Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/619377
TRIPLE O'S REVERSE NEON ORDER NEON ORDER NEON OUTLINES STOREFRONT TO LEFT OF TRIPLE O'S PRELIMINARY NOT FOR CONSTRUCTION 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 69 I took that concept and enlarged the Boston map to fill the entire wall opposite the curved windows, to underline the presence of the city even inside the workspace. With the passage of time, the walls get filled with more and more information that helps to develop the story. The Art Department was careful to make the FBI a timeless place, but it wasn't timeless everywhere. The story invited us to show off the passage of time in John Connolly's two houses. He begins the movie by returning to Boston, a hotshot investigator famous for breaking up the Italian mob in New York City, now transferred to the Boston unit. The audience first finds John and his wife in 1974, just moving into their first house in Southie, a typical duplex south of Broadway, near Triple O's, on a small backstreet. The furniture and color palette in this house are all redone over time, using different wallpaper of the period. The strong checkerboard pattern in the kitchen has a very specific intent to it. It was the very tip of the iceberg revealing the true nature of Connolly's personality. He didn't want to go unnoticed. He chased fame, success and money. Then we turn around and really showcase the 1980s when John Connolly eventually gets higher up the food chain. He and Marianne buy a brand-new house near South Boston high school, and redo it completely in the fashion of the time. I opted for a pale peach in the kitchen and gold, shiny wallpaper with scallop swirls in the dining rooms. A plastic globe-light over the glass dining room table, a brass bed in the bedroom— everything feels over the top, but we were careful not to make it too distracting. The scenes at Connolly's new house are mostly at night, so I chose shiny wallcoverings that light with a glow, and fabrics with a metallic effect. In the bedroom, the wallpaper is the same design but darker. The scene here is scary and unsettling, but the architectural elements are the same as downstairs. Part was shot on location and part on stage. Other houses in the story each have a different story to tell. Whitey had a secret son with a very young girl, Lindsey Cyr. He intentionally moved them to live in a house in Quincy, near the beach, a quiet and safe neighborhood, safe from his own gang. A beach house was selected, lower middle class, and all the interiors and the exterior were redone. The color palette is cooler, with blue and green tones to reconnect with the ocean, and the entire house has a childlike feel. Lindsey was just 23, and I wanted to give that sense of almost a dollhouse, for a little girl that plays at being a mom. Whitey's brother is the very powerful state senator, Billy Bulger, with a very big family—a wife and nine children. His house is stately, with historic details repaired and Above: The relatively chic stores and boutiques across the street from the Triple O's Lounge location were redressed as Southie stores circa 1980, as shown in this sign layout by Geoffrey Mandel. The infamous Triple O's Lounge was Whitey Bulger's headquarters in South Boston where much of his criminal enterprise was run out of the backroom. The gentrification of South Boston in the decades since meant that the former Triple O's location was now a sushi restaurant with a Starbucks next door, so the tavern was re- created in a VFW hall in Cambridge, much to the confusion and amusement of local residents who remembered the original. Left: A pre-vis illustration and sign for Triple O's Lounge drawn by Geoffrey Mandel. Inset above: Triple O's Lounge under construction.