Tag: Production Design

The Mindhunter Art Department

October, 1, 2019
Mindhunter Art Department (Instagram)

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The Command Post Bar. A popular bar in Quantico, Virginia. Quantico is surrounded by the Quantico US Marine Corps base and is home to the FBI training academy. The Command Post Pub was owned by the mayor of Quantico and was a common hang out for marines. The Mindhunter crew built this whole bar on stage, using part of a salvaged mahogany bar, adding faux brick walls and a coffered ceiling. Construction, painters, plasterers, and Set Dec did an amazing job. Photos by Nikolai Loveikis #mindhunter #netflix #art #artdepartment #cinematography #film #television #productiondesign #quantico #commandpost #fbi #marines #80s #1981 #adg #artdirectorsguild #union #pittsburgh #pa #bar #pub @adg800 @mindhunterseries @mindhunter @mindhunterfans

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The Omni Hotel in Atlanta. Today, it is the world headquarters for CNN, but back in 1981, it was the Omni Hotel filled with an ice skating rink, movie theaters, arcades, and even an indoor amusement park (The World of Sid and Marty Krofft). Our team transformed the abandoned Century III Mall in Pittsburgh into the Omni lobby, building mahogany paneled walls, marble columns to cover existing posts, and a curved glass elevator. While the rest of the mall was added in post with green screen, our team masterfully turned an abandoned Macy’s into 1981 luxury. Photos by Nikolai Loveikis. #mindhunter #netflix #serialkiller #atlanta #georgia #cnn #artdepartment #film #television #behindthescenes #hotel #1981 #80s #omni #omnihotel #atlantachildmurders #fbi #holdenford #billtench #pittsburgh #centuryiiimall #mall #adg #union #artdirectorsguild @adg800 @mindhunterseries @mindhunter @mindhunterfans

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The Omni Hotel Lobby in Atlanta. Today, it is the world headquarters for CNN, but back in 1981, it was the Omni Hotel featuring an ice skating rink, movie theaters, arcades, and even an indoor amusement park (The World of Sid and Marty Krofft). You can read more about the Omni during the Atlanta Child Murders in James Baldwin’s article in the December 1981 Playboy magazine and his book “The Evidence of Things Not Seen.” It was here where Wayne Williams handed out flyers searching for young talented singers. Our incredible graphic artist Leni Diamantopoulos recreated our period-accurate store logos for Waldenbooks, Musicland, Gold Mine arcade, and Orange Julius. The Gold Mine facade was built and plastered to look like real stone, and our Set Dec team went above and beyond to dress every storefront. Photos by Nikolai Loveikis #mindhunter #netflix #artdepartment #design #atlanta #omni #cnn #hotel #omnihogel #pittsburgh #centuryiiimall #mall #musicland #orangejulius #goldmine #arcade #waldenbooks #waynewilliams #serialkiller #atlantachildmurders #1981 #80s #adg #union #artdirectorsguild @adg800 @mindhunterseries @mindhunter @mindhuntershow

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The STOP Office. Do you know where your children are? The strong mothers of the Atlanta child murders took matters into their own hands and formed the STOP office in order to find their lost children and stop further murders. The strength and love pouring out of these mothers to protect their children is truly inspiring. You can learn more about the murders and these strong women in the video below. Our team replicated the office from actual footage, adding oak slatted panels, plastered cinderblock walls and wood paneling. Our Set Dec team and graphic artist Leni Diamantopoulos replicated bulletin boards, flyers, and posters, transforming an old record store into the 1981 STOP office. Photos by Nikolai Loveikis #Netflix #mindhunter #stop #stopoffice #atlantachildmurders #children #doyouknowwhereyourchildrenare #justice #productiondesign #artdepartment #film #television #atlanta #pittsburgh #design #adg #artdirectorsguild @adg800 @mindhunterseries

