Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1480624
The Art Department had four concept artists, including Hugh Sicotte, who worked every day on renderings for the Lumon founder paintings, five Set Designers, two consecutive Supervising Art Directors, and a Graphic Artist, Tansy Michaud, whose work is mind-blowing. I didn't want technology to peg when this was happening, whether it's ten years ago, or ten years from now. I tried to use as much analog as possible. I didn't want any new mobile phones, but that's how people communicate in the "outie" world. LUMON INDUSTRIES-Exterior Severance was shot in New York, where Apple had new stages in the Bronx. I thought the Lumon headquarters exterior should look like the beautiful John Deere building in Illinois, designed by Eero Saarinen and Kevin Roche. Bell Labs, designed by the same team, came up as a possible location for the Lumon exterior. It's now a mall with around a million square feet of space that was the original Bell Telephone Company, where they designed the satellite and the phone. It's in New Jersey, and it was spectacularly restored. The production convinced the owners to let us shoot there. We did a lot of visual effects to remove stuff on the roof and most of the trees around it. We wanted the glass structure to look monolithic. Interior Looking at '60s and '70s office spaces, most are super-sterile, incredibly professional, and beautifully designed, with a desk set, a phone, a Rolodex, one pen, a calendar. They didn't have any personal items. That was the look the show wanted. Everything on Lumon's "severed" floors had its own playful world. I referenced the '60s Jacques Tati film Playtime. The Lumon workers who are severed are "born" into this office in the boardroom where the severance takes place. A. LUMON INDUSTRIES EXTERIOR, AERIAL VIEW. ILLUSTRATION BY JAMIE RAMA IN PHOTOSHOP. B. MACRODATA REFINEMENT WORKSTATION. SET PHOTO. A B