Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/1124104
N O S 4 A 2 | P E R S P E C T I V E 8 7 G F carnival decayed and falling apart. The gates and park are a tease in season one; but to design the gates, I had to explore and establish what would be found inside. Knowing that it would be largely set extensions, I wanted it to be mostly designed. It had to be alluring but threatening. Through a series of sketches that moved into a model, the gates were developed first. I made the first pass. In order to shoot through the gates from the inside, I created a grimacing giant face out of perforated metal. The side houses sat as if they'd been decaying there for years. Scouting where to put it went on for quite a while, golf courses, tarmacs, parking lots. It was supposed to be ringed by trees on one side to bring Charlie and his Rolls on the last part of his journey on "The St. Nick Parkway," which would be completely created in post production. It was finally placed in an open area of a Christmas tree farm across the road from another set, so one set could be shot in daytime, and the other at night; but it was a windy bluff and as it went up problems were discovered: wind, cold and accessibility. The interior had not been created for financial reasons, and it was not known what that was yet. Construction was trying to finish the buildings along with other sets and the painters were sending them out wet and finishing them on site. The entire set was artificially snow covered and getting the snow membrane down and blowing clean snow over it was in conflict with the other departments. It poured one day, holding the crews up and losing precious time, and was too windy on another. The lights used strobed when viewed on camera, the colors were unbalanced, and from the front there was one light source washing out G. CHRISTMASLAND GATES AS SKETCHED FOR DRAFTING. H. CHRISTMASLAND GATES WITH MODEL AND DRAFTING BY DAN KUCHAR. all the glitter and sparkle of the set. The reverse of the car pulling up was great; but the rest was a lot of effort for very little. The dressing crews weren't able to get enough lights up, and I had directed the painters to age the carnival sheds so far down that they almost disappeared. The gates were pulled with bungee cords and swung unevenly. Lighting hadn't had a chance to think about how to light the set. Fortunately, there would be a second chance in a later episode. E H