Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1526889
Brooklyn, when the journalists drive to where an entire community is rioting over the availability of drinking water, Alex wanted to visually telegraph that they were about to enter a tense zone. We disguised all the existing fire hydrants and added broken, dry hydrants for the driving run. A recently bombed building was needed for this street. A church was too early in the story. A daycare center was way too early and too much. We made it a deli. Not everyone goes to church or has kids, but anyone breathing in New York has their deli. If someone destroys your mom- and-pop go-to, they have ripped off your normal and left a raw gap that everyone feels. We didn't have a specific site locked, and time was tight (ten days to shooting). The film's construction coordinator proposed using shipping containers for the structure—portable, cheap, burns well. The crew installed the twisted shell of the deli, with masses of debris and a charred shade tree on the sidewalk. Under the tree was a makeshift memorial dedicated to people who were killed in the still smoking blast. On the first day we shot there, the security guard who had been literally minding the store all night told us that a homeless lady had wandered through very late and thought our set was real. She asked if she could have some of the flowers from the shrine's wreaths. She had just lost a friend and had no money. I'm proud to say that the guard said yes to her. The script did not shy away from portraying carnage, hate, hostility and fear. These characters chose to witness horrors, but never seemed to lose their hope. Alex wrote a world the audience sees through journalists' eyes and hears what they hear. The war is raging, dark and bitter, but the journalists are not. That had to be reflected in the design process. The scene at the gas station and car wash was brutal. It was the one that put the most ice in my veins. It wasn't so much the still living tortured men hanging from the car wash rafters. It was a more subtly crafted scenario. The dialogue that Lee had with the threatening proprietor where she is negotiating the price of fuel was chilling: Lee: Three hundred over the odds for half a tank and two cans. Proprietor: Three hundred buys you a sandwich. We have ham or cheese. Lee: Three hundred Canadian. She said this without a beat, and the excruciating question here is: How did this country, how did America get to this point? Driving away from the torture scene, Lee responds to a shaken Jessie: "Once you start asking yourself those questions, you can't stop. So we don't ask. We record so other people ask…that's the job." The Art Department's job was to gather the scattered chaos of war and connect all the disparate parts into a seamless journey. We were immersed in a devasted world that wasn't meant to be pretty, but DP Rob Hardy was able to compose gorgeous images from bloodied bodies and burned cars. A. & B. GAS STATION AND CAR WASH. SET PHOTOS. C. HIGHWAY WITH ABANDONED VEHICLES. SET PHOTO. D. WRECKED HELICOPTER IN PROGRESS. E. HELICOPTER BODY PLACED IN STRIP MALL LOT. SET PHOTO. F. ESMERELDA TENDING TO HER BROOD. G. STRIP MALL WRECKAGE. SET PHOTO. VFX ADDED BACKGROUND LAYERS OF SMOKING SKYLINE. A B