Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/891583
The McAllan house required an attached lean-to shed and a barn structure with specific geography for the story. Using reclaimed wood and old corrugated tin, we added the shed. The barn was placed across the dirt road from the house against beautiful live oaks that once had been the site of the plantation's sugar mill. I did not have an Art Director or any Set Designers, just my own arm waving and pencils. Outhouses, fencing, chicken coops and boardwalks were all constructed with a "grab what you can" method from my drawings and plans, which were one step above the proverbial Art Director's lunchtime "napkin sketches." We also built the Jackson family's church among the oaks, snakes and mosquitos residing in the rubble of the plantation's sugar mill. Lead scenic Steve Kerlagon and his paint foreman, Andree Lago, used their expert abilities to tie in the new with the perfectly deteriorated old. In the McAllan house, Steve and his crew painted, distressed and glazed the entire interior, tying in new construction and still maintaining color variations compiled from innumerable occupants over a century of habitation, giving it a cohesive look and emotion. The Jackson cabin was similarly aged, adding old newsprint as insulation to cover the spaces between the plank walls. A B C