Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1514626
Our budget was never big enough for what we were setting out to do, so I would need to fall back on tricks I had learned when I was making smaller films when I was first starting out. I would also need to hire crew with the understanding that we were going to be budgetarily challenged. I started with the trusty set decorator I've been working with since True Detective season three, Markus Wittmann. He is an incredible artist and human. One of the funniest, kindest and talented people I have ever met. There is nothing we can't do together. Next, I hired an Art Director I had worked with before, Jeremy Woolsey, who is so funny and bendable. We then hired a prop master Jeremy had just worked with, Peter Dancy, who also did picture cars, and has tons of period experience in both. We also had on Alexander's old friend and collaborator, Nate Carlson, to do graphics. Nate and Alexander have worked together for over twenty years and have a shorthand that proved to be invaluable. We rounded out the crew with local construction coordinator Peter Wilcox, charge scenic Julia Garrison and Set Designer Anthony Raymond. I've learned I work best in an atmosphere that is based in encouragement and laughter, allowing each artist to have a voice, and feel free to add to the look. With a great crew in place, Alexander, Kai and I set out to build our world around Massachusetts. Alexander and I share the same filmmaking philosophy of creating with feeling and instinct and allowing ourselves to be open to change as needed and leading everything we do with kindness. It was very important to Alexander and I to spend a lot of time in the locations we chose, and absorb the spaces, and the people within them, this would inform what we would do in each. Set Dressing I came up as a set dresser and on-set dresser and learned a tremendous amount in these positions. I've always loved the creative world building of characters in their environments. It's always been very important to me to have the right things around, and also interests of the past, in piles, as people do. Our set dressing team, led by set decorator Markus Wittmann and leadman Vinnie Leblanc, had their hands full on this one. We three A. BARTON ACADEMY CREST. GRAPHIC LAYOUT BY NATE CARLSON. B. HEADMASTER'S OFFICE. SHOT ON LOCATION AT SAINT MARK'S SCHOOL. SET PHOTO. C. & D. PAUL'S CLASSROOM. SHOT ON LOCATION AT DEERFIELD ACADAMY, BOOKSHELF BUILT TO HIDE MODERN DOORS AND WHITEBOARD. SET PHOTOS. A B C D