department allowed him access to their camera gear, which he used to
make music videos of his band.
Devising a unique idea for a music video, he convinced a bank officer
to loan him $20,000 to make it. "I ended up having to basically make
BMW payments for the next seven years." Although the video did not
land the band a record deal, it received critical acclaim at the Houston
International Film Festival. "It was the pursuit of the dream. You get this
vision in your mind and you pursue it doggedly until you get there."
Edmunds' break into the film business came through a roommate who
offered him some construction work on a television movie titled Lincoln
that was coming to town. While Edmunds was building wardrobe racks
in a warehouse, location manager Charlie Baxter spotted him working
hard and asked if he would like to be the assistant to special effects
person Russell Hessey. "I said,
`Well, what does that mean?'
He said, `$750 a week.' I said,
`Okay, I'm you're man.'"
When the production
wrapped, Baxter asked
Edmunds to scout locations
and shoot some photographs
for him. "I said, `What does
that mean, location scout?'
He said, `$750 a week.' And I
said, `I'll do that.' He sent me
looking for a gas station that
looked like 1950s and gave me
a list of what he was looking
for."
For the next few years,
Edmunds continued to pick
up work scouting locations,
often serving as assistant to
the location managers of the
productions coming to the area, including First Kid, The Monroes, My
Name Is Bill W., Sinbad, True Colors, and other projects.
Due to become a father, Edmunds decided to give up his entrepre-
neurial self-employed lifestyle for a permanent position. Having gotten
to know the staff of the Virginia Film Office, he called director Rita
McClenny and offered to come in and do anything, including working
for free. "She threw me a few dollars and I started working freelance
"The people who
do a job and give up
when it's done or do
something halfway are
the ones that won't
succeed. People who are relentless and
always come up with a creative solution for a
problem are successful."--Andy Edmunds
"Location managers are the most
unrespected and unrecognized part of a
production. You never hear about them, but
they are such a key component to a produc-
tion. If it had not been for the location scout
going out and finding these cool locations
and options for the production designer and
the director, a lot of movies you see wouldn't
have looked that cool."--Andy Edmunds
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