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Angelic Designs for the Undead |
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 or five seasons, the world of Angel has been reflected through countless diverse and intricate settings. From classic hotels, demonic worlds, and the murky sewers beneath Los Angeles, to the legal 'den of evil' known as Wolfram & Hart, Angel continues to produce unique atmospheres for our beloved characters to dwell. Stuart Blatt, Angel's Production Designer, has created it all. Backed by an incredibly talented team, headed by Andrew Reeder, Leonard Harman, Sandy Struth, and Ted Wilson every week they are challenged with taking a handful of words in a script and bringing them to life in another unforgettable set that has them constantly raising the bar of excellence. In the truest sense of the phrase, Stuart takes CityofAngel.com behind the scenes of Angel, giving both a detailed analysis of his trade and an insider tour of the gang's new digs: Wolfram & Hart at the Angel soundstages at Paramount Studios in Hollywood.
BUILDING HIS OWN PATH
Even though production design wasn't Stuart's plan when he moved to L.A., he soon noticed the possibilities of the position. "I wouldn't say it was necessarily a natural progression, but it was something I fell into very easily." Ultimately as Stuart honed his skills as a production designer he came to realize that this was what he was meant to do. "Two production designers, who I worked with very early on in my career, were inspirations to me. They had given me my start, set me off in the direction, and showed me the joy that they got out of the job. I realized that this was something I could do. I could have a lifestyle like that and still get creatively rewarded without compromising things too much."
DESIGNING ANGEL'S WORLD
Creating sets for the world of Angel is no easy task. The sheer amount of space required for the production means that much of Angel has to be filmed on a lot where many major motions pictures are born: Paramount Studios. "We have four stages at Paramount: 5, 6, 7, and 17. Stage 5 is the biggest stage on the Paramount lot and it's our biggest set on the stage. It's the entire new floor of Wolfram & Hart that encompasses the main area, Harmony's area, Angel's giant office and conference room, to Wesley and Gunn's offices, then the upstairs hallway. Stage 5 is about 65 feet wide by 175 feet. Stage 6 is our smallest stage, but even our smallest stage is still a good 10,000 square feet," Stuart describes. However, unlike motion pictures, which may take months to design and construct their sets, Stuart and his team don't have the luxury of time. With an incredible turnaround of an episode being shot every eight days, Stuart is constantly on his toes. "We approach shooting an episode with an enormous sense of urgency and a great short hand. Luckily, I have a crew that has been here since the beginning, and I rely heavily on them. I'm only as good as my crew is. Basically I'll read a script, meet with the producer, come back to the office, and we'll talk about the sets we were going to build or what they would like us to build. There is rarely much more talk than half hour to forty-five minutes on each set. I'll draw out a simple stage plan of what I think it should look like. [Art Department Coordinator/Assistant Art Director] Leonard Harman, [Set Designer] Andrew Reeder, or [Art Department Assistant] Joe Pew will chime in with their 2-cents and then we'll just start drawing it up." Multitasking during the shooting period has become an integral part of the design team's process. "We do shoot an episode every eight days and during those eight days we have to prep the next episode. We rarely get the script on the first day of prep, which means our prep is truncated to six or seven days, so time is of the essence and it's never on our side." Throughout the years there have been many grand sets including the Hyperion, and now, the new Wolfram & Hart. Yet many times the smaller, episode-unique sets will end up captivating and challenging Stuart. One special set on the episode, The Trial, is dear to his heart, especially since it is one of his favorite episodes. Even though it was a set designed specifically to torture and test Angel, the intricacies of it are undeniable.
Designing sets is not as simple as merely creating an outline and instructing the carpenters where to start their wood and plaster. There are countless hurdles and obstacles to overcome. Many times the task is so daunting that people get skeptical as to whether or not Stuart can achieve what he has planned. Stuart, however, remains confident and relishes the challenge. "There were two sets that were the most interesting to see come to life and prove to people that we could do them. One was the Boxer Rebellion that took place in a small province town in China. We were lucky enough to have already shot and scouted a little old village that is a Mexican movie village in the Santa Clarita valley. Through some research we realized that a lot of these small Chinese province towns look a lot like Mexico back then with small adobe structures and thatched roofs. So we did a little mockup of some artwork based on structures that were already existing and what we could do to them. Everyone was skeptical, but knew that was the only way to go so we went ahead and everyone was pleasantly surprised."
