Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1539634
The Neighborhoods: Manufactured Comfort For the residential areas, the production found an immaculately maintained suburban community in Santa Clarita with shared green spaces, pocket neighborhoods and Cape Cod-inspired architecture. The uniformity made perfect sense for Paradise's urban planning—a town designed to sustainably house thirty-five thousand handpicked residents with room for families to grow. In this community was Xavier's home, which sat in a picture-perfect cul-de-sac. Although the exteriors were ideal, the interiors were too small to support the production's shooting needs. Knowing we'd need these spaces throughout the season, we built all the home interiors on stage at Paramount Studios. These homes served a psychological purpose too. Considering the trauma these survivors had experienced, a neutral color palette was chosen with no hard edges and light wood tones. This aesthetic repeated throughout the community, subtly conveying the limited choices available in the bunker. To blend the Warner Bros. backlot with the Santa Clarita neighborhoods, I chose a prefab- designed community layout in Bridgeport which had a character that aligned closely with our idyllic backlot town square—that did a lot of the heavy lifting. The Art Department unified these three locations through consistent color palettes and infrastructure details: community notice boards, wristband-activated security systems on every door, covered carports instead of garages, prominent air conditioning vents and the absence of gas-powered vehicles. The same style mailboxes, street signs and countless other elements appeared throughout all locations, reinforcing the controlled uniformity of Paradise. The white picket fence vibe of Santa Clarita married perfectly with our transformed main street. For continuity between the stage-built interiors and location exteriors, we carefully matched architectural details—crown moldings, window trim profiles, and hardware finishes. Our on- stage builds replicated the exact wall colors and flooring materials seen in the location work, ensuring seamless transitions between exterior and interior shots. E. DEE'S DINER. RENDERING OF PARAMOUNT BACKLOT IN CINEMA 4D BY KEVIN BIRD. F. PARADISE TOWN CENTER ON WARNER BROS. BACKLOT. SET PHOTO. G. XAVIER'S HOME. SET PHOTO. H. XAVIER'S HOME. PHOTOSHOP PAINTING BY ANDRÉS PARADA OVER 3D MODEL BY KEVIN BIRD. F E G H