Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/1061165
Craziest of all was the Lumberjack Festival, which was built from scratch (four events plus ten food stands) and installed in two days in a forested corner of Stone Mountain. At the axe throw, the real Gary Hart actually lobbed an axe 25-feet into a stump target's bullseye. Jason planned an elaborate 360-degree crane shot to record the film's star Hugh Jackman, who was committed to matching Hart; he nailed a 30-foot throw on the first try, Reitman seamlessly married the fourth take to the throw from take one to give Jackman his bullseye without VFX. So can we talk about offices? I swear that ninety percent of the shoot took place in offices that came in three flavors, ugly, uglier or ugliest. There was the Denver campaign office, improvised in an abandoned storefront that crews are seen repainting and rewiring on the first day the staff moves in. The storefront is revisited week after week as the campaign moves into higher gear. The 1984 campaign materials get replaced with the '88 versions, and a mounting sea of plywood phone cubicles, graphics sample boards, banner art, VHS tapes, TripTik wall maps, dot-matrix slogan printouts, donut boxes and Classic Coke cans rise to the ceiling. The cruel joke was that all the final '88 campaign materials arrive at the office the same weekend that the campaign will collapse. For the Miami Herald newsroom, I took liberties. All the research showed a '60s glass space with aluminum sun-grills on the windows and cubicles filled with the most unruly pile of F.-H. MIAMI HERALD NEWSROOM. SET PHOTOS. I. MIAMI HERALD NEWSROOM. SET SKETCH BY STEVE SAKLAD. THIS TRAVERTINE-LINED LOBBY SEEMED MADE FOR THE MIAMI HERALD NEWSROOM. TO VARY THE REPEATED MOTIF OF OFFICES LOOKING OUT TO BULLPENS, AN ANIDOZED BRONZE CONFERENCE ROOM WAS BUILT ON THE MEZZANINE TO OVERLOOK THE SEA OF DESKS. THE MIAMI HERALD WAS THE YOUNG WHIPPERSNAPPER OF THIS STORY; HENCE, THE USE OF GLASS BLOCK, OAK-FRAMED OVERHEAD FIXTURE, AND CHIC NAUGAHYDE WALL PANELS HOLDING BUILT-IN TV MONITORS. I H G F