Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1449234
G H O S T B U S T E R S : A F T E R L I F E | P E R S P E C T I V E 4 5 cinematographer Eric Steelberg and assistant director Jason Blumenfeld, the decision to base out of Calgary was cemented. Moreover, we felt much more comfortable after scouting some exciting locations, including a semi-abandoned natural gas processing plant, a few very Midwest-looking streets, some great abandoned barns and empty vistas for as far as the eye could see! Prep in LA Before setting up a permanent Art Department in Calgary, I moved into a conference room adjacent to the production o ce at Sony Pictures Studios in LA. consultant Oy Inguano and I kicked o the visual development process, converting the conference room into a "war room," plastering the walls with research imagery and sketches to inspire a grounded world based on the 1984 classic. Shortly thereafter, Supervising Art Director Tom Reta came aboard and set to work looking for crew in Canada. One of the key sets in the movie would be the farmhouse which our main characters inherit from their grandfather, the infamous Egon Spengler. Set Designer Chris Cortner started translating my sketches and research into a SketchUp model of the farmhouse. Jason challenged us to design a house that felt like a classic "haunted house." We referenced 100-year-old catalogue homes from Sears, Roebuck and Company and scoured the internet for photos of aging Midwestern farmhouses. Up on the "war room" wall the photos would go! Meanwhile, I asked creature designer Brynn Metheney if she would join the team to dive into the menagerie of creatures and ghosts required for this new chapter. Her whimsical hand-drawn approach resulted in an early win—landing a design for Muncher months before cameras would roll. She also started developing the Mini Pufts, as well as advanced the designs of the Terror Dogs with more studied and realistic anatomies. In these early days, I brought on some other long- time collaborators, illustrators Wayne Haag, who would develop gorgeous matte painting-quality concepts of key moments in the fi lms, Jim Carson, who focused on explorations of Gozer's temple D E F