Picture Time!

Or "How the Art Department Saved the Movie"

Movie Production Update #12

So the original production designer for "The Dog Days of Summer" flaked out on us before I even arrived in Edenton. Apparently, he didn't do much other than sit around and... well, I think that's all he did. This annoyed and worried Mark the director and Mel the line producer so much that he was fired, but Andrew Cappella, then art director but soon after promoted to production designer, convinced them that this was a terrible idea.

See, that would have meant Andrew would have had to create the sarcophagus, flea circus, and Alligator Man costume all by himself. At this stage, Jeff, the art director, and myself had not arrived in Edenton, and Andrew wasn't getting any more art department crew members that he wanted and needed.

So the original production designer, Brendan, went home, a contract was written up, and by a certain date, Brendan was to have completed the sarcophagus, flea circus, and Alligator Man costume while Andrew, Jeff, and I worked on everything else like the sets, set dressings, and scale model of the town.

Well, Brendan's early work on the film (or lack thereof) was just a foreshadowing of things to come because the date on which Brendan was supposed to deliver came and went and nothing so much as a picture of his progress had been sent. Mark the director made a surprise visit to Brendan's home one weekend while he was in town for a wedding, and Mark came back very disappointed and worried.

Brendan kept asking for extensions; at first one or two days, then three more. Finally, one night at about three in the morning, I hear the front door swing open. I jump off the couch in time to see a tall guy in a dirty t-shirt and black rimmed glasses come storming in right past me.

"Uhhh, Brendan?" I ask.

"Yeah," he replies, looking everywhere in the house but at me.

"I'm Chris Baker. We spoke on the phone last month."

"Oh yeah, nice to meet you," he says quickly. "Is Andrew around?"

So we wake up Andrew, who sleeps on the floor in the other room, and the three of us go out to the parking lot to see what Brendan has brought us.

Hmmm, hard to describe what I was feeling at that moment. Happy that we now had our sarcophagus, flea circus, and Alligator Man costume. Annoyed that Brendan had to show up at 3 AM after I had gone to bed. Relieved that the sarcophagus looked finished. Excited at the Alligator Man's head, soon to be replaced with disappointment that this was ALL he had given us of the costume. The head was even missing an eye.

See, in the darkness of the parking lot, everything looked cool. The sarcophagus was huge and looked great. The flea circus was a dusty, old suitcase that unfolded into the stage when you opened it up. And the Alligator Man's head was a harness that fit over your chest and shoulders, and your head pushed up the latex skin of the Alligator Man's head and gave it shape. The mouth was set on huge hinges, so you could open the jaws to see the actor's face inside. I put that harness on and wore it all night, standing out there in the Edenton Main Street parking lot in my boxer shorts, waving to people who drove by at 3 AM.

I bet that was a sight to see. "Half-naked man with an Alligator head dances around deleriously in Edenton parking lot through the wee hours of the night!"

To make matters worse, instead of just dropping everything off, Brendan had to spend 20 minutes on each creation explaining to us how he did everything, as well as pointing out every aspect of the costume or flea circus.

Yes, yes, Brendan, it looks great out here, but please, for the love of GOD, can we go back inside so I can get some semblance of sleep this evening?

Anyway, the point of all this is everything was unfinished, and so it fell upon us in the three-member Art Department (as usual) to suck it up and fix everything. We had to repaint the sarcophagus, completely redo the flea circus, and the night before the very last day of shooting 2 weeks ago, finish the Alligator Man costume with Hannah the costume designer. Why we worked on costumes, I don't know. Probably because Mark knew that we, more than any other department, could be relied on to deliver whatever he needed.

Curses, why do we have to be so good?

Brendan disappeared the next morning before I awoke, but he left his digital camera at the house, which I used during the production to take pictures of the sets and keep up with continutity (to make sure the set was redressed the same way between takes so no one notices the place looks different from shot to shot when they see the movie).

So now, let me play for you a short glimpse at "The Dog Days of Summer", through the eyes of the Art Department.


Here is the flea circus Brendan delivered. Notice the lack of rides, the crappy faux-wooden floorbase, and the tiny creatures that should be nonexistent in a flea circus that relies on the imagination of those who see it.



