Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1490572
D E V O T I O N | P E R S P E C T I V E 6 1 The decision was made to build the interior of the USS Leyte. Aircraft carrier interiors are tight confined spaces, so in the age of COVID, it made sense to build these interiors on a stage. There was a great deal of research material online, in books and through the US Naval Archives. The Art Department also made several trips to scout and photograph the USS Yorktown in Charleston, South Carolina. I was inspired by everything that I saw but decided to go darker with my treatment of the boat's interiors. The production built the ready room, officer's quarters, officer's lounge, mail room and several corridors for continuous movement of the actors. The big challenge was the exterior. How do you show the planes landing and taking off...which is so central to these stories? There were extensive talks with the pilots who were going to be flying the planes, the producers and the VFX unit. The decision was made to build the exterior of the aircraft carrier, "the island," on an existing runway at a small airport. Line producer Bruce Franklin and location manager Laura Byrant spent several weeks searching out the right location and found a perfect airport, the Statesboro Bulloch County Airport in Statesboro, GA. It was an hour and fifteen minutes from Savannah. I assigned Set Designer Nealy Orillion the heroic task of drawing up this huge piece of scenery. She lived and breathed the details for several weeks. Finally, the drawings were turned over to Tom Morris and his amazing team of welders and carpenters and the work began. It took several months to build and sculpt the USS Leyte set, and I need to give credit to the artists who worked on this ship. Recreating the Chosin Reservoir and the Hagaru basecamp and battlefields were also very big challenges. Where to do these sequences, and how B e h i n d t h e S c e n e s B Y J E R E M Y W O O L S E Y, S U P E R V I S I N G A R T D I R E C T O R A. USS LEYTE. FLIGHT DECK AND RUNWAY. SET PHOTO. B. CRASHED CORSAIR. ILLUSTRATION BY CHRIS HAND. B