Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/619377
102 P E R S P E C T I V E | J A N UA RY / F E B R UA RY 2 0 1 6 Top: The Alpern & Heller three-wall set, built in an abandoned videotape storage room at ABC Studios in New York. An existing wall of metal shelving that once stored ABC News videotapes was retrofitted into a file wall for the accounting firm owned by Bernard Madoff's father-in-law, Saul Alpern. Above: The plan of the ABC corporate headquarters in New York. In addition to studio space, ABC granted us weekend use of their corporate offices to film scenes we did not have the resources to rent or build. Mr. Menendez: "For me it was deja vu having worked on the building as an architect in the early 1990s." help tie the set to the actual location. Furthermore, it would highlight the juxtaposition between the façade's soft exterior and Madoff 's angular dark charcoal interior walls. A collection of brightly colored bull prints by Roy Lichtenstein seemed to put the finishing touches on Madoff 's aggressive and duplicitous, yet superficially supple, personality. Plate glass was cost-prohibitive, so one-half-inch plexiglass was used to create the look of large expanses of frameless floor-to-ceiling glass. Butt jointing the plexi edge-to-edge with no vertical support would give a glass appearance, especially at the forty-five degree corners, but without a vertical support, large sheets of plexi standing on end and edge-to-edge naturally bow, especially with the heat emitted by movie lights. Art Director Raphael Sorcio, Set Designer Barbara Matis and construction coordinator Charlie Cecil devised a way to hang the plexi from steel standoffs on an aluminum track. Although this track took care of most of the bow, the corners still needed to be held together intermittently. Ornamental brushed stainless squares helped conceal the additional engineering necessary to straighten out the plexi. These squares became a decorative detail on all the panels. There was neither space nor time to build the trading floor on stage. The only way to create it would be by set extension. Three big openings were designed, large windows that led out to a theoretical trading floor backed by green screen. Several sixteen-foot-long trading desks on wheels could be placed to camera, making the set look bigger. By populating the desks and filming plates of the traders in successive wardrobe changes, The Molecule was able to make the trading floor seem like it had hundreds of traders and went on forever. To solve the dilemma of possibly seeing the stage floor at the bottom of the New York City skyline photo backing, a terrace and a parapet wall were placed outside the window wall. Interestingly, the Lipstick building also has terraces and parapets on the 19th floor due to the city's zoning setback requirements. On Chopped, in addition to the basket with the mysterious ingredients, the contestants also get free use of the kitchen and all the perks that come with it. Metaphorically speaking, our kitchen on Madoff was free use of two ABC office buildings, one new and the other older. The "New ABC" became Markopolos' office in Boston, the Securities and Exchange Commissions in both Boston and New York, the New York Attorney General's office, the law offices where the sons confess, and a hospital where Rodger (Peter's son) goes to receive chemotherapy. "Old ABC" became the location for the seventeenth floor Madoff offices. Of the many spaces available in the old and new ABCs, the one that yielded the most interesting result was an abandoned videotape room right out of the era of ABC anchorman Ron Cochran. An existing wall Rampart Financial Hallway MADOFF May 29, 2015 ABC: 77 West 66th Srteet, 22nd Floor : : S E C B o s t o n ; A n d r e w ' s H o s p i t a l R m ; B l i m i s 1 9 t h F l B a t h r o o m ; U S A t t o r n e y G e n e r a l : : D i r e c t o r ' s P l a n Possibly seen in Grant Ward reverse Grant Ward Office Andrew's Hospital Room Blimis 19th Floor Men's Bathroom US Attorney General Conference Rm Rampart Financial / Casey Rampart Financial / Markopolos