Location manager Mandi Dillin has scouted for Transformers, Iron Man, Quentin Tarantino, and Christopher Nolan. But for the last five years Dillin has been organising locations for HBO’s Westworld, a job that entailed recreating artificial depictions of the past in Seasons 1 and 2, and for Season 3 – which is currently airing on Sky Atlantic and Now TV – coming up with a convincing version of the future.

We spoke to Dillin about the challenges involved in crafting a location-heavy show that plays out in multiple time periods. But we kicked off by asking how the coronavirus is currently affecting her industry.

Yahoo Movies UK: Are you working from home at the moment?

Mandi Dillin: No, I have been off work for about two weeks now. And I’m not sure when I will return to work which is kind of scary, but I’m trying to make the best of it. Sleeping as much as I can!

Mandi Dillin attends the HBO POV "That's a Wrap" Celebration on December 10, 2019. (John Sciulli/Getty Images for HBO) More

Can a location manager work during self-isolation?

Yes, one can, depending on the project. For example the project I was working on when the city of Los Angeles shut down – and the world shut down – we were still in the scouting and pre-production phase, so up to a certain extent you can still do a lot of digital scouting, digital correspondence with the attorneys to get contracts settled and stuff like that.

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But it’s the physical part of the job, which is about 100% of the job when you start filming – of going into people’s homes, of going into businesses – and currently that is what makes people uncomfortable. I’m not sure when people will allow us back into their private residences for filming.

What are the problems the industry is facing during this crisis?

Depending on what the governments say – so depending on the state of California and what the President decides – in terms of group gathering, that’s one concern I have. Because typically a film crew – especially for the projects I work on – is anywhere from 200 to 500 people, so if the film industry is able to pick up again, I have a slight worry about limitations on the number of people who are able to congregate at any one time.

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A perfect example is Westworld; if you’ve seen the previous seasons you know that we have a large cast and we typically have a lot of background, plus we have a large crew. That on any given day was about 400-500 people. So if there are restrictions on the quantity of people who can gather, that concerns me a little bit.

Do you think the industry will have to change and adapt going forward?

I see more work moving to stage. I see producers wanting to build interiors on stage more than they typically would. Because that’s a more controlled environment – at a studio, where you can limit the number of people inside, and certainly sanitise it.

What are the challenges involved in finding locations for Westworld?

If you don't like what you see in the mirror, don't blame the mirror. (©2020 Home Box Office, Inc. All) More

Keeping the locations fresh and consistent with the look of the world we’re trying to create. Specifically for Season 3, we’re trying world-building in a new way. On previous seasons we knew what the world was – Western World, with little parts of other worlds built in that were based in an historic context, such as Shogun World. Here we are talking about a future city that no one’s ever seen, and that we hadn’t even seen until we started planning out Season 3.

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