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 5 E D. DETAIL OF THE KREIZLER HOUSE PARLOR FIREPLACE. SET DESIGN BY BEÁTA VAVRINECZ. E. PHOTO OF THE KREIZLER HOUSE INTERIOR STAIRCASE AND LANDING ON STAGE 3 AT ORIGO STUDIOS. PHOTO BY MARA LEPERE- SCHLOOP. F. PHOTO OF THE KREIZLER HOUSE INTERIOR SET LIVING ROOM BUILT ON STAGE 3 AT ORIGO STUDIOS. PHOTO BY PARAMOUNT STUDIOS. D F with the need for digital extensions above. It was a blessing, but it also meant the Art Department had to design, structure and build six-story buildings in what had become almost ten city blocks. Led by the Art Direction of Rob Cowper (UK), Bence Erdélyi (Hungary), Gergely Rieger (Hungary) and James Truesdale (USA), the backlot design machine was a massive, cumbersome beast. The deadline and the lack of crew in Europe because of capacity issues meant using Set Designers all over the world working day and night. Construction practices in Hungary also dictated that there could not be a single construction crew for the show, but would instead require bidding every project to a variety of different construction houses and divide the work in the most cost and build efficient strategy that could be mustered. This meant adding an additional two-to-six weeks for bidding and negotiation on every one of the sets. In the end, the backlot had three different construction/ paint companies building simultaneously, and for continuity of finishes the hugely talented charge scenic, Richard Riggs (USA), was brought in. The backlot was engineered to have actual excavated basements, is larger than the New York backlot at Paramount Studios in Los Angeles, and is supposedly the largest backlot ever built in Europe. In an incredible feat, it was built in 165 days, on schedule and on budget. The crazy thing about The Alienist is that the backlot was only the tip of the iceberg in terms of the number of sets and locations needed. The backlot only accounted for about twenty percent of the filming. It was difficult to prioritize how much work was required on those sets and how much additional work was needed simultaneously. At Origo Studios just outside of Budapest, Art Director Zsuzsanna Borvendég and Assistant Art Director Dániel Miklós designed and managed