Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1512164
four hours a day, filling every second until camera took over the stage. We rented the best Oval Office stock set we could find and began the arduous task of putting the puzzle pieces back together. Jim Hewitt drew up a Cabinet Room in record time, and we hacked the plug walls we'd built for the Nixon Library into some semblance of a set, to get as close as we could to the location we'd promised. Grip and electric performed no small miracle, rigging and lighting an entire stage while still giving other crafts their time to work. Greens pulled together the most beautiful Rose Garden. (Mind you, all of this was happening as we continued to prep and shoot a multitude of locations downtown and in Pasadena.) The cooperation among the production as a whole to accomplish the impossible was truly something to see. A Poetic Ending Coming out of the scramble of the White House debacle and the stress of being pulled all over the city, our final LA location was Room 2022. After the chaos of the first fifty days of shooting, ending in this cramped, practical location felt very out of pace. In many ways, a perfect echo to the story itself; after the scramble of the nuclear arms race, Oppenheimer found himself being interrogated in a small, inconspicuous and innocuous-seeming room. No pomp, no circumstance. And so we began wrapping up production in a similarly derelict, banal building in Alhambra—a room whose dimensions lent to the discomfort of the scene in a way that most had hoped we could cheat. Our final swan song was in Berkeley, where a condensed crew took over the UC Berkeley campus for a day and brought the institution back in time. I've come to realize that no matter what the project is, filmmaking is a team sport—a collaboration on all fronts. There is a give-and- take that is necessary for the survival of the picture; staying open is the key, and pivots are unavoidable. Looking back, I understand what made Oppenheimer work, what made it successful was that malleability from the entire cast and crew. The dedication to Chris's vision at the highest level without compromising. It didn't matter that we had a specific budget and a specific timeline, what mattered was how we dealt with those constraints. ADG C. HERO GRAPHICS DESIGNED BY HILARY AMENT. D. & E. WASHINGTON D.C., ROOM 2022. DRESSED ON LOCATION IN ALHAMBRA, CA. PRODUCTION STILLS BY MELINDA SUE GORDON. Ruth De Jong, Production Designer Samantha Englender, Super vising Art Director Jake Cavallo, Anthony D. Parrillo, Art Directors Roxy Hua, Robert Aguirre, Assistant Art Directors Jim Hewitt, Nancy Deren, Noelle King, Tammy S. Lee, Easton Smith, Set Designers Adam Gelbart, Model Maker Hilar y Ament, Lead Graphic Artist Kerr y Hyatt, Joshua Sankar, Graphic Artists Claire Kaufman, Set Decorator C D E