Art Directors Guild : Perspective – Candyman THE ART OF HORROR

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Candyman THE ART OF HORROR

Above Image: CABRINI-GREEN ROWHOUSES. PRODUCTION STILL. UNIVERSAL PICTURES.
From the beginning, director Nia DaCosta and I were on the same page, we really wanted a visual flair and color incorporated into the overall look of the film. I very much wanted to create graphic images for the film i

Find the Characters, Find the Design FINCH

Above Image: FINCH DISCOVERS JEFF’S “HEAD.”

To find the unvarnished truth to a story, I follow the practice of knowing as little as possible about a script before I read it. I try to table the excitement for a potential new project by reading in the moment and allowing the story to innocent
capturing the Visual Legacy GHOSTBUSTERS: AFTERLIFE

Above Image: LIKE ALL KEY LOCATIONS IN THE MOVIE, THE LOCATION FOR EGON’S FARMHOUSE WAS SCANNED AS PHOTOGRAMMETRY AND THEN BUILT AS FULL-TEXTURED AND INTERACTIVE MODEL IN BLENDER BY BILL IVES. THIS ENABLED THE DIRECTOR, PRODUCTION DESIGNER AND CINEMATOGRAPHER TO CAREFULLY ORIENT THE SCENERY AND COMP
The Unembellished World of LICORICE PIZZA

Above Image: INTERIOR TEENAGE FAIR. PHOTOSHOP ILLUSTRATION BY ALISTAIR MILNE
The first day I met with Paul Thomas Anderson to discuss Licorice Pizza, we immediately jumped in the car and started scouting the San Fernando Valley locations that inspired the script. Paul’s excitement was infectio
Shining Vale FOUR STORIES OF HORROMEDY

Above Image: ATTIC.ORIGINALLY BUILT FOR THE PILOT, INSTALLED IN A WAREHOUSE ON A 4-FOOT PLATFORM TO ALLOW FOR ENTRANCE UP STAIRS. PRODUCTION STILL.
I’m very excited to share with you a glimpse into the world of Shining Vale. Reading the script for the pilot was one of those rare moments that, w

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Perspective

Candyman THE ART OF HORROR

BY CARA BROWER, PRODUCTION DESIGNER

January - February 2022

Above Image: CABRINI-GREEN ROWHOUSES. PRODUCTION STILL. UNIVERSAL PICTURES.

From the beginning, director Nia DaCosta and I were on the same page, we really wanted a visual flair and color incorporated into the overall look
of the film. I very much wanted to create graphic images for the film in the vein of Italian 1970s horror films and filmmakers like Dario Argento, who brought style and color to the horror film genre. Using a limited palette of colors that ran throughout the film hopefully helped us achieve that. Shades of blues, sage greens, black and white, with pops of bolder colors like red and yellow were used for all of the sets and locations to create a unified and, hopefully, distinctive look.

Cabrini-Green

The film takes its jumping-off point as a follow- up to the events of the original Candyman, set in the infamous Chicago Cabrini-Green projects. From the start, I knew the film would tackle gentrification, as Cabrini has been completely transformed in the years since the original film was made. When I landed in Chicago, I only had six weeks of preproduction, so I was really trying to spend those first weeks seeing as much as possible, familiarizing myself with the different areas, etc. I spent a lot of time in Cabrini, plotting exactly where the old towers were, learning the history, exploring what was left and what is new. It’s a really unsettling area, as the development is fresh enough that you do still have remnants waiting to be demolished in juxtaposition with expensive loft conversions, coffee shops, and yoga studios. Where the towers stood is now a giant plot of grass, used by new residents as a place to sunbathe or walk their dogs. When I started to familiarize myself with the area, I became more and more sure that we needed to look beyond what was in the original film, because so much of it wasn’t there.

A. STRANGERS HOME CHURCH, PHOTO TAKEN DURING LOCATION SCOUT.
B. STRANGERS HOME CHURCH INTERIOR. SET PHOTO.
C. STRANGERS HOME CHURCH MURAL WITH ORIGINAL ARTWORK CREATED BY ARTIST CAMERON SPRATLEY.
D. BRIANNA AND ANTHONY’S LOFT. RESEARCH BOARD.

Rowhouses

Young Billy’s original home was scripted as being in one of the towers, which would have been a stage build and a CG exterior. I suggested to Nia that we utilize the rowhouses, which were still standing. That way we could play them both as present day and period, and she wouldn’t be so restricted with her shots during filming. At first she wasn’t totally sure she wanted to use
the rowhouses, but then one Friday night we went to a film at the new ArcLight in Cabrini and decided to drive through the one street left with residents. The street was blocked in with police cars stationed at both ends and it was blatantly unsettling. By Monday, Nia had written the rowhouses into the script. The line that Burke says in the film about questioning whether the police were “keeping the residents safe or keeping them in” came directly from that night. I have to give thanks to location manager Nick Rafferty in Chicago and also the Chicago Housing Authority, for actually being so accommodating with letting the production film in those abandoned rowhouses, especially with our script and subject matter being very critical of the Chicago’s history of public housing.