Here is our flea circus. Notice how we painted the black, wooden trim around the top and changed the floorbase so that it's now black velvet. We spraypainted the ferris wheel gold and painted the top of the carousel so that the circus now has a black, red, and gold color scheme. I liked to say the black represented dark foreboding, a possible evil, while red is symbolic of anger, passion, and the forbidden fruit that Eve took from the Tree of Knowledge. Gold represents the lust that is sown in the hearts of the townspeople when they see this flea circus that Eli Cottonmouth (Will Patton) has created. Course, the colors just look good together too. Very dark, very Tim Burtonish we decided. Notice the trapeze, tightwire, high dive, giant flea statue, and cannonball act complete with Flaming Hoop of Death.



Here is the circus, complete with magnifying glass and flexible arm that I created (per Andrew's idea) for up close and personal viewing. Yeah, I didn't go to sleep the night before this shoot because I had to drive out to Wal-Mart at 2 AM to get the supplies to make this.


Here is a bad, blurry photo of the P.T. Flea that I made. Andrew's original flea was way too large, and he got frustrated and quit- so I took over. He has a black cane in his right hand, and is juggling four red balls with his front arms. We put him under an empty snow-globe glass for the circus.


Here is Brendan's sarcophagus that Andrew helped create. Notice how Brendan just stopped painting below the waist, and in the closeup you can see that he only used one brushstroke for every line and stripe. We had to repaint all of it, and we made the eyes completely black save for two tiny white dots in the centers.


Now we move on to Eli's Shanty. Here is where Eli develops the many pictures that he and the kids take of the town. That is my father's photo enlarger and clock on the right, and the photos were taken by Rob the DP. You can just make out the many jars of oddities along the back shelf that I created from pickle jars and assorted toys (mentioned here).


This is Eli's workbench. He has boarded up the windows so no one can peek at his work. The bench was our workbench in the warehouse, and the old radio on the left was donated to us by Anne Row, the woman who owned the huge mansion we used for a few days' shooting. Just to the right of the radio, you can barely make out a small, silver orb with a cross on the top. This is my mother's prayer box that I borrowed to dress the set. She really wanted something of hers to be in the movie, and I thought that fit Eli's quirky style the best.


This is an old chest donated to us by Anne Row as well, and it fits Eli perfectly. When we opened it up, we found newspapers from the 1800's and other old artifacts. We dressed this with some old rolled up parchment with Indian figures drawn on it, an old plate with a butterfly mosaic on it, an old lantern, some weird purple jester pincushion, and a great piece of black fabric Jeff found that had the sun, stars, and moon all over it. All this looks even better in person.


This is the truck that Eli drives when he rolls into town. This truck was actually used in the movie "Chinatown", which means Jack Nicholson himself sat in it. I've been told it was his getaway truck, possibly from the orange grove scene, if that means anything to you, dear reader. I dressed this with the set dressings and chests from the shanty set (which is why I would need to take pictures of the set beforehand, so I can redress it perfectly for the next shoot).

A closeup of the back. The top half of the sarcophagus is under the sheet to the left, and I took apart Eli's hat and coat-rack to fit in the back too. You can barely make out some Oddity Jars under the rack's legs, and to the very left of the frame are rolled up paintings that were hanging in Eli's Shanty, circus posters advertising his Amazing Flea Circus and the Eternal Box (the sarcophagus). Unfortunately, you will never see these details in the movie.

And here I am with the truck on our first all-day exterior shoot. I didn't put on any sunscreen and got an instant tan all over. I even had tanlines on my face from where my hair hung down at the sides. In the background you can see the black and white screens the grips have put up to block, diffuse, and reflect light

So there you go dear readers. I don't have any photos of the Alligator Man on Brendan's digital camera, and just so I don't take his credit, he took his own photos of the first draft of the flea circus and the sarcophagus.

When I get my film developed, I'll try and scan some photos of me dressed up in the completed Alligator Man costume, the Eternal Box we created (an eight-sided room of mirrors with Christmas lights hanging everywhere), and any other photos I may deem cool enough to share with everyone.

Hope you enjoyed your first glimpse of the movie!

--Cbake