Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/765720
Left, top to bottom: Violet's house was built on stage at the St. Joseph Community Center in LaPlace, LA; note the typical exposed wall in this view of her kitchen. In most old Creole houses, the wood supports were erected and the walls were originally filled with mud, then later replaced with brick. Violet's boyfriend, Hollywood, in her bathroom on stage. Violet's bedroom is another part of the stage set. would play an integral part of the story. A quick solution was to convert the existing front doors to windows and construct a side porch that would now act as the main entry. The structure was altered within the historical guidelines laid out by the management of the plantation. For the most part, the interior was in good enough shape that only some areas needed repair or paint. The house would have a worn look due to the fact that the patriarch of the family, Ernest, had lived there and lost interest in upkeep years ago after his wife had passed. Remnants of Ernest's wife and family life would remain, and the interior became a tapestry of their family's heritage. "It was particularly satisfying to conduct my research with the help of local resources such as libraries, private collections, plantation records and people indigenous to the area. We were all inspired by the land and its evolution, as well as its burden of being a haven for slavery. Slavery would be a subtle underline to the world we were about to design." After securing the Bordelon family home, we shifted to finding Violet's home. Since this would be the center for familial activities, Ava wanted to keep Violet's residence in the same township as Ernest's place. Because of all the choreography and amount of filming that would take place in Violet's, it was