Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1533577
and built a 20-foot-wide wall that capped off a giant wing of the mine and had a small opening for the characters to sneak into. This sculpted rock wall was fitted into place so the characters could hide deep inside, creating suspense. We brought that same plug to Atlanta to shoot them entering the set onstage from the inside. For the Colorado section, the freezing cold made the work difficult. Paint foreman Chip Mena asked me to stop on the drive up one day and bring him antifreeze. "What for?" I asked. "I mix it to the paint so it won't freeze."… yes, it was that cold. At the end of the day, we had a successful shoot in the mines and it looked great. After the mines, they finally reach Boulder and the hospital. The exterior was a real hospital already slated for demolition so it had piles of rubble, crushed walls and destruction. We added a few wrecked cars in the parking lot. Nate Carlson, the talented Graphic Designer, generated signage for this and other sets to show the decay of the human race and the irony of the optimism once shared by all, which enhanced the dreary mood. The hospital interior was in Atlanta. This building was perfectly decrepit, you would never know it was once a bustling hospital. We were able to take in electric chainsaws to carve it up and obliterate the walls and ceiling as if it had been rampaged by the reapers. Shelly Johnson created a dark environment and it looked great filled with smoke. Art Director Sally SangHee Bae had the responsibility of living with that set. It took five days to shoot and each day there was a new obstacle. All the windows needed to be covered with window film from Astek, the implication was we had to feel as if were still in the Rockies, not Atlanta. We wanted to portray the hospital as having been ransacked by the reapers, so we threw furniture everywhere, crushed it and Chris Armistead and crew ran electric chainsaws through everything, exposing all sorts of infrastructure. In the end, it was perfect! Their final stop was Nina's lab. We shot the exterior in Colorado and the interior in Atlanta at a working lab. The exterior (for all you movie buffs) is the National Center for Atmospheric Research, the same location Woody Allen shot Sleeper. (Production Design by Dale Hennesy.) I love that film and am so glad we got to shoot there. Permission to shoot there was at first a hard "no" from the state, but somehow George Nolfi knew a guy who knew a guy, and we were able work it out. Apparently, it had once been the location of the world's largest computer, back in the '70s. A. SKI LIFT REFERENCE IMAGE. B. SKI LIFT STAGE SET. HALF- INCH SCALE BALSA MODEL. C. SKI LIFT STAGE SET. SKETCHUP MODEL BY NATE DAHLKEMPER. D. CAVE WALL IN PROGRESS AT EDGAR MINES COLORADO LOCATION. SET PHOTO. E. & F. CAVE INTERIORS. COLORADO LOCATIONS. G. HOSPITAL EXTERIOR. COLORADO LOCATION. H. HOSPITAL ENTRANCE GRAPHIC BY NATE CARLSON. SET PHOTO. I. HOSPITAL INTERIOR. ATLANTA LOCATION. SET PHOTO. J. NINA'S LAB EXTERIOR. NATIONAL CENTER FOR ATMOSPHERIC RESEARCH IN COLORADO. LOCATION PHOTO. G H I J