Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1521244
9 6 P E R S P E C T I V E | M AY / J U N E 2 0 2 4 artwork created by her mother, Shan Goshorn, a known Cherokee artist who had recently passed away. The casting department's Loren Waters gave us photos of her grandparents. My aunts provided their late mother's "hunk wall," a faded collage of myriad Bon Jovi and Marlon Brando clippings kept in her laundry room for over thirty years. We wanted to make her bedroom a joy-filled space and show that there was life happening in this house even though someone was passing onto the other side." Maximus While the first two seasons of the show explored spaces in Okern, the third season started with Bear, one of the main characters, on a journey from California back to Oklahoma. Along the way, he encounters Maximus, a reclusive, alien conspiracy prone elder played by legendary actor Graham Greene. The concept was something recognizable—a hermit living off the grid—but, as with every space on the show, we aimed to make it specific to our Reservation Dogs world and the cultural niche it occupied. Chris and I scouted isolated homes in rural parts of Oklahoma and came up with some great options, but nothing felt totally right. It's unclear how in touch with reality Maximus is and what's outlandish truth versus delusion. The sets needed to evoke an environment that felt intimidating and dangerous at first glance but, as the episode goes on, could also convey the intimacy and warmth of an Indigenous elder's space. While scouting locations, we came upon an isolated house on the back edge of someone's property in the middle of the countryside. It was barely standing, obviously having endured a small fire followed by years of neglect. But there was a beauty in how alone it was, how it was frozen in a moment of trauma. I pitched the idea of bringing a trailer over from another area of the property to sit next to the house and Sterlin loved it. We came up with the story that Maximus grew up living in the house with his family and when his parents passed on and the house fell into disrepair, he moved a trailer over and started living in it, still tethered to the past. Of course, then we still had to design and dress a dilapidated trailer into something as layered and meaningful as the story deserved. The crew reconstructed and carpeted the floors, milled and installed custom paneling, and added vintage wallpaper to create some visual chaos with the different textures and to get a sense of the accumulation of time in the space. Tafv Sampson: "We always shunned stock art but here especially we wanted to find unique pieces that specifically spoke to the land and culture— artwork that hinted at what trails of thought a character like Maximus might be wandering down alone. Every detail in the trailer was meant to not only tell Maximus' story, but also resonate with the cast and crew in the space. American Indian Movement protest posters from the 1970s speak to his past (which would be revealed in a future episode), film negatives on the wall are of artwork by my grandfather (who is Muscogee Creek from Okmulgee), and blankets were sourced from local families." No matter what we were building or dressing, our priority was always to source from the community and collaborate with local artists and craftspeople. When we needed blow darts for Maximus' trailer, we worked with local artist John Brown, who not only hunts and sources his materials from the land, but also holds classes that keep the traditional ways of fabrication alive. When we needed beaded medallions, we turned to Molly Murphy Adams, an Oglala and Lakota artist and scholar who not only crafted beautiful, iconic pieces but also gave us the information and supplies to dress the house of Auntie B. And when we needed a blanket for a character's coffin in an emotionally charged funeral scene, Dana Tiger loaned us a family quilt sewn by her grandmother based on a painting by her grandfather. What initially seemed like a challenge, working in rural Oklahoma without traditional prop houses turned out to be a powerful gift. It led us to continually consider how we could source things in the most meaningful way and forge the deepest connections in the process. We were extremely fortunate to collaborate with artists from the community, whose work imbued the spaces with rich details beyond anything we could have otherwise A. MAXIMUS' TRAILER, CREATED TO APPEAR AT FIRST GLANCE LIKE THE HOME OF A POTENTIALLY DANGEROUS RECLUSE AND UPON FURTHER EXAMINATION LIKE A WARM, LIVED IN ELDER'S SPACE. PRODUCTION STILL. B. MAXIMUS' TRAILER. SWIRLING STAR CHARTS ON THE WALLS TO TELL THE STORIES OF "STAR PEOPLE." VINTAGE WALLPAPER AND OTHER TOUCHES VISUALLY REPRESENT THE ACCUMULATION OF TIME. PRODUCTION STILL. C. MAXIMUS' TRAILER WAS PARKED NEXT TO THE ABANDONED HOUSE TO TELL HIS CHARACTER''S STORY OF BEING TETHERED TO THE PAST. BEHIND THE HOUSE (NOT PICTURED), THE CREW BUILT A GREENHOUSE, A STONE WALLED WORKSHOP BUILDING, AND OTHER ELEMENTS OF HIS COMPOUND. Brandon Tonner-Connolly, Production Designer Matt Hyland, Art Director Shana McKay Burns, Noelle C. Thomas, Set Designers Katsuya Imai, Illustrator Sarah Jensen, Graphic Artist Tafv Sampson, Set Decorator