Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/1109293
In a moment of early foreshadowing, this scene set out to establish a point of no return and an omen of what journey may lie ahead. Replete with bent, broken and rusted away handrail, the endless one- lane bridge leads to an abandoned border crossing at the frontier's edge, where lawlessness runs wild among rival cartels and the drug trade flourishes with abandon. A lone mule, overpacked and weighted down, lumbers along with a weathered farmer walking in the lead. A life of hard labor and little reward. Although fleeting in the moment, a deeper sentiment prevails as the weight of their journey begins to unfold. On the North Shore of Oahu, the production found just such a bridge, one that was not crossing a river but instead, a wide inlet leading out to the ocean. Brackish water protected by a breakwall provided a slow-moving river in one direction with a dilapidated old bridge that spoke to the remote South American scene needed. With the help of Mark Russell in visual effects, the deep backdrop of the Andes Mountains was inserted to help direct the story of their travel. The border crossing itself was an invention based on an amalgam of compelling research of existing countries with old, abandoned, long-forgotten border crossings. To add a level of realism, Wendy Stokes designed several border crossing signs in a mix of Portuguese, Spanish and English, all aged accordingly to speak to a time long lost. All intended to give the characters one final look at the world they were entering. The Triple Frontier. Gabriel Martin Lorea is Pope's last bad man. A figure inspired by "El Chapo" and the lavish wealth and power narco drug trafficking has afforded him. But this is an El Chapo on the run and hiding out in the jungle with his hundreds of millions in cash. Thought to be only one of seven safe houses, this particular one sits deep in a South American rain forest, rotting away and consumed by the vegetation. The decay being a visual metaphor defining Lorea's crumbling empire as the noose tightens further around his neck. As a bit of luck might have it, the production was introduced to an historic Spanish home built in 1932 in the belly of Nuuanu Valley not far from the production offices in Honolulu. Sitting amid a subdivided community of homes, this five-acre parcel of land was isolated by a lush, dense jungle of greenery. It immediately had the bones of a strong centerpiece where the setting for the heist could be created. It was unique in concept and felt different and compelling enough to break the genre mold of the contemporary modern design scripted in early drafts of the story. The sunken backyard had a deep, winding creek crossing the property separating an overgrown yard leading to a dilapidated, overflowing pool and crumbling Spanish pool house. Backed up to the mountainside, the perch above the pool house provided a perfect point of surveillance and approach. A. IMMIGRATION/ BORDER CROSSING SIGN. DESIGNED IN ILLUSTRATOR BY GRAPHIC DESIGNER WENDY STOKES. B. ABANDONED GUARD SHACK BORDER CROSSING WITH PACKED MULE. SET PHOTO BY PROP MASTER KRIS PECK. C. LONG BRIDGE BORDER CROSSING SET. SKETCHUP MODEL AND PLAN LAYOUT BY SET DESIGNER GEORGE R. LEE. D. THE FARMER AND THE MULE CROSS THE BRIDGE. ILLUSTRATED IN PHOTOSHOP BY ROBERT SIMONS. E. LOREA COMPOUND SURVEILLANCE POV. ILLUSTRATED IN PHOTOSHOP BY MAREK OKON. ENTERING THE TRIPLE FRONTIER E