Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1495092
CGI? Through relentless location searching, I came across a stone gothic castle built in 1926 in the Lancaster desert, and there was just enough architecture to afford shooting in camera without greenscreen work. Joanna Bush illustrated the concept of the freshly built exotic mansion, including a single FX shot via ILM adding turrets and towers. Set Designer Chris Cortner modeled the set extension for the establishing shot and developed an elaborate 27-foot-tall entrance to the ballroom in front of the original garage as an extension of the house to tie in with the interior ballroom. Jason Perrine oversaw the set and greensman Alex Sessing re- landscaped the entire exterior to emulate a freshly planted garden with baby palms and cypress. The interior of Wallach's ballroom had been planned as a costly built set, but once the creative team stepped into the lavish Spanish Gothic foyer of the Ace Theatre, we instantly felt that it would provide us with the opulence and spatial geography needed for the bacchanal party that sprawls through Wallach's home. The design challenge was to convert the foyer into a residential ballroom. I studied mansion ballrooms and identified elements we could incorporate to transform the space. Set Designer Luis Hoyos drew up magnificent gothic doors to cover the openings that led into the theater, and a massive double- door entrance into the ballroom with a plaster header that seamlessly blended into the existing architecture. The set's color palette was influenced by the blues and reds in the original hand-painted cathedral ceilings and the golden hue emitted from the location's 100-year-old plaster patina. Set decorator Anthony Carlino sourced multiple gothic furnishings from Belgium, and custom tables were manufactured to withstand the heavy stunt and dance work—among other things—on and around them. Lead Graphic Artist Kerry Hyatt designed a beautiful floor emblem inlay on tiled parquet floors, sourced to cover the carpet for a final ode to the opulence of the Wallach-mandated space. More decadent still was the home's master bedroom; Damien wanted it to feel like the E. EXTERIOR DON WALLACH'S MANSION. SET PHOTO BY SCOTT GARFIELD. F. DON WALLACH'S BALLROOM. PRODUCTION STILL. G. WALLACH BALLROOM FLOOR INLAY. GRAPHIC LAYOUT BY KERRY HYATT. E F G