Former Hillsboro resident Tyler Hohmann has spent more than a decade on sets for major Hollywood films and television shows.
Since 2014, Hohmann has worked as a location scout, trying to find the best spots to film hits like “Gone Girl,” “Yellowstone” and “The Iron Claw.”
Hohmann recently returned home to work on two films shot in St. Louis – “Soul on Fire” and “Chasing Summer.”
Small town, big dreams
Hohmann, 35, was born in St. Louis, but when he was 7, his family moved to Hillsboro. He is the son of Matt and Annette Hohmann and has an older brother, A.J., and a twin sister, Justine.
Hohmann remembers his childhood fondly.
“It was a very rural upbringing, I worked at (Lindwedel Dairy Farm) down the street milking cows at 4 a.m. from when I was 12 up through when I graduated high school,” he said.
He graduated from Hillsboro High School in 2008.
Hohmann said he’s always had a love for storytelling.
“I was a big nerd growing up, and (I got) a lot of comfort (from) going to the movies and getting enthralled by whatever was on television,” he said.
A.J., Annette and Matt said Tyler was a creative child who was fascinated by the art of filmmaking.
“I was always into sports for instance,” A.J. said, “(and) Tyler played sports too, but you could always tell from an early age that he was much more creative than I ever was.”
Hohmann said his all-time favorite movie is the 1988 film “Die Hard” starring Bruce Willis.
“It’s a perfect movie in my mind,” he said.
Hohmann said some of his favorite TV shows during his childhood were “Malcolm in the Middle,” “Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers” and “SpongeBob SquarePants.”
After graduating from high school, Hohmann said he attended Mizzou before returning home and earning an associate degree at Jefferson College.
Hohmann said he was unsure of what his career would look like but knew he wanted to go into the film industry somehow.
“They have these placement tests you can take in college to guide you on what they think you might be good at in your adult career. I was an anomaly when I took the test because it didn’t match up with anything in their handbook, and they told me I could do whatever the heck I wanted,” he said. “The only thing I thought I would be happy with was filmmaking.”
Hohmann admits it took some courage to tell his parents about his aspirations.
“I know it sounds crazy coming from small-town Hillsboro, but I want to make a go at this,” he told them. “It really surprised me how supportive they were.”
Hohmann enrolled at Southern Illinois University-Carbondale and earned a bachelor’s degree with an emphasis in filmmaking and cinematography in 2013.
Tyler said his first break came not long after he graduated from college, when he landed a job as a location assistant for director David Fincher’s “Gone Girl,” which filmed in Cape Girardeau that fall.
“I manifested in my mind getting a job on that production because I idolized David Fincher growing up. I bought the book and read it and really tried to make it happen. I reached out to the state film office, and they connected me with the contact there at the production office in Cape Girardeau.”
Hohmann said he originally was interviewed for a job as an office production assistant and didn’t get the role.
“They referred me to the location managers (after) learning about my background (in) farm life and what not, and they thought I would be well suited for a location production assistant,” he said. “That position is a low man on the (totem) pole. You’re cleaning toilets, you’re picking up trash, you’re making sure people park correctly and that you’re not buggering up the neighborhood. I was happy to have any position just to get my foot in the door.”
Ron Durham, who worked as the location manager for “Gone Girl,” knew Hohmann was the right fit for the job immediately.
“We (Durham and colleagues) just looked at each other after Tyler left and shook our heads yes,” he said.
After “Gone Girl” filming wrapped, Hohmann said he felt he was at a crossroads with his career.
“I had a choice whether to stay in Missouri and try to get a commercial here and there, and I decided I had to move away in order to continue the dream,” he said. “I literally flipped a coin; it was either Atlanta or New Orleans, which were both hot spots at the time, and the coin landed on New Orleans, and I moved not too long after that.”
The big leagues
Since 2013, Hohmann has worked steadily in the film industry, with more than 40 location management and production department credits according to his profile on the Internet Movie Database (IMDb).
Hohmann still lives in New Orleans and said he feels like he’s come a long way.
“Over the years, I’ve moved up the ladder, and now I’m running my own department, and I have my own team,” he said.
Hohmann said location scouting usually begins with a phone call from a producer.
“A producer will call me and say, ‘Hey I’ve got this project. We’re thinking about New Orleans or Louisiana in general for it and let’s do a file pool,’” he said. “Essentially a file pool is somebody looking at my collection of photos over the years of other projects. It’s a curation of locations, and I’ll get a script breakdown of needed locations and put together a file for them to look over, and if there’s enough there for them to interest them, then they’ll hire me specifically for the project.”
Coming home
The 2023 SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes brought most of mainstream Hollywood to a standstill, so Hohmann returned to St. Louis to work as a location scout for the independent film “Soul on Fire,” the film adaptation of John O’Leary’s autobiography of the same name.
An actor wears a St. Louis Cardinals Hohmann jersey during the filming of “Soul on Fire.”
Durham, who was Hohmann’s boss on the set of “Gone Girl,” was the location manager for “Soul on Fire.”
“It’s cool to see your assistant come up; he’s got the experience over the years,” Durham said.
Hohmann said his involvement in “Soul of Fire” happened quickly.
“Ron called me on a Sunday afternoon, and I was back in St. Louis Tuesday morning to start scouting that,” he said.
Durham praised Hohmann’s work ethic.
“He’s solid, he’s ambitious and he was a monumental help on ‘Soul on Fire,’” Durham said. “He was basically my first call.”
Annette said her son has always been a hard worker and will work from sunup to sundown.
While Hohmann was home for a visit, Annette said she asked him if it was all worth it.
“(Tyler) said, ‘Yes, it is; I love what I do,’” Annette said.
Although Hohmann said he always enjoys returning home, but there aren’t enough filming opportunities in St. Louis or Missouri to make him move back, at least not yet.
“I really would love to get back home full time, but the projects aren’t there yet on a consistent basis. I gotta keep working on the projects down here in Louisiana,” he said.
Hohmann worked on “Chasing Summer,” a film written by and starring comedian and actress Liza Shlesinger set to premiere in January at the Sundance Film Festival, as well as “Is God Is,” a film starring Sterling K. Brown that will hit theaters in May, and “Primetime,” produced by Ari Aster and Robert Pattinson, who also will star in the film.