Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/610353
52 P E R S P E C T I V E | N OV E M B E R / D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 5 ACT 1, FLINT CENTER – CUPERTINO, CA by Susie Alegria, Assistant Art Director The Flint Center, located on the De Anza College campus in Cupertino, just south of San Francisco, was the actual location of the 1984 Macintosh launch. Built in 1967 as a performing arts center for the small community college, it has a somewhat stark, institutional feel. The bland white walls of the backstage corridors presented very little in the way of dynamic visual interest with which to work. The VIP lounge, dressing room and corridors had to be not only period-correct but also cinematically interesting. The challenge was to take this well-worn and humble art center, with all of its contemporary updates, back to 1984 while at the same time making it a fittingly dramatic backdrop for one of the great technological unveilings of the twentieth century. Color played an essential part of Guy and director Danny Boyle's vision for the film. It was used to great effect creating the illusion of expanded space and altered reality as well as pushing the audience back in time to the period. For the Flint Center, Guy chose institutional green and gold as the palette, colors that subconsciously remind us of that period. He then integrated that palette into a series of super graphics. Lead Scenic Artist Jason Byers and his crew then masked and painted horizontal lines and geometric shapes through the corridors, VIP lounge and dressing room. Any existing color of the Flint, and particularly any red, was painted over. This level of color consideration extended all the way down to the red exit signs, which were switched out for green, as red was to be preserved for Act 2, the revenge act. The meticulous attention to detail that typified Guy's design, transformed the aesthetically bland Flint Center into a far more visually stimulating environment for camera and the actors. In addition to the painted super graphics, Graphic Designer Emily Rolph used ad campaign graphics and created period posters of past events at the Flint Center. The graphics poster images at the Flint were relatively small in comparison to the second and third acts of the film. The groundbreaking Orwellian-themed commercial directed by Ridley Scott for the 1984 Super Bowl and an homage to Bob Dylan's Subterranean Homesick Blues were used as projections in addition to print graphics during this first act. Guy's careful attention to historical and visual accuracy of the period extended to every aspect of the Flint and the exterior was no exception. Since its construction in the 1960s, the Flint has undergone many alterations, so in an effort to achieve period accuracy, signage was removed and replaced, as were the contemporary clues such as satellite dishes and cellphone transmitters. Top: Steve Job's final Flint Center dressing room set with super graphic stripes that help define the early 1980s era. Inset: The selected dressing room during a location scout.