Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/780285
It was in the middle of the contentious 2016 presidential primary when I received David Guggenheim's pilot script for Designated Survivor. It opened at a State of the Union Address and followed the aftermath of an unthinkable attack on the US Capitol during the President's speech. In one catastrophic evening, the Executive, Judicial and Legislative branches of government are wiped out, and an ordinary man is thrust into extraordinary circumstances as he becomes the new President, expected to manage the continuity of government. He is the Designated Survivor. The story is set in real places, based on actual government policy and focuses on the real preparations made in the case of such an event. As I started this project, I couldn't help but notice the relevance this story held during the recent election year. With a divided country and government, it already seems impossible for our elected officials to ever find common ground, so the question this pilot poses is important: How might it even be possible to rebuild the US government after a catastrophic strike on the homeland? I knew this would be a great opportunity for any designer, especially someone with a keen interest in politics, so I jumped on board with both feet. A few days after getting the call in early January, I met line producer Ann Kindberg at an Air Canada gate at LAX and we were off and running to pre-scout stages and locations in Washington, DC, and Toronto. With principal photography only seven weeks away and a Canadian work visa in my pocket, it was go time. The finished pilot was picked up to series and premiered successfully in September 2016. Since then there has been considerable interest from Right: Another 3D study of the US Capitol bomb site set by the FUSEfx team. Below: The Art Department first developed and modeled this set in SketchUp ® , and FUSEfx used those 3D files as a foundation for their work. The working drawings were done in SketchUp and AutoCAD ® by Guinevere Cheung and Mel Peters. Bottom: The start of the US Capitol set outside of Stage 2 at Downsview Park Film Stages in Toronto. Walls of the House Chamber portico were built as traditional scenery in the foreground and then covered and dressed with tons of real concrete rubble and sand. The resulting demolished landscape was able to withstand two days of extreme fire and water effects. Inset: A full-scale (19'-0") reproduction of the Statue of Freedom that has crowned the dome of the US Capitol since 1863, carved from blue foam with hard coat and paint, designed with intentional damages to emerge from the rubble of the ground zero set as if it had fallen from the dome of the Capitol.