The other set posed a challenge not in the creation of it, but in the filming. "A couple of years ago, we were faced with a dilemma where we had scouted, and were about to shoot in a few days, a giant scene on the roof top in the episode Sanctuary. There's a giant fight scene with helicopters shooting at Faith and Buffy on the rooftop and Angel flying through a sky light. We found out just a few days before shooting that through a scheduling problem Sarah Michelle Gellar wasn't able to work outside on the night we thought she was going to be there. So we had to take our rooftop setting and split it into two and shoot everything on the rooftop looking out towards the city in one direction with the real helicopter on the rooftop. Then on the stage, recreate the exact rooftop looking the other direction, shoot everything there, and marry them seamlessly. That was great because no one was really behind the idea and it came out great. It was one of the more impressive things we ever pulled off," he explains. Finding solutions around the problems are always incredibly rewarding especially since it's always nice to 'prove doubters wrong', as Stuart says. Even though Stuart has had incredible success with nearly all of his sets, there is the occasional one that doesn't quite pan out as well as they'd hoped and don't ever have time to redesign it. Stuart makes sure to collaborate with as many departments as possible when designing his sets. "We don't have the time or money at liberty to redesign, so you hopefully get it right the first time. Even though we have a short truncated prep time, I'll talk about it with all of the departments involved and so will Leonard. We'll talk to the DP [Director of Photography] and the Cinematographer, we'll talk to the Gaffer [Chief Lighting Technician], we'll talk to the Special Effects, and anything that involves all those different departments we'll coordinate as much as we can." Still, the occasional set will not work out as well as it could have. Rather than getting discouraged, Stuart takes the knowledge from these experiences and continues to hone his craft. "We learn from those mistakes. You look at it and say, 'You know what, that didn't work. Next time we'll "On stages we have no limitations except for funds as to what we can build. When you are on location you are always limited by where you are building, what they will allow you to do, and what came before you.remember that and try something different.'" Designing sets for a soundstage is only part of Stuart's job. Working on location is a whole different beast. For instance," he explains, "if we're going to build on another soundstage on another studio -- if it's an empty soundstage, great, it's just like being [at Paramount]. If we're going into a location of a home and trying to add a balcony, an extra room or a doorway, or if we're going into a factory downtown that already contains its own four walls, we have to try to make it that much more." No matter how many locations he has designed for, no two are alike. "Each location offers its own challenges and you have to adapt with each one that you come to. We've shot a few hundred different locations over the course of the years and almost never are you up against the same situation. Sometimes the doorway is too small so we have to build our set in many smaller pieces to get it in."
After designing a set and seeing it completed, Stuart cannot help but feel proud. Yet what has really been the highlight of his work on Angel have been those couple of sets that sprung to life, surprising and impressing everybody. He knows that he has created something truly special when his colleagues take extra notice. "What is best is when the crew is complimentary because the crew sees it day in and day out and they've all worked on a million shows and on a million of our shows. It's great when they come up and say, 'You know what, this looks great' or, 'This has worked out really great.' It's really nice to know that you have the praise of your peers. You feel that what you are creating for them to work in is really a believable environment." By the very nature of the show, many of these gorgeous sets explode or disappear the next week, never to be seen again. "At the beginning it was very hard. You get emotionally attached to every set you do even in television, but they're up and down so quickly. It's part of the course of the show. You have to realize that these are temporary, more temporary than we could imagine since it's at the writer's whim as to how quickly we're done with them. So the first time we did it, you stood back, took a little pause and a deep breath, sighed, and then it's like, 'Fine get it out of the way, we got another one to put up next week,'" he laughs. |
