Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1526889
1 0 P E R S P E C T I V E | S E P T E M B E R / O C T O B E R 2 0 2 4 The production filled Stage 5 at Cinecittà with Tom's NYC transient hotel room, halls, bathroom and downstairs entry at one end the stage, and his opulent Rome apartment at the other. These were the first scenes filmed. In addition, we built the ground floor stairwell and cage elevator of Tom's Rome apartment for a day of "catwork," the interior of Marge's house, Tom's basement pensione room in Palermo, interior train compartments, a portion of the Naples/Palermo ferry exterior and the Rome record shop. I hired Concept Illustrator Francesco Sereni in November of 2019 and lost him when production resumed in 2021. I patiently waited three months until he became available again, at which point he turned out an enormous amount of work and was an indispensable collaborator. I'm so proud of how my original location images, used as starting points for illustrations, were faithfully recreated on screen time and again. NYC I've been based out of New York since the early eighties, and like just about everywhere else I work, finding a good "period" street gets harder and harder. It was weeks before we found ourselves on Madison Street on the Lower East Side. It was the two buildings pictured above that won me over—and the sight of the Manhattan Bridge in the background. Surrounding streets and Mechanics Alley perfectly filled out Tom's neighborhood, with terrific construction, painting and dressing by our New York crews. On the other hand, I feel we had great success with landmark buildings like the Farley Post Office, Williamsburg Savings Bank (the only one of the four banks in the series that had actually been A. TOM'S NYC NEIGHBORHOOD. CONCEPT ILLUSTRATION BY FRANCESCO SERENI. B. TOM'S NYC NEIGHBORHOOD. PRODUCTION STILL. C. INTERIOR TOM'S SRO HOTEL. BUILT ON STAGE 5, CINECITTÀ, ROME. PRODUCTION STILL. D. TOM'S NYC HOTEL ROOM. SET PHOTO. E. TOM'S NYC HOTEL ROOM. STAGE 5, CINECITTÀ. PRODUCTION STILL. F. INTERIOR NYC BANK. CREATED AT WILLIAMSBURG SAVINGS BANK, NYC. G. ATRANI. SET PHOTO. H. ATRANI PIAZZA. PRODUCTION STILL. I. DICKIE'S ATRANI VILLA. FILMED AT VILLA TORRICELLA, CAPRI. BUILT IN 1902 BY AMERICAN COUSINS KATE AND SAIDEE WOLCOTT- PERRY. PRODUCTION STILL. J. INTERIOR DICKIE'S ATRANI VILLA. FILMED AT VILLA TORRICELLA, CAPRI. PRODUCTION STILL. K. INTERIOR MARGE'S HOUSE. BUILT ON STAGE AT CINECITTÀ. SET PHOTO. A B C E D F