Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1514626
line producer Fernando Victoria de Lecea and his logistics team worked from the Art Department layouts to run underground electrical and plumbing lines. We flattened the fields with steamrollers and covered the ground with finely crushed red stone from a nearby quarry to get the desert hardpan, so drainage was a concern as well. We thought we had planned for everything, but late-season rains were sudden and severe. What we estimated for drainage wasn't enough and we had a couple of Lost in La Mancha-style washouts during filming. Lighting was a major element of the look in Asteroid City. Afterall, the brutal desert sun is called out in the dialogue and a large part of why we were in Spain to begin with. Robert Yeoman and I have worked together on many films with Wes and were talking about how to expose for the interiors without using a lot of movie lights, as Wes wanted the place to feel while filming like a little town in the desert and not a film studio. But to hold exposure on the exteriors while shooting inside meant a lot of light. We ended up making huge skylights in all of the interiors. Most of the luncheonette's roof came away in panels revealing a full hidden skylight. The observatory's ceiling is an oversized eggcrate with diffusion above but no actual roof at all. These skylights allowed us to shoot quickly and with a minimum of lighting A. THE LUNCHEONETTE INTERIOR. SET PHOTO BY OCTAVIO TAPIA. B. THE ALIEN DAY CARNIVAL. SET PHOTO BY ROGER DO MINH. A B