Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/820551
44 P E R S P E C T I V E | M AY / J U N E 2 0 1 7 The faded old Liberty Motel, almost perfect in its location under a freeway interchange, needed minimal work, but the featured motel room would become both a stage set and a well-traveled cover set that would follow the shooting company on the road. The exterior of an Oklahoma City casino was all set to be shot at Harrah's New Orleans Hotel and Casino in downtown, when—a little over two weeks prior to shooting—a large sinkhole opened in the street, compromising an underground tunnel near the main valet entrance, exactly where we were set to shoot. A hasty re-scout and some juggling of the shooting schedule put us at the Superdome where a new casino exterior was designed, drawn, built and decorated in a little over ten days. It was no small task to turn the hulking concrete stadium entrance into a shiny casino, and the construction crew worked the final twenty-four hours straight through in a marathon effort. A nontoxic exterior location was finally selected for the smelting plant, a water-well facility in an undeveloped section of Rio Rancho, New Mexico, a suburb of Albuquerque. While not affording much existing structure, other than a few water tanks and utility poles, it did provide acres of open desert and horizons in all directions. Walter Schneider did a first pass at fitting the main building we had already designed over the top of an existing cinder block structure. With a few basic ground measurements and Google Earth references, he was able to make the building fit snugly, concealing the existing facility perfectly. Once all agreed that this was the best approach, the interior set was fleshed out and a steel framework was expedited on the stage set to accommodate the new shooting schedule. With the fallen water tank interior well underway onstage, an exterior tank model was detailed out by Walter and placed into the exterior location 3D model. Jessica Stumpf and Nicole Reed LeFevre took on Logan's building (a makeshift bedroom and shower), some soaring metal catwalks and the other outbuildings. Soon there was a complete smelting plant Top: This early Photoshop painting by Shae Shatz helped visualize the concept of Logan's hideout in an abandoned Mexican smelting plant. Above, left and right: A functional, and very new looking water treatment plant outside Rio Rancho, New Mexico, served as the location for the smelting plant set. Kevin Loo modeled and rendered this view of the main smelting plant using Rhino3D and OctaneRender, reproducing the exact dynamics of the sun as it would appear on the shoot day, several weeks away.