Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/716619
P E R S P E C T I V E | S E P T E M B E R / O C TO B E R 2 0 1 6 57 needed? What is the blood doing in the scene? And who gets to clean it up once the scene is over? That is the thankless side of horror because the blood gets everywhere—between tiles and floorboards, soaked into rugs and wallpaper and furnishings. All the fluids are food-safe; meaning, if an actor inadvertently ingests any of it during the take, they will not become ill. The recipe has been perfected since season one to be less sticky on the surfaces and easier on the tongue. SIGNATURE ELEMENTS OF SEASON TWO Whenever I design a new set for the show, I must always consider the signatures of the Evil Dead franchise. Taxidermy, colored pools of light, dark shadows and horror motifs all have a strong presence. I try to visualize how the set will look once the atmosphere and lighting elements are added, and then insert detail pieces that a director might work into the show. For example, I added a train set in Brock's house that could come to life through some evil force. This is where the Art Department gets to have a lot of fun and contributes to the show. When I visited Michigan, I took a very detailed look at the region's lifestyle characteristics and pulled hunting and fishing elements into the show heavily. I threaded in the distinctive North American vehicles (aged pickup trucks and domestic cars, rusty from the salted winter roads). ELK GROVE The street set has a party store (Michigan's term for a liquor store). It was Halloween when I was there so the main street of Elk Grove has a Halloween look to it, influenced literally from what I saw: bare trees, leaves strewn along the gutters, dried Halloween corn stalks tied to lampposts and shimmering streets from cold autumn rain, buildings in dire need of an exterior paint job and interiors that haven't changed for over thirty years. In the Ash vs Evil Dead world, it is almost always autumn or winter. For the trees, the greens team collected a set of skeletal trunks that added a great deal of character to the set. They would send me pictures of a tree full of leaves for approval and I'd say, "Well, that doesn't feel really scary." Then they would pick all the leaves off and the trees would take on a whole different look. They would then truck these immense trees in, place them on steel stands, coating the evergreen trees with paint to keep the color so that they would last the entire season. It was a great thrill to bring Ash's hometown to life. By building it almost entirely on stage, we had tremendous control of lighting and atmospherics. Vehicles were hand-picked and aged into the set. Neon lights were designed and carefully placed, streetlights dimmed and store lights controlled. It was great old-fashioned filmmaking in the true spirit of Evil Dead. ADG FACADE BD1 REF # BD1_01 850 850 STATION SHF_01 FACADE BD2 REF DWG# BD2_01 FACADE BD9 REF DWG # BD9_01 Above: A colored elevation of the street façade, drawn by Nick Conner in SketchUp. Nearly all of the town was built on stage. Below: Two views of the street and the Elk Bar, an important permanent set for the bloody series. Sooner or later, everyone—good and evil alike—ends up here. Nick Bassett, Production Designer Nick Connor, Art Director Daniel Lloyd, Concept Artist Gareth Edwards, Set Designer Rosie Guthrie, Set Decorator