heard that we were filming a Trump movie, they were like, “We don’t want to have this here.” Basically, we were thrown out with three days’ notice, and it was just due to the content of the movie. It seemed crazy that because we were filming a movie about Trump, suddenly we were thrown out of this place. I think they’re going to regret it, because it actually is a high-quality movie that’s going someplace. It’s not a pro-Trump movie, but it’s also not a trashy movie, either. What’s interesting about it is that it is about how Trump became Trump.
We really shot this film lean and mean. Normally, when you’re on a big show, you’ve got to put lights and cranes on streets, and it’s hard to get a permit for that. But in this particular case, there was a lot of natural light. We didn’t have a huge unit, and we really made it work.
Sebastian Stan and Maria Bakalova in The Apprentice (2024). © APPRENTICE PRODUCTIONS ONTARIO INC. / PROFILE PRODUCTIONS 2 APS / TAILORED FILMS LTD. 2023
Can you talk about some of the logistical challenges of shooting in downtown Toronto?
Richard Hughes: There were a lot of logistical challenges involved in the driving sequences like the limo one I mentioned earlier. We had meeting after meeting about where and how we can close roads. We created this loop for a whole limo sequence, and it was a big deal to try to sort that out. We had around 12 paid duty officers, and it was one of these major lockdown scenarios, even though it was only three minutes at a time. It’s still a big deal, and you want to make sure all that stuff is done properly. I had a very experienced onset Assistant Location Manager with me who had been doing this job for years, and even he was pulling his hair out a bit. When you’re shooting downtown with traffic, one kilometre can take 30 minutes.
You recently gave a talk on EV charging in the workplace as part of the EV Charging Expo. Did you use any environmentally-friendly practices on The Apprentice?
Richard Hughes: Because The Apprentice was a small budget, it wasn’t a heavy generator kind of film, so this situation didn’t apply in this use case. But my issue with EV charging in general is that, when you’re reporting to work, it’s nice for people to be able to have a place to plug in and charge. With the studio that we’re working out of here on Tall Pines, there are a couple of chargers at the back lot of film studios at 40 Butterick. We’re trying to bring a little more efficiency into our industry and take us to a new era. I think it’s going to be very tough. It’s not easy, especially in Locations, when you’re driving all over the place, you’ve got to have a good range. Usually, the trucks have a decent range, but some of our tech trucks literally don’t visit a gas station for a week. If they’re out on the road, the transportation department comes in with these tanker trucks, and they fill each truck up that way. So imagine if all of those were electric – you’d have to have some kind of vehicle that comes in and recharges them. It’s a whole logistical thing when it comes to filming on location.
It’s a separate subject, but the City of Toronto has two parking lots now, one on the east end and one on the west, for our base camps. Now we can actually plug those base camps in rather than running the generator for 14 or 18 hours of diesel.
What is it like to work on a smaller-budget production after mostly working on large-budget projects? Does it allow you to think of more creative solutions within the budget?
There was just something exciting about working on this film and working on something that isn’t part of a machine. But it’s a double-edged sword because this was during the strike, and other productions with our budget level were getting shut down. We were all feeling very lucky that we were working, but the danger of working on lower-budget projects is they can be the first to go during a strike. You also want to make sure that the locations are handled properly. That’s part of my job, too. We can’t be so lean and mean that we end up burning locations and unfortunately, that’s very easily done if things aren’t done properly. So that’s why I was very specific about needing enough crew. It’s a heavy location show, and I get that you don’t have a big budget, but you can’t scrimp on manpower because that’s the only way we’re going to get in and out of neighbourhoods properly.
Jeremy Strong and Sebastian Stan in The Apprentice (2024). © APPRENTICE PRODUCTIONS ONTARIO INC. / PROFILE PRODUCTIONS 2 APS / TAILORED FILMS LTD. 2023
What memories will you take with you about working on The Apprentice?
Richard Hughes: After we’d wrap, every night, the Producer and the Director would ultimately get into giant discussions for about two hours about the logistics of certain sequences. It would go on for awhile, but it could be kind of entertaining. Even just the driving sequences, there’s so much you can’t do in Toronto, so we needed to help guide [Director] Ali Abbasi towards what he had in mind.
I think one of the reasons why I came o, and why we had a strong 1st Assistant Director like Joel Hay and a strong local Producer like Daniel Bekerman, was that we needed a strong team to execute the Director’s vision. Our Director of Photography, Kasper Tuxen, was amazing, too. I’ve been doing this since 1997 as a Location Manager, and I started in the industry in ‘89. You work on many different projects over the years, but The Apprentice is one that I’ll always remember in a very good way. It was very challenging and hard work, but it’s one of those films where you can feel proud about what you accomplished on it.
