Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1521244
matter and the delicacy with which we all wanted to approach it, we still had a standard TV timetable to turn around our work and two days to shoot it all. We wanted to ensure the episode had its own identity within the three-year series, so I worked with director Danis Goulet and cinematographer Mark Schwartzbard to conceive a unique visual aesthetic inspired by '70s horror movies—long lenses, slow zooms, deep shadows and a palpable sense of dread. Using genre references gave the weighty subject matter a more digestible visual language. Rather than lean on cinéma vérité- style grittiness, the episode employs fantastical, dreamlike qualities. We wanted it to feel more like a memory than a documentary. The very talented Katsuya Imai came on to make some renders based on the research and then the crew went to work on the dorm room. We milled and installed a period-appropriate hardwood floor with a very high gloss so it kicked back some moonlight during the night scenes and added to the dreamlike aesthetic. We also milled and installed custom wood paneling to give the walls a deep, dark, confining feeling. We wanted to incorporate small details wherever we could, like decorative crosses on our plinth blocks that edge out the wood paneling. We wanted the symbols of power to be omnipresent for the viewer just as they would have been for the kids in the school. For the classroom set, the only available space had completely raw walls, down to the Sheetrock, which led the crew to build it out with custom paneling and chalk boards accurate to the period. The sculpted rock hearth in the mess hall was built from stones sent from dozens of Army bases and boarding schools around the country, and it served as a monument to the horror of these schools, as well as a focal point for the massive space. Set Decorator Tafv Sampson: "As always on the show, the community in Oklahoma supported the show's work and helped us in the search for the details that would do the story justice. The beds were sourced from a former boarding school and the desks came from a museum that had preserved them from the period. The benches in the mess hall were custom made with wood from a 100-year-old, A B C