Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/929567
92 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 is seen early in the film in this incarnation. There is a staircase down into the shelter from the laundry room, and the bi-level warehouse location suited this geography well. Not to harp on the subject but again, become water, my thinking was if I don't have to build this two-story structure from the ground up on our limited budget I can get more value on the screen. That is not to say that no building was required. There were two good exterior poured cement walls, some rough sawn ceiling beams and a sturdy loft. There were some metal I-beams here and there. The existing staircase up to the loft was too narrow for shooting purposes, so working with construction coordinator Drew Rebelein, it was rebuilt and enclosed. Multiple walls were added, and additional I-beams built to create a pattern that would help disguise a hidden room within a long section of wall. The loft became the laundry room area of the Rainier home by completely enclosing and refacing it. The hidden room, a sort of cell, was a space that I wanted to feel like a work in progress, so a dirt floor and one dirt wall were added, cut into, chiseled away and covered with webs. The fallout shelter below the house and adjacent to the prison sits on the edge of the Further, and is the first place the viewer sees, the red door portal into its dark unknown. Set decorator Sandy Skora took the space all the way, providing great details with the many small items of shelter dressing she provided. Looking at shelter research, I asked my wonderfully collaborative director Adam Robitel if we could add a generator that would give young Elise a bit of action, cranking the lights on when she goes down into the dark space. It also led me to suggest that we use cloth-covered electrical wire as a dangerous element, instead of the more typical dressing of rope or chain. The set dressers spent quite a bit of time adding in yards of cloth wire and ceramic knobs, as if Elise's father was still in the process of connecting it all together. Later in the film, adult Elise comes back to the shelter and discovers its secrets. The fictitious Dewbend Penitentiary is fertile ground for horrible things to take place. Decades of imprisonment A. Warehouse loft at RSI stages before becoming the laundry room of the Rainier house. B. Warehouse stairs at RSI stages before rebuilding. C.-D. Concept renderings by Hunter Brown based on set design, drawn in SketchUp with Twilight render and Photoshop post-processing. E. Photo of the fallout shelter with the door into the Further. F. Set photo of the laundry room built at RSI stages. G. Photo of the fallout shelter set, vent and generator built in warehouse at RSI stages. Photo by Curtis Corbitt. H. Photo of fallout shelter set built in warehouse at RSI stages—can you see Key Face? Photo by Curtis Corbitt. A C B D