Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1010570
8 4 P E R S P E C T I V E | S E P T E M B E R / O C T O B E R 2 0 1 8 After a couple of brief scouts of Colorado Springs (where Tim confirmed that there were indeed very few brothers), it was clear what was needed to find in New York, as the concept for the show began to evolve. Eight towns later, the solution was found in Ossining and nearby Haverstraw, New York. Ossining had buildings of the same vintage as Colorado Springs, and some free "mountain views" that would make a clean matte line for digital extensions in the Palisades across the Hudson River. What was missing in Pike's Peak was more than made up for in charm and geography. Ossining also had some nice midcentury architecture for the police building, and a wide variety of modest houses to choose from for Felix's house, a decent diner and several other great locations. The design concept for the rest of the show was this: Ron Stallworth, the first black policeman in the Colorado Springs Police Department, is the enlightened man in an ignorant world. Ron's home environment is therefore an expression of the progressive. Ron is hip, cool, consistent, smart, a man of integrity and purpose. He is connected to the now, with a practical understanding of his past and a clear idea about his path and future. Felix, the volatile leader of the local chapter of the KKK that Ron infiltrates, is an ignorant man in a progressive world. Felix's environment is choked and stagnated by the past and unable to move beyond a world that will quickly pass him by. His and his wife Louise's version of the 1970s is influenced more by the past than by a clear vision of the future. Felix's house might have been his parent's house or Louise's house. In that regard, Felix wonders what is actually his in this new world. He seeks to regain control of his physical world by filling his personal spaces with artifacts of his myopic and unenlightened ideas. The third element of the design was the police department, new fifteen years ago, and in need of a face-lift—if not complete renovation. It has the clean lines of the late fifties, with the tobacco stains of the intervening years starting to make the fluorescent diffuser's plastic brittle. A few A. CSPD CAMERA STUDY SHOWS RON'S ISOLATION IN THE ENVIRONMENT. NOTE ALL DESKS TURNED AWAY FROM RON. B. CSPD INTELLIGENCE BULLPEN BUILT ON STAGE IN GREENPOINT, BROOKLYN. C. POLICE STATION CHIEF'S OFFICE. SET PHOTO. D. POLICE STATION HALLWAYS. PRACTICAL LIGHTING THROUGHOUT HELPED KEEP UP WITH SPIKE. PHOTO BY DAVID LEE. B C A D