Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1507937
That meant that, since no one was going to actually say what was going on, the production design and camera work had to do that job… So how does one tell all that backstory with only scenery? It starts off at the key point: finding about Brynn —who was she, why was she here, what had happened, and how did she deal with it. First off, there had to be a reason, after what had happened in her life, that she decided to stay in her house, even after her parents had passed. This meant that it had to be a wonderful, comfortable family home, deep with history and meaning to her. It also had to be situated far enough from other people that she felt safe from them—and so, logistically in the storytelling, no one else saw the aliens! The first trick, then, was finding that house—and making sure it felt like Brynn. Brian Duffield, the very talented writer-director, had written the script for the woods of Upstate New York, or at least somewhere north in the Appalachian Mountains. But, of course, tax credits took us to New Orleans. Given the inherent spookiness of the story, though, we didn't want to lean into standard Southern Gothic and scary swamps. We wanted the spookiness to come from the aliens. In a two-week search over the Christmas holidays (tight budget, tight schedule—as is everything these days), local location manager Matt McLellan tried desperately to keep within the Zone (that tight budget again…). However, everything on the south side of Lake Pontchartrain is just swamp, or the homes are French or Cajun. And nothing on the North Shore was working—too sterile for Brynn to feel it was special, too big for her to take care of it herself, too close to the neighbors, and/or not enough woods to hide sightlines and feel remote when the aliens came. On the last day of scouting, as we were leaving the last house, deciding that we were just going to have to settle with less than ideal (or even, really, good), Matt's location partner, Leonard Reynolds, sent through a house he had just found and that B. LOCATION PHOTO OF BRYNN'S HOUSE BY RAMSEY AVERY. NESTLING BRYNN'S HOUSE IN A COMFORTABLE, PRIVATE AND VERY LOVELY SPOT, BUT ONE THAT COULD ALSO FEEL LONELY AND SPOOKY, WAS A KEY COMPONENT OF CHOOSING THE RIGHT LOCATION. C. EXT. BRYNN'S HOUSE, UNREAL MODEL STUDY BY JAIME SALAZAR, SHOWING CONSTRUCTION (DORMERS AND CHIMNEYS, AMONG OTHERS) AND GREENS ADDITIONS TO MAKE THE LOCATION FIT OUR STORY AND EMOTIONAL NEEDS. B C