Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/1177962
feel, touch and smell the era he was writing and fi lming. The working title of the production was Magnum Opus. That name set the tone. The preproduction time was tight on Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood, around twelve weeks to fi nd locations, work up designs, get the Art budget approved and start the building of around 170 set pieces. I brought on supervising location manager Rick Schuler and Supervising Art Director Richard Johnson a day after my start to get up and running fast. I was scouting with Quentin at the end of my fi rst week. It would be a 108-day shoot, so we worked from a rough shooting schedule, attacking the design in shooting order. The Western sets were up fi rst. Scouting Southern California, then New Mexico, it was decided to stay in Los Angeles for the sake of more preproduction time and to not split up the crew. Melody Ranch would be used for the black-and- white Western scenes, changing facades, building stunt breakaway balconies, adding new signage and interior set walls. For the larger Lancer Western set, the production used the Universal Western backlot. Universal allowed us to completely rebuild the main western street. The Lancer TV show took place in the San Joaquin Valley in California. It was a wealthy cattle town that still showed its early Mexican heritage. I wanted the buildings to have a mix of some abode walls, buildings and arches. The saloon needed to be a center point for the town and have grandeur to it, both inside and out. The rebuild was a long and delicate process overseen by Art Director Eric Sundahl. I had construction coordinator Chris Snyder and his crew building and paint supervisor Tom Brown and his team doing the fabulous scenic work. I wanted the open ends of all the streets to have the old style hand-painted scenic backings that were common in 1950s and '60s TV shows. These backings were huge and had to be pre-painted off C A B A. LANCER WESTERN TOWN. ILLUSTRATION BY NATHAN SCHROEDER. B. LANCER SALOON. DRAFTED ELEVATIONS BY PAUL SONSKI. C. LANCER SALOON. SET PHOTO.