Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1546033
What we did not find as a location were any interior hangars we could use for our story, so we planned a mostly VFX solution. By the time we resumed shooting after the shutdown from the strikes, our schedule would take us well into 2025. We discovered that the period-correct hangars at Downsview Airport were to be vacated by Bombardier Aerospace in April, and we would be able to shoot in them. We created two full-sized cut-out B-52 silhouettes that hung from the structure, with one wing to cast the correct shadow that would later be replaced by VFX. Once lighting was complete and with the appropriate depth of field, the distant cutout created the illusion of planes parked in the hangar. The DAFB interiors were mostly built on stage. There were plenty of references for what the interior of the Strategic Air Command Center could look like. It seemed that sometime between 1961 and 1963, they switched from very large whiteboards to overhead projectors. Andy preferred the latter. In order to get the luminosity from the overhead projectors, we hid strong digital projectors in the wall behind them and cheated the source of the images. With a little post cleanup, you couldn't tell the source. The interior barracks and the offices of the headquarters were both built on stage, based on exteriors found on location at Camp Borden. An important set piece spanning three episodes was the Black Spot. It was a place given over to the Black airman to create their own place to relax, and it ends up as the setting for a horrific, racially motivated sequence. This set was to go through far more iterations than planned, not only because of strikes, but also because we had to show the structure in varying states. The structure was ultimately to be shown as burnt to the ground. It was a scheduling nightmare as we had to shoot it pre-burned, then burnt, then reinstated to adhere to the production schedule of two separate directors and episodes. We also built a third, more stripped-out version within a black box to contain the smoke, fire bars and lighting effects. E. THE BLACK SPOT INTERIOR BUILT ON STAGE, CINESPACE STUDIOS, SET PHOTO. F. THE BLACK SPOT POST BURN, BUILD ON LOCATION, SET PHOTO. G. 11908 CARNIVAL SIDESHOW ENTRANCE, GRAPHIC DESIGN BY JOHN MORAN IN PHOTOSHOP/ ILLUSTRATOR AND ILLUSTRATIONS BY THERESA SHAIN IN PHOTOSHOP. H. 1908 CARNIVAL BUILD ON LOCATION, SET PHOTO. E F G H