A. BRIANNA AND ANTHONY’S LOFT, LOCATION, LIVING ROOM SET PHOTO. FALSE WALLS WERE BUILT TO DISPLAY ARTWORK AND ART BOOKS.

B. BRIANNA AND ANTHONY’S LOFT. BEDROOM. ALL THE ART WAS SOURCED IN CHICAGO AND HIGHLIGHT THE WORK OF LOCAL ARTISTS. SET PHOTO.
C. BRIANNA AND ANTHONY’S LOFT. PRODUCTION STILL..

The Church

In the script, the church scene actually took place in an unspecified underground area below Cabrini- Green. The idea was that even though the towers and buildings above ground had been destroyed, the guts of Cabrini-Green still remained below the newly gentrified surface. I scouted a lot of underground facilities, but they seemed very uninspiring and also impossible to shoot in. While scouting, I went to an old tuberculosis hospital that had what seemed to be an endless trail of underground corridors, hallways, and rooms that connected all the buildings on the premises. One of the corridors actually led up to a beautiful chapel, which I found incredibly cinematic. The idea came to me that perhaps we could build upon the scripted idea but also expand upon it—perhaps these underground tunnels remaining under Cabrini-Green could connect all the remaining buildings. The basement of Burke’s laundromat could lead to the rowhouses, which could lead to what would have been the old towers, etc. This felt also very appropriate to Chicago as well, as there are actually many underground tunnel systems beneath the city.

The idea of moving the sequence in which Anthony is essentially christened as the new Candyman into a church made sense to me thematically and also cinematically. One of the few remaining buildings left undemolished at Cabrini-Green is Strangers Home Church. The creative team had all been captivated by its stark presence, but hadn’t yet figured out how to integrate it into the story. The church had at one time been nestled in the midst of the towers and had been a community gathering place for its residents. The facade was once decorated with artwork by a revered African American muralist, William Walker, and had been painted over with a flat gray, which creates a very stark and haunting image.

I pitched the idea of moving this scene into the church and Nia was very excited by the idea. It was a real hurdle to shoot inside the church. It had been sitting boarded up for many years and was completely covered with mold. We looked at other church interiors, to, in-effect, recreate the interior at a different location, but we kept coming back to Strangers Home for the sake of its authenticity and innate cinematic-ness. It just didn’t feel correct to “cheat” one of the last remaining remnants of Cabrini. I also think it helped the actors and the crew get into the headspace for such a dark scene, versus if we had gone to a neighborhood miles away and made a perfectly pristine chapel look like it was decaying. I personally find it really hard to replicate all of that real patina and age, even though we did end up adding a lot of additional painted age to the interior for enhancement. We also added the graffiti, a mural on the stage, the debris and pews.

**A-C.** ANTHONY’S ARTWORK CREATED BY SHERWIN OVID.
D. ANTHONY’S STUDIO. PRODUCTION STILL. UNIVERSAL PICTURES.

Brianna and Anthony’s Loft Apartment

During preproduction, I read the book High-Risers, a history of Cabrini, and I learned that all of the warehouses surrounding the area employed the residents of Cabrini in the early 20th century. I thought it could add so much depth to the story if we were to make Brianna and Anthony’s loft one of these former warehouses, now turned luxury loft. The building that became the hero set had been an old flower distribution facility and had been renovated with glass and steel lofts literally sitting on top of it. The lofts were huge, so I really tried to make it seem like a one-bedroom, two-story apartment, instead of the sprawling four-story condo that it was. The film ended up using two different lofts, as one was perfectly positioned looking out toward the new hive of high-rises and the apartment next door had what I considered
a perfect space for Anthony’s loft. The balcony literally looked out onto the field where the towers once sat.

I really felt like these two views perfectly represented Brianna and Anthony’s differing mindset, one looking toward the past and one looking toward the present. I wanted Brianna and Anthony’s personal style to be very eclectic and filled with art and art books. The crew ended up building false walls over a lot of built-ins to add more wall space for hanging art and also built several wall-to-wall bookcases. We also painted a number of the walls Farrow & Ball Hale Navy, to create a moody space for the night scenes. We based our set decoration on references of real artists’ and curators’ apartments and set decorator Ryan Watson filled the space with new and vintage pieces. We also decorated the space with all original art from local Chicago artists that I had connected with during my search for the artist that would create Anthony’s work.

