Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/1545081
one housing its own constellation of worlds. Stage 6 held the Silver Slipper, alongside apartments for Maddy, Lexi and Alamo's mother. Stage 9 was a dense patchwork of contrasts—Ali's apartment steps away from a seedy motel, Jules's penthouse across from Alamo's childhood apartment. Stage 11 was devoted entirely to the sets of "L.A. Nights," our show within a show. Stage 15 housed Laurie's basement and Rue's childhood home. Stage 21 was given over to a wedding reception. And then there was Stage 28—which contained Alamo's great room, office, security office and guest bedroom, along with Laurie's underground drug lab and tunnel network. We eventually turned that stage over to the miniature sets built for a dream sequence. It was, in the truest sense, a world-building exercise—dozens of distinct environments, each with its own emotional texture, all being constructed, dressed, shot and often struck simultaneously across the lot. What follows is a tour through some of the season's most significant sets: The Mexico Border This opening vignette was born from a director's scout to the actual DEA headquarters in Downtown Los Angeles. Photographs of successful drug busts decorated the halls, and Sam was drawn to one in particular—a Jeep Cherokee found "high- centered" and suspended atop a 14-foot border fence near the Imperial Sand Dunes. Smugglers had used makeshift metal ramps to attempt the jump but failed, leaving the vehicle abandoned as they fled back into Mexico. He was so inspired that he wrote the image into Episode 301, and we found ourselves building one hundred and fifty feet of border fence deep in the Mojave Desert, a 30-minute drive past the edge of the zone. Mexicali Rue's new role as a drug mule takes her across the border to Mexicali, and it was important for the world to feel as authentic and lived-in as possible. We actually shot the exterior of Club Playboy in Mexicali's red-light district, then created the interior in an abandoned bar in downtown Los Angeles, heavily inspired by the many bars and clubs I scouted in Mexicali. For a Mexicali plastic 34'-0 1 4 " +/- ADD B A D C