Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/1184216
1 2 4 P E R S P E C T I V E | J A N U A R Y / F E B R U A R Y 2 0 2 0 friend and associate of Ken Miles, an aff able Rolls-Royce dealer in West Hollywood named Charlie Agapiou. He was fi rst hired by Ken as an 18-year-old mechanic at Ken's foreign car garage in the early '60s, and then promoted to his crew chief at Daytona, Sebring and Le Mans. Charlie was a goldmine of details, and a humble raconteur of "war stories" that Ozzy digested into notes that would be forwarded to Jim so he could fold these details into the script. Ozzy also contacted Ken's son Peter Miles, one of the key characters in the story. Christian Bale (Ken Miles) and Caitriona Balfe (Mollie Miles) both spent hours with Peter so they could better relate to the intricacies of their characters. Concurrently, the Fox Research Library began assembling visual imagery from the period which, along with archival footage, was uploaded onto a secure website that served as a visual database of information for anyone on the production needing to get up to speed quickly. The fi lm's research collection continued to grow throughout preproduction to include rare archival imagery and design research from the Henry Ford Museum and many other sources. As I searched for an inroad into creating a look for this fi lm, I remember fi nding inspiration with several fi lms from the 1960s: Contempt (1963) by Godard, The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964) by Demy, Grand Prix (1966) by Frankenheimer and Playtime (1967) by Tati. As the walls of the Art Department began to fi ll with titillating photos of sleek race cars and exotic locales, a kaleidoscope of color emerged. I realized that the graphic spectrum of these cars would provide the rudder for the fi lm's color story. Another early realization was that color would also help create visual variance to defi ne the many foreign locations in the fi lm and hopefully avoid subtitles. The cars were central characters in the story, and recreating them proved to be an enormous challenge, as they could take several months each to manufacture. The actual race cars needed were collector's items worth tens-of-millions, and therefore not viable. After months of design and research, thirty-four period race cars were ultimately built by various vendors, and overseen by Vehicle Art Director Rob Johnson. In the early days of preproduction, budget stresses were ever-present. I remember early meetings with producers about how this fi lm would be made in a cost-eff ective manner. In the snap-to- grid mindset of preproduction,, the conversation veered to the question of which of the several tax-rebate states would be chosen, as if it were already a fait accompli. The last attempt at making A A. GRAPHIC ARTIST JASON PERRINE RECREATED THE LIVERIES OF THE RACE CARS AT THE DAYTONA 24-HOUR RACE IN 1966.