Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1531774
9 - 1 - 1 : L O N E S T A R | P E R S P E C T I V E 6 3 the fire but, over the five seasons of Lone Star, the outside world kept turning up the heat. We had to create sets that were larger than life, but in real life—daily—often with masks and shields on, but without enough sleep, affordable lumber or man days. Designing disasters that didn't become production disasters was no small task when much of the real world was faced with its own disasters (COVID, strikes, etc.). To cut my teeth as an Art Director on a show like Lone Star, spanning 2019 to 2024, drove home how important the human aspect of our job as Art Directors really, truly is. I found that to "direct the art" is to direct my own energy, artfully; to communicate, nurture and inspire the best work out of people, so that it's not just work but art. Keeping the Train on the Tracks I found a few effective ways to do this in practice. One was to think rationally but communicate with others' emotions in mind. Another was to constantly put myself in the shoes of everyone I was working with and ask questions like: Does everyone really understand what they need to do? What the plan is? Or are they being macho and pretending to understand (because that's the culture of the show) and they don't want to look bad? How can I actually be helpful? When it came to prepping the train wreck sequence for example, confusion was running rampant. Losing multiple train wreck locations set the crew behind. Things were fuzzy but it was still full steam ahead. Lone Star's disaster sets often complicated the standard "before/after" duality. The "before" was a moving, 11-car train, shot on sections of track in Fillmore, with several of the cars functioning as their own sets with interior and exterior action. The "after" set was actually three different versions of the debris field with added layers of debris to reflect the damage done by not one but two tanker explosions. Adding to the confusion were the "after" versions of five of the eleven established train cars we shot in Fillmore (one engine, two cargo cars and two tankers) that each spawned their own rescues or explosions. This meant we needed to build several replicas of the five hero cars to accommodate various wide shots, stunts and SPFX work. Confusing, right? It was clear everyone was struggling to make sense of it all. The one-liner was helpful but also misleading, as it had too many slug lines imported from the script that used the same scene headings like "Ext. Debris Field" for what were really different versions of the debris field. Was it the version that needed ten truckloads B. TRAIN CAR DETAILS DESIGNED TO HELP THE PRODUCTION KEEP TRACK OF THE TRAIN CAR VERSIONS AND THE ORDER IN WHICH THESE PRACTICAL CARS NEEDED TO BE IN WHILE SHOOTING THE MOVING TRAIN IN FILLMORE. C. WRECK SITE MODEL WITH THE TERRAIN ACCURATELY REFLECTED IN ORDER TO GAUGE THE PROS AND CONS OF THE LOCATION'S GEOGRAPHY. ULTIMATELY, THIS PARTICULAR MODEL HELPED US RULE OUT THE LOCATION DUE TO CRANE ACCESSIBILITY ISSUES. B C