Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/765720
ceilings and shiny slick surfaces. For the downstairs world, I chose low ceilings, compressed spaces, hard stone surfaces in dark colors. And I used long, long corridors everywhere. The long corridors became a visual metaphor for the movie. Our astronauts are traveling through space, through uncharted territory. They are making new discoveries and changing the world. Here on Earth, three black women are also traveling through uncharted territory and changing the world. The long corridors symbolize that journey. The exterior of NASA was shot at Morehouse College in Atlanta. The campus is a beautiful collection of mid-century 1950s and '60s buildings. The layout of the campus served the story points in the script, and there was a large circular building that became the inspiration for the Space Task Group. In the story, the SPACE TASK GROUP is where all the brilliant scientists work. I showed director Ted Melfi many realistic locations, large rectangular, cinder block rooms. They were all fine and would have served the story well, but Ted was equally excited by the large circular building on Morehouse campus and excited about working against reality. For Katherine Johnson, Space Task Group is a place of wonder. I wanted the audience to feel and see what Katherine Johnson feels. I knew I could create that sense of wonder in that large circular room, a globe within a globe. I did a series of rough sketches and Danny Brown turned them into beautiful drawings. The set was built in an abandoned high school gym. This high school became the de facto film studio. Various classrooms and corridors were used for many different sets. The West Computer Room, the segregated black women's computer workspace, was shot downstairs in the basement of the school. It had low ceilings and exposed cinder block walls. I painted the walls dark colors and filled the space with furniture to give a crowded and claustrophobic feeling. Fort McPherson is the location used to build the IBM ROOM. This deactivated fort is home to the new Tyler Perry Studios and has several empty buildings. I found a large atrium lobby space there that was just dynamite. There were several large rooms with long corridors converging from four sides. You are literally traveling through space. I worked with Carla Martinez to develop several ideas to present to Ted Melfi, and Nathan Krochmal was given the assignment of designing the IBM computers. This was not a big-budget movie, so the challenge was how to build some units from scratch in combination with existing metal boxes. Right: A digital illustration by Danny Brown of the set for the Space Task Group, built in the gym of an empty high school that the production used as a de facto soundstage. Clockwise from below: A still photograph of the finished Space Task Group. Left and right are the chalkboards where Katherine Johnson did her work. A reverse angle on the set looking toward Harrison's office, raised above the set's floor; and the interior of Harrison's office.