Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/619377
98 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 elevator ride to Suite 402 gave, no pun intended, a nice layout in which to consummate the affair. Oheka's elegant library worked as the office of Access International Advisors co-founder René- Thierry Magon de la Villehuchet, who committed suicide after learning he had lost $1.4 billion of his investor's and family's money. But it was Oheka's location on a plateau overlooking Smithtown Bay in Long Island Sound that helped me solve one of our most perplexing location problems: where to shoot the numerous Palm Beach scenes. The gardens were elevated and had a low retaining wall that defined the edge. Beyond that, there was nothing but a valley below. I suggested to director Raymond De Felitta that all the Palm Beach restaurant and cafe scenes be shot on the side of the castle facing this low wall. A few foreground palm trees, three miniature orange trees, a nice breeze and a distant shimmering ocean courtesy of supervisor Luke DiTommaso at The Molecule visual effects put us in Palm Beach without a plane ticket or the expense of a second unit. To anyone with hopes of becoming a Production Designer, I cannot emphasize enough how important it is to spend some time in a visual effects studio. Understanding what the effects house will need in advance can save the production company major headaches and expense at the end of production. I start a keynote presentation and make notes as I go over all the scenes that require post work, taking screen grabs from dailies of odd things that need to be cleaned up or erased altogether. Sands Point, an Italian Renaissance villa built by Isaac Guggenheim in 1916, also passed the litmus test and played host to multiple locations. A long travertine hallway became the spot where hedge fund financier Ezra Merkin receives the news that he just lost $2.4 billion. On an ornate stair with a large picture window, financier Vera Zweig drops her cellphone at hearing she's lost everything. On the villa's ground floor, a paneled room played nicely The litmus test for every location choice was the number of scenes that could be shot there. Oheka Castle, once the estate of German financier Otto Kahn, sitting majestically on the highest point in Long Island, offered the opportunity to film nine different scenes. The manicured formal gardens with the French chateau in the background became the setting for a walk and talk between Bernie (played by Richard Dreyfuss) and a European hedge fund investor. The top of a grand stair in the entry foyer provided a dais for a speech Bernie gives at a Madoff Cancer Foundation fundraiser. A dark oak paneled room with fresco paintings was dressed as the Pembroke Room of Manhattan's Upper East Side Lowell Hotel where Bernie began an affair with his mistress, Sheryl Weinstein. An Above: A SketchUp model of the Madoff offices by Mr. Sorcio illustrates how every square inch of space was used all the way up to the fire lanes. Below, left and right: Real aluminum storefront windows became the fastest and most economical option to mimic the curve of architect Philip Johnson's Lipstick Building. Mr. Sorcio standing on the terrace outside of the conference room; budget and time constraints precluded building the set on an elevated deck, so an adjustable parapet wall effectively cut off the view of the stage floor and the bottom of the photo backing.