Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/1316563
The scenery was built on a giant open warehouse stage. Plenty of room until you put eight large sets, a mill, a video village, cameras and craft services in it too! We pushed and pulled our budget until we were able to get exactly the creepy ambiance it deserved. A repurposed circular stairwell provided the descent underground to the classroom, with layers of set dressing as varnish. This brings us to the other protagonist, Nory's best friend Reina, whose dorm room and classroom couldn't be more diff erent. We needed to tie the dorm room into the exterior on location, so we knew what one wall would look like. We gave the window ledge the depth of a thick masonry wall and then added a window seat. Joe wanted Reina's room to refl ect her superior position in the school, and the prestige students like her were given (over the UDM kids) without going overboard. We needed to relate it to the interiors of the school, as well as diff erentiate it from the dorm rooms in another Disney Channel Original Movie, Descendants. To make it diff erent, we lowered the dado and made a graduated paint treatment for the walls in alizarin crimson. We continued our organic driftwood sculptures for the headboard and desk. It was very eff ective in a subtle but "menacing antlers are scary" kind of way. While scouting, the production team insisted that the fi lm use one of the many spaces on the campus for the Flare classroom, where Reina honed her powers. Obviously, this would have been convenient and fi t into the perfect schedule. "But…" Bill notes, "I knew that this being exactly D D. UPSIDE-DOWN MAGIC CLASSROOM. COLOR WALL ELEVATION BY PETER STRATFORD. E. & F. UPSIDE-DOWN MAGIC CLASSROOM. SET PHOTOS. E F