ADG Perspective

May-June 2019

Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/1109293

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7 0 P E R S P E C T I V E | M A Y / J U N E 2 0 1 9 To research the desired look, the Art Department began collecting 1970s-'80s magazines, catalogs and design books, eventually filling our entire research material bookcase. Everything from Architectural Digest to "How To" paint technique books. F r o m P i l o t t o S e r i e s B L A C K M O N D A Y B Y A L E C C O N T E S TA B I L E , P R O D U C T I O N D E S I G N E R A On October 19, 1987, aka Black Monday, the stock market suffered the largest one-day percentage drop in market history. The new Showtime series Black Monday, from creators David Caspe and Jordan Cahan, travels back to 1986 to tell the story of what—or who—led to this crash. In late 2017, Production Designer Chris L. Spellman contacted me. He was designing a period 1980s Wall Street comedy pilot, then called Ball Street, and asked if I'd be interested in joining him as an Art Director on the show. Our mission was "to turn 2018 Los Angeles into a gritty 1986 New York City. Think Wolf of Wall Street but crazier, and with the budget of a half-hour comedy." When I arrived, Spellman had already done a good amount of research and had developed the overall look of the show and the sets. Although we were based out of LA Center Studios, the production team had locked down the nearly empty Pacific Stock Exchange (PSE) building—the location for all our sets. The PSE had sat untouched for almost thirty years, having closed shortly after the actual Black Monday of 1987. Unfortunately, the trading floor had been gutted months earlier to "make it more appealing for filming," but overall it had some good bones to work with. The space was logistically challenging since access to the trading floor was limited to a well-worn elevator—all the set pieces would need to be designed to fit in the elevator and assembled on the 11th-13th floors.

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