Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/891583
P E R S P E C T I V E | N OV E M B E R / D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 7 79 what needs to be done according to the schedule. Another benefit of being on the scout is that I can make suggestions to the Production Designer that might help establish the scene. For example, there is a new home construction site in Suburbicon that I thought would benefit from a billboard advertising the idealism of buying a home there. It helped explain what was being built, and was a chance to develop the film's theme of "things are not always what they seem." I always look for opportunities to help clarify the story. The following outlines just a few of the many graphic projects in this film. Karger 's Grocery. Grocery stores are filled to the brim with advertising, signage, point-of-purchase displays, and of course, products. Until faced with reproducing one, it is easy to take for granted the complexity and immense number of items that are needed to make it look real. Especially when you cannot buy modern products. We would need to design, rent or reproduce everything. When designing, I'm looking to make the set look great, not necessarily to show off my skills as a designer. Working with set decorator Jan Pascale, I scoured eBay for labels and boxes that we could reproduce. Luckily, I found someone who was selling period labels for canned goods who had done high-resolution scans that we could use. We bought cereal boxes, cookie containers, displays, bread wrappers and old butter boxes—you name it. I set up a Pinterest page for items to buy as it automatically links to eBay. This meant the entire set decoration department could easily see the purchases. Things poured in from all over the country, every day, to help fill out the grocery store set. I cleaned up and sized the labels, and Jan's team had them manufactured and put on the cans. Rather than use traditional film resources, it turned out to be cheaper to go to a real food packing plant to have the labels made and adhered. To do this, the cans had to be filled with food so they wouldn't bounce around in the automated machinery, so all the cans in the store, no matter what the label said, were filled with tomatoes. Ten thousand cans of tomatoes, which were later donated to charity. A. This photo shows the register numbers lead man Brent Rice and I made at the last minute to complete the scene at Karger's Grocery store. B. A shot of Karger's Grocery when I made my "something's missing" discovery, the Friday before shooting. C. Product can labels made for Karger's Grocery. D. Another view of Karger's Grocery. This photo also shows the custom linoleum floor printed for the scene. I did this in Photoshop using a very tiny scrap from the location. E. "Grocery Specials" posters designed for the exterior of Karger's Grocery store using fonts I developed from old sign-writing books. F. A close-up of the sign for the pickle display in Karger's Grocery shows the imperfect details of the hand-drawn fonts I designed. G. One of the many vehicles in the movie, this one at the shopping center. All the bus stop signs across the whole movie were coordinated to work together. E F G