Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/974985
T H E A L I E N I S T | P E R S P E C T I V E 8 3 D most of the assets, existing streets and the historic interiors still intact in New York would be utilized. I spent a few months with the location team of Amanda Foley and Dan Welch scouring the state for period appropriate locations. The scripts were averaging over thirty new locations per episode (not including our amortized sets!), so the need to create a massive library of any and all viable location options was paramount. While I was scouting and continuing design work with a handful of Set Designers now spread amongst New Orleans, Montreal and New York, Cary and the writers were attempting to reduce the scripts to a level that would aid in the ongoing budget woes of the show. Unfortunately, the same reality kept hitting home, no matter how much the scripts were reduced, the show was repeatedly coming in over budget. Just when I thought my days on The Alienist were coming to an end, like so many before me, a Hail Mary was thrown by the line producer at the time; the play she offered up—don't make it New York, make it in Budapest. My initial reaction was one of frustration as I envisioned another six months of solitary exploration of the world in search of period New York, but then I saw the location package from Hungary. Suddenly, so many hurdles that had seemed insurmountable had a viable solution. The decadent, Gilded Age interiors had fantastic location options in Hungary, and construction numbers were considerably lower than anywhere else. So I got on a plane and headed to Budapest. After one week of intensive scouting, I called up the producers and Cary to give them the report— the show had found its home. In a surprising coincidence, 1896 was the 1,000-year anniversary of the Magyars coming to Hungary. They had built prolifically in the decades leading up to that anniversary, and at a level of opulence and decadence that rivaled New York's own Gilded Age. Though Hungary had so much to offer, it was clear that a fairly large backlot would still be needed to accommodate the number of exterior street sequences that the ten episodes required. I broke down all the scripts into the fewest number of street typologies, and what emerged was the need for four street environments: D. AERIAL PHOTO OF THE COMBINED BACKLOT UNDER CONSTRUCTION AT AN OVERFLOW BACKLOT AREA ACROSS THE STREET FROM ORIGO STUDIOS IN BUDAPEST, HUNGARY. PHOTO BY PARAMOUNT STUDIOS.