LMGI COMPASS
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Fall 2021
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far corners. Alison pulled together a really cool crew. We had the
best location team across the board."
FIRST STOP, GRIFFIN
"When Cora gets away from the plantation and makes it to 'South
Carolina,' she becomes involved with the Georgia Institute for Negro
Progress," says Alison. "That was unique—and hopeful. Okay, she's
free now. She's out dancing in a yellow dress and taking classes.
There are tall buildings and elevators—all this stuff to make you
think life is good now—and then you find out that it isn't."
With a digital extension added to create a tower, Savannah City
Hall was the anachronistic skyscraper looming over the fictional
city of Griffin, SC. The surrounding buildings were transformed
to look period, and the streets were filled with dirt, horses and
carriages to create the enlightened community where Cora finds
refuge—until she discovers the atrocities being committed behind
the facades. She is forced to flee and catches the train to "North
Carolina."
"There are actual train tracks inside the museum" KALM Martin
adds. "We brought a mass of scaffolding, and then we built the
underground tunnel. We had it set up big enough to have two
stations inside. When we wanted different stations, we'd flip them."
"The only other piece of railroad we had was the big station and
testimonial room we shot in Macon," adds Allison. "The restored
Macon Terminal Building was where everyone traveling on the
railroad gave their personal testimony before boarding the train.
This became the written history of the many runaway slaves and
freed persons searching for a better life. Those scenes are powerful.
With everything else, we had to make sure each place Cora stepped
off the train would be wildly different from where she was before.
That's how we approached things."
"We wanted to make each of the 10 chapters feel distinct," agrees
Friedberg, "and that made finding locations much more complicated.
We were communicating an epic journey through states of mind and
history. We were in one state—Georgia—and were trying to make it
look like all of America. Georgia has a lot of looks if you push to the
