Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/716619
P E R S P E C T I V E | S E P T E M B E R / O C TO B E R 2 0 1 6 19 In the end, the Art Department didn't actually start the project until February 1, 2016. While that left almost twenty weeks of prep, the size and complexity of the design work ahead was daunting. The routine was familiar, designing/drawing/building/decorating approximately sixty-five sets, split between stage and location, but this film also required the design and construction of special vehicles (including the iconic Ecto I), lots of specialized weaponry (not just proton packs), ghosts and creatures to populate the story, graphics, signage, special effects, stunts, visual effects, Previs guidance and all the other trappings of a large-scale action comedy about the supernatural. Additionally, the Art Department would need to service the studio marketing department as it sought to position the project for opportunities in a variety of business endeavors. Suddenly, twenty weeks of prep didn't seem like much time at all. Early in prep, my grand ambitions were dealt a blow: rather than filming in New York City as I had hoped (and where the story takes place), the project was diverted to Boston, which would have to stand in for Manhattan. On the one hand, Paul and I were pleased that it wasn't Atlanta, as some studio executives had suggested, but it remained a disappointment because this story is so closely identified with New York City. It also meant another layer of complexity to maintain the look of one of the main characters in the story, Manhattan itself. Several scouting trips to New York were consequently re-labeled research trips, as the Art Department reorganized its plans around the new problem of cheating New England for Manhattan. "Single jokes will often drive the look and layout of a set, and the challenge then becomes to make the set work for the rest of the action, and not to give away the gag too soon." Boston offers many options in its architecture and city layout, and it has a general East Coast sensibility; however, it meant that the real identifying sets would have to be built on stage. Previous pages: A presentation sketch by Illustrator Tully Summers using ZBrush ® , Keyshot ® and Photoshop ® was key to planning the tone of the transformation we all had in mind for this location. Opposite page, top. Once the look of the building was designed, Art Director Lorin Flemming drew this SketchUp ® model, the first view of the EXT Ghostbusters Headquarters location, an important set that would drive the design of the most important interior of the movie, a constructed stage set. Center: Assistant Art Director Audra Avery created this sign layout in Photoshop, detailing the built signs that would dress the building façade, all of them either lightbox signs or lighted by practical sign lights. Numerous other signs were scattered onto surrounding buildings to provide light and color (and Chinatown context) to the neighborhood. Bottom left: One problem with this location was that there was nowhere for the Ecto car to live, and it seemed inappropriate that they would just park it at the curb. The solution was to add a boxy garage to one side. Right: The lab area of the headquarters. To emphasize the improvised nature of the lab (it is a fallback space the Ghostbusters are forced to go to when they get tossed out of their first lab), everything permanent in the room was visually part of the former restaurant, and everything they brought in was temporary- looking and repurposed for use in this lab. Above, clockwise from top left: A presentation sketch by Mr. Summers of a proton gun prototype. He modeled and compiled the design in ZBrush, worked with it in Keyshot to render out the images, and took a fi nal pass in Photoshop to add lighting effects and fl ares. A redesigned proton gun wand, now smaller and more comfortable to use, while delivering a more powerful proton stream. A laborious design process led to this fi nal detailed sketch by Annis Naeem of the Proton Pack. Early copies of the pack were uncomfortably heavy for the actors, and required further revisions to reduce weight and maintain a level of detail. Each pack had an array of built-in battery-powered LED lights to add color and the interior glow of the protonic energy that the unit contained. A fi nal sketch by Peter Rubin, modeled in Modo and rendered in ZBrush and Photoshop, of the updated Ecto 1. After early discussions to explore designing the Ecto as a radically different vehicle style, a decision was made to stay with the familiar idea from the fi rst movie, but update the model and add detail.