Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/929567
P E R S P E C T I V E | M A R C H / A P R I L 2 0 1 8 73 It started with one of those unexpected, Saturday-morning calls when you look at your phone and think, "why the hell is Adam Arkin calling me…" GET SHORTY Designing Hollywood's Dirty Work by Elizabeth H. Gray, Production Designer So it began. Mid-September 2016, then neck deep in the last season of Masters of Sex, I came up for air long enough to read the pilot and pull together a pitch for Get Shorty. I had seen the Sonnenfeld/Peter Larkin version a hundred years prior, but prepared for the pitch knowing they wanted something "a little more grounded." I started thinking about Get Shorty the way I do every pilot, series or season: by identifying the worlds. What do they look like, feel like, emote? What is the conflict and how do they collide? The real world is full of competing ideas, tastes, lifestyles and characters. People don't get along, things don't always make sense, personalities, lifestyles and personal preferences often intersect to expose the friction that creates emotion, drama and conflict. Get Shorty was a field day of obvious conflict from the pilot to episode ten. It's the fish out of water story of small-time Nevada mobsters trying to make it in big time Hollywood. The characters are layered, complex and struggle constantly the harsh realities of Nevada life, and the potential of life in Hollywood. Our heroes, B-movie producer Rick Moreweather (Ray Romano) and Pahrump hitman Miles Daly (Chris O'Dowd), are stuck somewhere in the middle of these conflicting realities. A. Gravity Pictures executive office set, a multifunctional set which is shown here as the conference room, built at Albuquerque Studios. B. & C. Production Designer Elizabeth H. Gray's colour palette and mood board for the Nevada and Hollywood sets. D. LA Graphic Artist Kevin Egeland designed the exterior signage in collaboration with Art Director Jamie Hall and Assistant Art Director Ian Scroggins. The design included pieces of neon, custom channel lettering, LED "neon" tubing and large- scale mylar fringed lettering. E. Broadway Cattle Auction location during installation of casino signage. D E