Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/891583
of isolation, were inspiring as I envisioned the yet-to-be-found 200-acre McAllan farm, ideally located somewhere near New Orleans. While cotton fields interspersed with rice crops were plentiful as far as the eye could see, my destination was further south, deep into sugar cane country. The favored location, already scouted by location manager Wise Wolfe and director Dee Rees, was in St. Bernard Parish, east of New Orleans. The location consisted of a pre-Civil War antebellum house set back several yards from a two-lane highway, a contemporary barn built for a previous production, a 40-acre cow pasture surrounded by swampland and a beautiful glade of live oaks. Unfortunately, the location had limited access and very limited views. I wanted to see the horizon in all directions. I wanted to see the sky. We also needed to create three different residences for the three Mudbound families. I didn't have the time or resources to build one from scratch, let alone build three. I wanted the visual expanse of Eudora's Home Before Dark to fill the screen. The sister plantations of St. Joseph and Felicity (and their combined 2,500 acres), located fifty miles up the Mississippi River from our base of New Orleans, provided a possible alternative. A half mile behind the "Big House" of Felicity, the farmer who leased the property was turning over eighty acres to remain fallow during the time we would be filming. This would solve the issue of the fields, a good thing since our budget would not allow us to buy out acres of sugar cane, which by nature is a perennial crop that sits in 5-to-7-year plots until turned over and replanted. The outbuildings of the Felicity plantation also included several sharecropper shacks, numerous barns, sheds and outhouses. The shacks were located within walking distance of the main house, but would not provide 360 degrees of filming. The owners agreed to let us move three of the structures deep into the middle of the newly turned fallow plots. This would be my proposal to Dee when she arrived four weeks before the start of filming. She embraced the idea and it was immediately put in motion. With the aid of a local house mover, the sills of the shacks were replaced, fireplaces dismantled, and they were moved, one-by-one, deep into the property to their temporary resting places. Each of the modest 150-year- old structures was modified to remove traces of recent occupants, and to accommodate the weight and placement of grip and lighting equipment and a film crew. D. The designer's notes on how to modify one of the existing structures to serve as the McAllan barn. E. The extent of the "working drawings" done on the film, a scale plan of the McAllan home. F. The house moved to its shooting location. F D E