Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/747534
Right: This is one of Kathryn Yingling's first completed renderings of the town of Rose Creek. It's probably the sixth version after color changes, details and so on. The view is from the East, over the church that plays a major part in the story. Below, left: Once the site in Louisiana had been selected, a 2oo-acre cow pasture north of Baton Rouge, we came up with this layout of the town, drawn by Sean Jennings, to propose to Antoine. Right: Story poles were placed with the buildings and streets marked out so that everyone could see what we were planning; kind of that "Speak now or forever hold your peace moment." Bottom: The Panascout app that I use with my iPhone. I adjust the lens and frame to the format that the cinematographer plans on using, and then I take photographs to show my crew the framing. The Rose Creek main street at the start of construction. Once a deal for the location was solidified, the Art Department went there to mark out the streets and place the buildings in a rough layout of the town using story poles—tall poles with markings—to position the streets and structures. This created a full-scale visual representation of what we had planned, and allowed Antoine to see what his town would look like. The layout then allowed a road-construction company to build the necessary access into the town in order to get equipment and materials to the location. As seems to happen with more frequency nowadays, prep was not sufficient for the scale of this project...so we improvised. While the site work was underway by the road contractor, time was gained pre-building sets in a parking lot near the shop. This even included basic paint and aging, with only the final touches applied after it was set up on the location. I am convinced that this was the only way that two complete new Western towns could be ready to shoot in the six weeks between securing the location and the start of filming. One of the other towns designed and built in Louisiana was Amador City, the first of many stops along the journey to find the Magnificent Seven. It had to have a completely different look from Rose Creek, but it first started out in a different area of that same property, one where a street could be made through the trees, adding buildings to fit the space. After discussions with Antoine, it became clear he wanted something more along the lines of High Plains Drifter, so a new location was