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Kay’s Apartment. After finding an exterior for Kay’s apartment, the art department set designers measured the interior and rebuilt it on stage. Replicating exterior window and door placements, production designer Steve Arnold redesigned the interior to fit the script and camera shots. Shooting in Pittsburgh, the art department used Construction Junction (an architectural salvage shop) to add layers of aged window shutters, hardware, and more. In order to create the kitchen and bathroom floors, our graphic artist Leni Diamantopoulos scanned antique Armstrong linoleum patterns from 1935 and printed them on sintra tiles. With a little wax and aging, our floors were period accurate and economically efficient. Photos by Nikolai Loveikis and Steve Arnold. #netflix #mindhunter #series #productiondesign #pittsburgh #architectural #salvage #recycle #reuse #apartment #armstrong #linoleum #graphics #80s #70s #film #television #adg #union #artdepartment @adg800 @mindhunter @mindhunterseries

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Production Designer: Steve Arnold

Art Director: Oana Miller

Set Decorator: Andrew Baseman

Graphic Designer: Carly Sertic

Photos by Nikolai Loveikis

25th Anniversary of the AT&T “You Will” Ad Campaign

AT&T (YouTube)
November 28, 2018

25 Years Ago, AT&T Predicted the Future We’re Living Now

      Matt Stevenson
      November 25, 2018
      Wired

How AT&T Predicted the Future In 1993

      November 25, 2018
      Wired

Watch the original campaign:

1993. AT&T – You Will (series)

Mindhunter: Not Your Typical FBI Crime Series

Steve Arnold, Production Designer
November 13, 2018
Perspective (Art Directors Guild)

While I was finishing the fourth season of House of Cards, David Fincher called me to say he was planning another series with Netflix and to ask if I would be interested in designing it. Of course I jumped at the chance, not knowing exactly what Mindhunter would be, but certain that with Fincher involved it would be a quality project. I soon found out that it was based on the John Douglas book of the same name and that it would be shooting in Pittsburgh, a city I knew quite well since I received my graduate degree from Carnegie Mellon University there, and where I got my start in the film business while still a student in the CMU theater department.

The series is somewhat different than many crime shows in that it’s not a who-done-it, or even how’d they do it, but more of a psychological exploration of why’d they do it.

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Mindhunter is a period show set in the late 1970s, so I knew the choice of Pittsburgh as a location would simplify much of the exterior design work. Many rust belt cities like Pittsburgh were hit particularly hard by the collapse of the steel industry, and all the ancillary businesses that supported steel have suffered as well. The small towns that surround a city like Pittsburgh are often stuck in the past, sometimes for forty years or more. A lot of the exterior street sequences required were possible and looked appropriate with a minimal amount of redesign because there just hasn’t been an influx of business dollars to do architectural upgrades; there were very few modern structures to modify extensively or hide. This, and the fact that there is a wealth of great period dressing elements to be had at reasonable prices at the many local flea markets, estate sales and antique stores, made the task of recreating the period much more manageable.

One of the first things I remember David Fincher saying about the look of the series was that he did not want it to look like other films or series set in this same period where the style of the time is pushed so far that it becomes exaggeratedly over the top and starts to seem camp. The focus would be on the more mundane and ordinary look of American life in the late 1970s. I knew a lot of the characters were from the lower social strata, so there were few places for high style or the cutting edge fashion of the time. One big influence on the design was photographs from the time by people like Stephen Shore, particularly for our many on the road scenes in motel rooms.

Read the full article

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ADG Perspective
November-December 2018 Issue

MINDHUNTER. S01: Emmy FYC DVD Set

Click for a full screen view:

DVD Set kindly donated by Joe Frady

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‘Mindhunter’: The David Fincher Look is All About Power and Control

Merrick Morton / Netflix

Fincher was very particular about conveying control and dominance through lighting and production design in his Netflix FBI crime drama.

Bill Desowitz
June 18, 2018
IndieWire

David Fincher brilliantly pushes his cinematic formalism in “Mindhunter,” Netflix’s 10-episode crime drama that explores the FBI’s fledgling Behavioral Science Unit in Quantico, Virginia, in the late ’70s. But, for the dialogue-heavy creepy interrogations with imprisoned serial killers by agents Holden Ford (Jonathan Groff) and Bill Tench (Holt McCallany), executive producer/co-director Fincher manages to visually convey constant power shifts.

“It’s about control and dominance and also about misogyny,” Fincher said. “People forget that this goes all the way back to Jack the Ripper.”

