ADG Perspective

5 2 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 he first day I met with Paul homas Anderson to discuss Licorice Pizza, we immediately umped in the car and started scouting the San Fernando alley locations that inspired the script. Paul's excitement was infectious; as we drove exploring the nooks and crannies of the alley, we discussed places that had once been and how they felt; it was exciting to imagine rewinding the hands of time. hat day it became evident that we were striving for an authentic avor; dirty sneakers, kids with its, massive parking lots, wide boulevards intersecting suburbs, 0s housing developments, the quotidian and unembellished world of Licorice Pizza that we strove to create. I wanted to create a film rooted in reality, with the clutter and motion that everyday life brings, while avoiding the clichs of the period. Firsthand accounts were an integral part of my process to uncover the quirky details from people's memories of this period. Paul's neighborhood knowledge of the San Fernando alley took us down to what many would think are very unremarkable areas, parking lots, oces and alleys that would usually go unnoticed but excited us I took this time to document hardware, signage and architectural details that became part of our research catalog. Daily, we would seek out restaurants, houses and city streets that were relatively undisrupted by modern construction. Once we found a frontrunner, location manager Justin Duncan and later, Michael Glaser diligently worked to set up relationships, as most were locations that had not had prior filming. here were over fifty scripted locations for Licorice Pizza, and with our budget, we had to be mindful in our location decisions. We spent a lot of time scouting areas that had not been heavily modified, which was a more significant challenge than expected. he alley and Los Angeles are experiencing a real estate boom, which forced many pivots along the way. I knew we would be shooting everything incamera from working with Paul previously on The Master; no green screens or visual eects were on the table. As we confirmed locations, I worked with Alistair Milne on illustrations to show the design plans for each significant set. I teamed up with Art Director Samantha Englender, who worked closely with the location department on detailed notes of set modifications, removal of modern city elements, graphic installation and restoration plans. h e U n e m b e l l i s h e d W o r l d o f L I C O R I C E P I Z Z A B Y F L O R E N C I A M A R T I N , P R O D U C T I O N D E S I G N E R A

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