Movie Set Scout Still Looking for Dream

Like most kids, Laura (Lolly) Powell, dreamed of being in the movies.

But now that she’s close to the movie-making action, Powell has a different set of dreams.

“If I had a choice, I’d like to be a co-host with (TV talk show host) David Letterman,” mused the Fullerton woman who gets paid to find filming sites and buildings in Orange County for movie-makers.

She works in the Orange County Film Liaison Office and despite her close connection with movie people, Powell finds the movie-making process somewhat uninteresting.

“There’s a lot of standing around,” said the Pepperdine University graduate who majored in sports medicine. “I just want to see the finished product.”

Standing around and being idle is not one of Powell’s traits.

She kept an active life after college including European travel, working as a law firm researcher, writing manuals for an automobile advertising association and formulating direct mail campaigns for an advertising agency. She also worked as a personal trainer in health clubs but said she was more interested in putting out the club’s newsletter than helping keep people fit.

As a matter of fact, Powell, 29, would rather be a writer. Part of her job in the film office is writing and taking pictures for the county’s monthly employee newsletter.

“I like writing and would rather be on the other side of this interview,” she said. “That may be my future. Seeing something you have written in print or a picture you have taken validates what you do.”

Until then, she’s making a name for herself with the movie folks.

“I guess they find themselves comfortable working with me,” said Powell who often finds herself trying to fill seemingly impossible requests.

In fact, she’s trying to find a building with lots of glass in front and back that can be destroyed.

“They want to film a truck driving through the front door and out the back,” she said. “It’s sometimes hard to convince the building’s owner that it can be returned to its original condition.”

Powell, who said she is rarely surprised with some of the film requests, which include blowing up a building, appears to be filling the bill.

As of June, the county has issued 16 film permits, just one less than all of last year and Powell feels that the number will double this year.

“It would be my hope it would triple,” she said.

Powell likes to get out on film location.

“I try to make contact with the people that I deal with,” she said, while walking through a film setting in front of the Santa Ana Hall of Administration.

Since accepting the film liaison job a year ago, Powell had a more than passing interest in her travels through the county.

At times she has to be aware of location problems such as having a palm tree near a spot where the producer wants a Midwestern look. “I’m always looking for a site location some film company might use,” she said.

In fact she is putting together a location guide of Orange County sites and has developed a network with the various cities in the county for filming locations.

Powell said part of her efforts is not only to keep filmmaking in California, but to make Orange County one of its prime locations.

Acknowledgments--Fullerton Police Sgt. Joe Klein won three gold medals in discus, shot-put and hammer throw in the recent International Law Enforcement Olympics in Canada. In winning the discus, the 15-year police veteran, a Yorba Linda resident, successfully defended his champion’s title won 2 years ago in Australia. The games are held every 2 years.