Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/1332040
Business District, they wilted and fell in the heat just as the cameras rolled. Fifteen crew members ran to get them back up. The turreted, corner, yellow brick house we found for the hotel perfectly contrasted our industrial locations, appropriately personifying the Black bourgeois, where, as per the script, "Northern High Yellas toss an attitude at Ma—who tosses it right back." But we had to frame out the plaster ceiling falling in just above their heads. So many things could have gone wrong in Pittsburgh during the making of Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, but miraculously just enough went right. This from one of the most dedicated crews I've ever worked with. There was a sense (hope/ determination) that we'd pull it off and with a spirit that we were working on a special project that summer. Speaking of summer, when I knew I would write this piece for PERSPECTIVE, I researched the Chicago, 1906 painting to find the artist. He is Alson Skinner Clark (1876-1949) and the painting is called The ee e. What I also discovered is that Clark "painted Chicago on a winter day, with ice floating down the river and the city's skyscrapers looming through smoke and fog." The image I'd found on that first day of research was the product of multiple reprintings and copies—completely altering the colors and mood of the original. A flukeor divine intervention... When I emailed George what I'd found, he immediately replied of the painter, and I quote: "He's wrong! It's fuckin' summer." Fair enough indeed. ADG Mark Ricker, Production Designer James Truesdale, Art Director Wes Hottman, Assistant Art Director Travis Kerr, Set Designer Joanna Bush, Illustrator Karen TenEyck, Lead Graphic Designer Hilary Ament, Brad Towell, Graphic Artists Karen O'Hara, Diana Stoughton, Set Decorators G H E F I ADDITIONAL IMAGES FOR THIS ARTICLE CAN BE FOUND ONLINE AT: ADG.ORG/PERSPECTIVE.