ADG Perspective

4 4 P E R S P E C T I V E | M A R C H / A P R I L 2 0 2 2 Summerville, with subtle architectural in uences peppered around the building facades. In order to bring Summerville to life, fi ve cities surrounding Calgary were ultimately chosen to create the rural Oklahoma town. As part of my design process, I drew up a "story map" that would visually connect all the main settings in a logical arrangement: the interconnected streets of Summerville, Egon's farmhouse, Spinners diner, and the bridge leading to the mysterious mountain and abandoned mine. Upon starting on the project, Jason shared some early scouting photos of several potential bases for the movie (Pittsburgh, New Mexico and Calgary) and asked for my input. My gut reaction to his photos was that Calgary was unique in that it seemed to o er an impressive range of locations that the story required. The new story was set in Oklahoma, and Calgary was set amid vast prairies with arid badlands located to the east, similar to those found in parts of the Midwest. In order to investigate Calgary further, I hopped on a ight in midFebruary of 20. I was greeted by an endless carpet of snow that had blanketed the province a few days earlier, as well as subero temperatures. It was a bit challenging to imagine the locations as they would appear in the summer months, but it was clear that Calgary and its surrounding landscapes could make for some spectacular and arresting imagery. Furthermore, there was a small cluster of stages called Calgary Film Centre that the city was eager to make available to the production. My only trepidation, which I expressed to the producers, was the fact that no other "big budget" movie had shot entirely in Alberta. Our budget had been predetermined by the studio to be around 0 million, which meant that our options for ying in and lodging outoftown crew members would be limited. Regardless, after a second larger scout in March, with Jason, his longtime collaborators, A. A FICTITIOUS "STORY MAP" OF SUMMERVILLE HELPED CREATE VISUAL CONTINUITY FOR THE NARRATIVE. GRAPHIC BY MARIE MASSOLIN. B. SUMMERVILLE TOWN ELEVATION BY EVAN SPENCE. ADDITIONAL ELEMENTS WERE ADDED TO LOCATION FACADES TO MAKE IT LOOK LIKE IVO SHANDOR HAD INFLUENCED THE TOWN'S ARCHITECTURE. C. SUMMERVILLE STREET WITH A MONUMENT TO DEAD MINERS. SET PHOTO. D. FARMHOUSE ELEVATIONS BY EVAN SPENCE. E. THE GRAPHICS FOR THE MINI STAY PUFT MARSHMELLOWS WERE DESIGNED BY MARIE MASSOLIN. AFTER THE MOVIE'S RELEASE, HER GRAPHICS WERE FEATURED ON THE REAL PRODUCTS. ILLUSTRATION BY BRYNN METHENEY. F. A 1:1 ANIMATRONIC OF THE TERROR DOG WAS CREATED BY ARJEN TUITEN AND HIS TEAM. PRODUCTION STILL BY KIMBERLY FRENCH. B A C

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