Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1490572
Tour Bus As scripted, Deborah's tour bus needed to include a driver/passenger 'cockpit,' a common area, a kitchen, a bunk room and Deborah's bedroom (which included a full closet, a luxurious vanity and an opulent bed.) Practically, the living space needed to be big enough to allow for the cast and crew, but small enough to still feel like a tour bus. It would also need to 'self-light' the actors through built-in lightboxes as there was no room for movie lights. It had to allow crew access from multiple entrances, all while having some semblance of COVID safety protocols. All of this, plus the luxury look you come to expect from Deborah Vance. It was like cramming all the details of a house into a 12-foot by 40-foot space. With the extraordinary help of Assistant Art Director Bronte Campbell, the team pulled hundreds of research photos of both tour buses and luxury interiors, established relationships with motorhome manufacturers, and toured at least three actual tour buses. Set Designer Betty Krull then began drawing and building an incredibly complicated SketchUp model. Because we needed so much integrated lighting, fixtures foreman Camilo Lara was instrumental in incorporating hundreds of feet of LED tape which needed to be installed concurrently with the construction team, led by construction coordinator Will Thayer and foreman Neil Garland. The exterior shots of Deborah's tour bus used a real tour bus owned by legendary drummer Travis Barker. The white exterior needed a bit of branding to make it "Deborah Vance" so Graphic Artist Evan Regester spent a couple weeks exploring dozens of design ideas before building a custom logo that worked perfectly. With that, the exterior was more or less done, and the bus was sent out on a cross- country road trip. A. DEBORAH'S TOUR BUS INTERIOR. ILLUSTRATION. B. DEBORAH'S TOUR BUS INTERIOR. SET PHOTO. C. DEBORAH'S TOUR BUS. STAGE SET WITH CAB. D. DEBORAH'S TOUR BUS. CONSTRUCTION PLANS. E. DEBORAH'S TOUR BUS EXTERIOR WITH LOGO. PRODUCTION STILL. A B C D