ADG Perspective

July-August 2022

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rooms and spaces that are actually needed to tell the story—a living room, a dining room, a kitchen, the number of bedrooms—so that I can determine the size and shape of each room. I try to stay mindful of how much stage space we have outside each window, so the DP has enough space to create realistic sunlight. Outside the massive windows of the Mitchell apartment, the set needed a photo backing of the skyline of ashington D.C. The production hired Phil Greenstreet of Rosco ackings to create our hero photographic backing. Phil stayed on the seventh floor of The atergate to shoot the view from the balcony during the day and to get a matching image for the night version of the backing. Then he went across the street to what used to be the oward ohnson otel and shot images from the seventh floor, looking back toward The atergate complex. This view would be used as a photo backing outside the windows of a set of the oward ohnson otel that was built a few months later. The Howard Johnson Hotel In , the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee was on the sixth floor of the atergate oce building. Their oces had windows facing the oward ohnson otel directly across the street. The burglars in Gaslit booked room in the oward ohnson otel which had a direct view into the DNC eadquarters. From this vantage, the burglars could watch over the breakin and communicate via walkietalkie. The rt Department matched historical photos of the view from the hotel balcony. The view from the real hotel almost appears fake because the atergate oce building is so massive and directly across the street. The Caucus Room One of the most iconic environments in the atergate scandal was the ennedy Caucus Room where the atergate Senate Committee held a trial to investigate the people involved. It's a historically significant space that is the most recognizable room in the atergate trials. For this room, it was important to build an exact match based on historical photos. The biggest challenge was the overall scale of this room with floor toceiling marble. Like any proect, there were budget limitations, so the production chose to build half the room, and only up to twenty feet high. nything the camera saw above this height would need to be created digitally. For the marble walls, we hired stek, a wellknown, large format printing company to print our custom marble pattern on Sintra plastic panels. e then applied each panel to the walls built by the construction department. e matched the tables, news cameras, chairs, drapery, etc.—everything possible to keep it historically accurate. One detail we had a hard time recreating was the giant wooden headboardlike piece that was prominent at the front of the room. Eventually, we found a rental piece that was a reasonable match and added the wooden eagles to the top. A. & B. THE MITCHELLS' WATERGATE APARTMENT. UNRENDERED SKETCHUP MODEL BY D. TRACY SMITH. C. & D. THE MITCHELLS' WATERGATE APARTMENT. MODEL RENDER BY JAIME SALAZAR IN UNREAL. E. & F. THE MITCHELLS' WATERGATE APARTMENT. SET PHOTOS. G. & H. HOWARD JOHNSON HOTEL ROOM. BUILT ON A 6-FOOT PLATFORM ON STAGE 43, UNIVERSAL STUDIOS. SET PHOTO. G H

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