Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1449234
Art Director Andres Cubillan and Set Designer Paul Sonski meticulously recreated the set from the series, based on stills from the show. The set had several iterations, and we chose the version from season two, with the central window and spinet piano. The practical logistics of shooting the show were researched and executed by prop master Trish Gallaher Glenn. She hired a retired grip named Charlie Saldana who had actually worked on I Love Lucy. He was on the set every day during shooting to ensure that the cameras, lighting, sound boom and technical details were accurate and specifi c. In addition to recreating the iconic Ricardo apartment set, we got to replicate several sets from the episode "Lucy goes to Italy." These included a train compartment, a hotel room and the vineyard where Lucy memorably stomps grapes. After consultation with special e ects supervisor John Cazin, we reached the decision to use real grapes for Lucy to stomp in the vat. Grapes don't fi t neatly into the urisdiction of any department, so it fell to Art Department coordinator Molly Flick to source the one hundred- plus cases of table grapes we calculated would be required for the scene. While we accurately proected the number of grapes it would take to fi ll the vat, we grossly underestimated the amount of time it would take to pluck those grapes o of their stems. In a rare gesture of solidarity between crafts, about twenty of us stayed for two hours after wrap one night for a grape-plucking marathon, at the end of which we had what we needed for the scene—one hundred cubic feet of grapes! Many of the scenes in the fi lm which take place as part of the I Love Lucy show appear in both color and black-and-white. For both the Ricardos' apartment set and the Italian vineyard set, I compared black-and-white photos of the set to footage from the original episodes to make sure that the values were accurate. D. ITALIAN VINEYARD SET. BUILT ON STAGE 5 AT SUNSET GOWER STUDIOS. SET PHOTO. E. ITALIAN VINEYARD SET IN BLACK-AND-WHITE. SET PHOTO. F. I LOVE LUCY SET. PLAN AND MODEL VIEWS BY SET DESIGNER PAUL SONSKI. D E F