Trace Taylor had a little bit of an unconventional path to the film industry.
Taylor fell in love with photography during his high school years in South Alabama, and moved to Atlanta after college to keep pursuing that dream. But when his passion for photography started to dim, he decided to make a bit of a pivot.
He ended up landing a job in the locations department on “Ozark,” the hit Netflix show starring Jason Bateman and Laura Linney. Since that fateful transition, his credits include “Boy Erased,” “Ms. Marvel,” “Hillbilly Elegy,” and more.
Rough Draft Atlanta recently spoke with Taylor about his path through the industry and the different projects he has worked on. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
I read that you grew up on a pecan farm. How did you go from that to working in the film industry?
Trace Taylor: So I grew up in South Alabama. You know, I played sports growing up. I come from a very sports background. So that was kind of the original scope for me – I played baseball, specifically. Basically where things kind of stopped there and started for me was in freshman year of high school. I took a photo class, just because it was an elective and it was new at my high school, and I was like, oh, that’s kind of cool. I fell in love with it. I started shooting a lot of photos, and I could not get out of the dark room. From that point, photography just kind of took over my life. So eI think I started to have more of an interest in the arts. Being from South Alabama, it’s not really pushed on us. I live in L.A. now. It’s just different.
To much people’s surprise, I took that on and ended up going to school in Birmingham, Alabama, and got a degree in art, and became a freelance photographer and really did that. I ended up moving to Atlanta, and was still trying to do that. But I kind of lost the vision and passion for it – not passion. Maybe just, I didn’t want to market it. And I knew to make a living, I had to do that. At the same time, the film industry was coming to Georgia, and I had a friend that was doing this series for Netflix. At the time, we didn’t know it was going to be what it was, but it was “Ozark.” He asked me if I wanted to jump on as a PA – as a production assistant in the locations department. And that was it. That’s how I got started. I had no idea what I was doing [laughs], but I think it still felt like a natural path in terms of creativity and being a part of something in a creative field.
What about that first job made you want to stick around in this industry and in location scouting specifically?
Taylor: I guess it was nice to just be a part of something. The job was very interesting, because, you know, how are movies made? How are big productions made? All the work that goes into it – it was incredibly humbling. I had no idea. Everyone has a role, everyone has a job, and it works together. It’s this big, cohesive thing. You know, you watch movies for forever and then you see the credits roll, and you’re like, there’s so many people. But then when you work specifically in my department – locations – what I had to understand is, we have exposure to every department. Whether that’s the camera, grip, electric, hair and makeup, crafty – we are kind of the backbone of production sometimes. We’ve been called that, because we are the middlemen between the real world and the production world. We have exposure to everything because we’re kind of responsible for making sure everyone can be in a safe place where they can do their work.
I really liked that. I thought that was cool. That felt like a good job for me, a natural job. I mean, I love talking with people and working with people, and communications is massive. I was fortunate to come under such a great team, but I just took to it because I love having that ability to learn how to determine what people’s needs are and what is the best way creatively to get that done.
Do you think your photography background helped you in this field in any way, or how did that sort of cross over?
Taylor: Finally, that came to alignment. I was always photographing, by the way – I should say that. I never stopped shooting photos. I was trying to figure out what I wanted to say with my photography, and that was the challenge. I think that’s the biggest challenge for most photographers. I finally started to understand and enjoy the work I was making on the side – I wasn’t even selling it, or really doing anything with it. But, anyways, I had an opportunity at the end of “Ozark” as a PA to scout on the last filming block, on episodes nine and ten. So I went from picking up trash on set, cleaning restrooms [to scouting] … They were in a pinch, and my boss knew I was a photographer. So before you knew it, I was in the office and they gave me a script, and they asked me if I would be interested. I [was], and it worked out.
Understanding the camera, and shooting honest photography, is what I like to call good scouting, being a location scout – that came natural to me, because that’s how I photograph spaces already. I’d been doing that for years. So it really was natural, and it felt very natural to me. So photography was essential for me to easily understand what a production designer or director needs, and how they want it shot. Being able to communicate that with a camera is massive, so that was a helpful tool. It finally paid off, I guess, in the right way.
What was that first experience like? What’s the trick to finding that perfect location, and how does that process work?
Taylor: There’s no formula to it. I mean, there are general rules of thumb, for sure, that I practice. But there’s no formula to it. You get a script – everything’s always different, every job is different. You have period pieces, you have contemporary pieces. Are we in America? Are we in Europe? Where are we? I think it’s just really understanding the script, or understanding all the moving parts and pieces, and just good dialog between your location manager, your boss and the production designer. They’re going to help you a lot of the time, but everything else is on you really.
Sometimes it’s instinctual, or intuitive. Your head is on a swivel constantly. What’s worked for me is that I’ve learned to never let my judgment get in the way too much. I consider all options and ideas, even if they’re bad. Even if they’re bad ideas, just go for it. It’s an option. Maybe it’ll spawn a good idea. I mean, I have so many stories about just intuition, and thinking I knew the right thing and it was wrong, thinking it was the wrong thing and it was right. Every opportunity is different, and they’re all interesting. You can learn from each one. You’re never not learning.
Do any of those stories come to mind off the top of your head?
Taylor: I did a show called “The Outsider” for HBO. It was Jason Bateman – he had done “Ozark,” so he was a part of that world … so they were able to get me in as a scout. I was tasked with traveling into the tristate region – so it was Alabama, Georgia and Tennessee – to try to find natural existing caves we could film in. There was a lot of push for me to look in Tennessee, because there are a lot of caves in Tennessee. But something was telling me to search in Alabama. We weren’t really talking about Alabama, but I just felt like – I really pushed on it. I think Alabama is it, I think Alabama is it, you know? I was having some dialog with my boss at the time, and he was like, I think Tennessee. No one was really right or wrong. But he was like, if you think it’s this, show us.
I spent like a week out on the road, and long story short, I ended up taking an exit and magically finding something that was eerily like the Stephen King [novel] – it was a Stephen King adaptation, “The Outsider” was. It was insane. It was in North Alabama. I mean, the amount of work it took to find out who owned it. It was this closed down, like a theme park – not a theme park. But kind of like a theme park? It was a cave, like a tourist site you would go to. It was abandoned. It was kind of like the book. We ended up finally getting permission and everything, and we ended up shooting there for like a week. It was the last week of filming that they did on that show.
It was one of those, you know? I think it’s delicate. You want to speak up and be confident, but you also want to listen to your superiors. But that one worked out. That was a case where it did work out. It was just a strange situation, that that’s what yielded after all that time on the road, was this wonderful place.
You’ve talked about “Ozark” and “The Outsider.” Other than those two, do you have a favorite project you’ve worked on, or a favorite location?
Taylor: I did “Zombieland 2” – well, it was called “Zombieland Double Tap.” The main location for that [movie] was in Atlanta. It was called Club Europe … I always thought that was a cool place. I used to go take pictures of it when it was abandoned for years.
That actually ended up on one of the movie posters, so that became kind of like the central location for that project. That was really cool. There’s definitely been others. “Hillbilly Elegy” was a fun project to work on and scout for. That’s Ron Howard. I did one project in Tennessee – I’m really excited about. They just change the title. It was originally called “Holland, Michigan,” but it’s now called “Welcome to Holland.” It’s directed by Mimi Cave, who’s an up and coming director. She did “Fresh.” I’m really excited about that one.
