Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1512164
O P P E N H E I M E R | P E R S P E C T I V E 1 4 1 board and, with Chris's support, downsized. Our graveyard of model pieces grew. We explored various ways to shrink build times and labor costs. Chris suggested Home Depot sheds in place of building some structures, particularly for distant buildings where scale could be cheated. He told me to continue to strip down the town and that he and Hoyte would utilize whatever I provided to make it look/feel larger than life. This was very hard to accept, but I knew I needed to trust them. Additionally, to further save, we began to reconsider the building interiors at the ranch, as it was proving cost-prohibitive to build both interiors and exteriors there. I didn't want to let go of the idea of having all of it easily accessible in our very own backlot, and I'd thought fewer moves would surely support this cause. But I took a solo trip back to Los Alamos and, upon a deeper exploration, pitched to Chris the idea of using the interiors at Los Alamos and marrying the exteriors to the Ghost Ranch location. While the modernity of the real Los Alamos had grated on Chris, many original structures, like the former boy's school where Project Y was set (Fuller Lodge, Bathtub Row, some lecture halls and dormitories) were still intact. We could intercut these structures with our Ghost Ranch town, no CGI, no green screen. It would require a move to the town versus an extra week at the Ranch, but it saved a lot in building and labor. It also enabled the cast to perform within the actual walls that Oppenheimer and his associates inhabited. As Cillian Murphy told The Washington Post, "There's something in the air and in the atoms of the place, and it confers a kind of responsibility on you, as a performer, and a responsibility on Chris also, as director. When you're shooting in these real places where the people you're portraying lived their lives, it adds a level of respect, and I think the audience subconsciously feels that." Chris was fully on board. Building Our World With budgets locked, the construction department helmed by Jonas Kirk had barely three months to build our Los Alamos, and in the dead of New Mexico winter, no less. With our cost engineering E. LT-SECTION BRIDGE BUILDINGS DRAWN BY NANCY DEREN. F. T-SECTION BUILDINGS BUILT ON LOCATION AT GHOST RANCH, NEW MEXICO. SET PHOTO. G. T-SECTION SECURITY CHECKPOINT INSIDE LOS ALAMOS. SET PHOTO. E F G