And Fincher’s collaboration with production designer Steve Arnold (“House of Cards”) and gaffer-turned cinematographer Erik Messerschmidt (“Mad Men”) was crucial to the authentic ’70s look and dynamic blocking of the interrogation scenes, particularly those involving Ed Kemper (Cameron Britton), who captivates and mentors Holden.

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Set Decorators Society of America: MINDHUNTER

June 15, 2018
SDSA International (Set Decorators Society of America)

In the late 1970s two FBI agents expand criminal science by delving into the psychology of murder and getting uneasily close to all-too-real monsters.

Catching a criminal often requires the authorities to get inside the villain’s mind to figure out how he thinks. That’s the job of FBI agents Holden Ford [Jonathan Goff] and Bill Tench [Holt McCallany]. They attempt to understand and catch serial killers by studying their damaged psyches. Along the way, working with Boston University psychology professor Wendy Carr [Anna Torv], the agents pioneer the development of modern serial killer profiling.

The crime drama has a strong pedigree behind the camera, with Oscar-nominated director David Fincher and Oscar-winning actress Charlize Theron among the show’s executive producers, and Fincher directing the first episodes. — Netflix

Add in Production Designer Steve Arnold and Set Decorator Tracey Doyle SDSA, and you know it will have a carefully curated stylized realism mixed with fully realized layered reality. Sets that could be paintings, except they seem so real.

We checked in with the duo for snippets about the making of MINDHUNTER, Season 1…

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‘Mindhunter’ DP Erik Messerschmidt on Working with Fincher, the Show’s Aesthetic, and Season 2

Erik Messerschmidt with Camera Operator Brian Osmond (Patrick Harbron / Netflix)

2018-05-28. Collider - ‘Mindhunter_ DP Erik Messerschmidt on Working with Fincher, the Show_s Aesthetic, and Season 2 06
Merrick Morton / Netflix

Adam Chitwood
May 28, 2018
Collider

The Netflix original series Mindhunter is, by far, one of the best new shows currently running. The true story-based, 1977-set drama chronicles the early days of criminal psychology and criminal profiling primarily through the eyes of three people at the FBI’s Behavioral Science Unit: eager newcomer Holden Ford (Jonathan Groff), somewhat jaded veteran Bill Tench (Holt McCallany), and brilliant psychology professor Wendy Carr (Anna Torv). That this show is immaculately crafted from top to bottom will come as no surprise to those aware that it’s the brainchild of David Fincher, who serves as executive producer and directed nearly half of the series’ first season.

This is without doubt one of the best looking pieces of entertainment released in 2017, regardless of medium, with classical framing, motivated camera movement, and a tremendous palette that gives a mere peek into the darkness inside the minds of the criminals and serial killers who are the subject of the Behavioral Science Unit’s interviews.

So when I got the chance to speak with cinematographer Erik Messerschmidt about his work on the series, I was thrilled. Messerschmidt shot eight of the first season’s 10 episodes, including the Fincher-directed closing installments, and as he revealed during our interview, this was essentially his first major gig as a cinematographer. Messerschmidt had worked previously as a gaffer on shows like Mad Men and Bones, and then later the feature film Gone Girl where he first came into contact with Fincher. Based on their work together on that film, Fincher called Messerschmidt up when they were looking for a new DP for Mindhunter after the show’s original cinematographer exited over creative differences.

This promotion from gaffer to DP is a familiar refrain with Fincher’s cinematographers, as he did the same with his The Game and Fight Club gaffer Claudio Miranda, who was brought on as DP for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and went on to win the Oscar for Best Cinematography for his work on Life of Pi.

Messerschmidt’s rise to the primary cinematographer of Fincher’s brand new TV show elicits similarly spectacular results, as the DP’s work on Mindhunter is elegantly classical and incredibly motivated by character and theme. During the course of our conversation, Messerschmidt talked about the road that led to him becoming the cinematographer on Mindhunter, the specifics of his working relationship with Fincher, what it’s like to serve as a DP in the world of episodic television, how the work of production designers and costumes designers goes under-appreciated, and trying to maintain a consistent aesthetic with multiple directors. He also teased a bit about Mindhunter Season 2, including revealing their extensive shooting schedule.

Check out the full interview

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Erik Messerschmidt with Episodes 3 & 4 Director Asif Kapadia (Merrick Morton / Netflix)