A. NIGHT DRIVER GALLERY. BUILT ON LOCATION. SET PHOTO.
B. NIGHT DRIVER GALLERY. LIVE’S OFFICE FEATURING PHOTOGRAPHS BY ARNOLD KEMP. SET PHOTO.
C. NIGHT DRIVER GALLERY. SET PHOTO.
D. NIGHT DRIVER GALLERY. SCULPTURES BY TORKWASE DYSON AND GRAFFITI BY TUBS. PRODUCTION STILL.

Paintings

When I first met with Nia, she asked me what I thought the hardest part of designing the film would be. I immediately thought that it would be creating the art that Anthony paints. I proposed that we find a real artist in Chicago to work with us on developing the content with hopes that this would be the best way to create authentic artwork.

When I landed in Chicago, I really felt like I had two jobs. The day job was scouting locations and the after-hours and weekend job was scouting for the artist. I had created a “lookbook” of artwork that I thought matched the tone of what I wanted Anthony’s work to feel like—and I also wanted to bring someone into the fold who could take all of those ideas, but also bring in their own concepts and style and help create something unique to
the film. After an exhaustive search, I found two candidates whose work really felt right for the project, but were also diametrically different from each other in style and content. In the end, the production decided to hire both of them.

Cameron Spratley’s fresh style really embodied Anthony’s early work and Sherwin Ovid’s haunting portraits really captured the new work he creates once he becomes overcome by the lore of Candyman.

The content was also a challenge. The script was completely open to what Anthony’s work was, even though the crux of his mental breakdown
was really told through the work. Nia, Ian Cooper (creative producer), and I spent hours over weeks brainstorming on what the work should be. The scene where Brianna discovers Anthony’s art was scripted very loosely. It didn’t specify what the art was, but it was meant to be a major turning point and revelation for Brianna in discovering Anthony’s mind-set. This led to a lot of conversations on what he could be painting and what could define or render a painting “scary.” I came to equate this with a favorite Kubrick film of mine—The Shining—and the scene in which Wendy finds Jack’s manuscripts. It isn’t the writing that she finds scary, it’s the sheer fact that he’s been writing the same thing— over and over, which many have said is the definition of madness. That led me to the idea that Anthony is perhaps painting the same thing over and over, in a fugue state, and perhaps it’s a face (his face) that he’s trying to make out, only becoming clear after many, many attempts. The idea being that he’s trying to work out the face of Candyman in his mind’s eye, only to make the realization that it’s his own face that he’s been painting over and over. This was the idea that hit.

This ended up being linked with another idea
that had been mulled over during the script development—this idea of multiple “Candymen” —unwilling martyrs who died at the hands of violence. I put together a series of Black men whose stories we could tell through the portraits, and painter Sherwin Ovid rendered them beautifully, becoming more and more abstract as he moved into the last portrait—a “self-portrait” of Anthony. Nia later used these men’s stories in the animation that Manual Cinema created at the end of the film.

A. MARINA CITY TOWERS. RESIDENCE FOR FICTIONAL ART CRITIC FINLEY STEPHENS. SET PHOTO.
B. FINLEY’S APARTMENT. INSPIRED BY THE HOME OF MID-CENTURY DESIGNER GAE AULENTI. SET PHOTO.
C. FINLEY’S APARTMENT. PRINTS BY ELLSWORTH KELLY WERE AMONG THE ARTWORK. SET PHOTO.

Night Driver Gallery

One of my favorite sets was the Night Driver Gallery, where Anthony first shows his “Say My Name” piece. With the amount of time needed
and the stunt rigging, plus splashing fake blood around, I didn’t think we would get permission to close down a working gallery. I visited a huge number of galleries in Chicago, and took my favorite ideas from each one to integrate into the gallery design. I was pretty adamant that it be a warehouse in the gallery district. Chicago’s neighborhoods are so distinctive-looking, and I wanted the exterior to feel believable. After a truly exhaustive search, the location manager Nick Rafferty and his team found the perfect building, an old warehouse space with wood beams and a skylight quintessential to the Chicago gallery look, right in the hub of the current gallery district. The building was just a shell though, so the crew created every aspect of the gallery space, including the polished concrete floor and contemporary storefront entrance. For Brianna’s art exhibition, we worked with curator Hamza Walker, which was a total joy. Hamza is a deeply respected curator with roots in Chicago. Because of his involvement we were able to include real works by artists such as Theaster Gates, Torkwase Dyson, Arnold Kemp and graffiti by Tubs.

A. FINLEY’S BATHROOM AND HALLWAY FLOOR PLAN. DRAWING BY ARIFA CHAND. THE SET WAS BUILT TWICE, REFLECTED AND ON A SMALL TILT, TO ACHIEVE THE MIRROR SCENE.
B. FINLEY’S BATHROOM. SET PHOTO.

Finley’s Apartment

From the beginning, Nia had the idea of placing Finley’s home in the iconic Marina City, designed by Bertrand Goldberg in the 1960s. This was an absolutely perfect setting for an art critic, with its design history and relative affordability. I know that I drove our line producer mad by insisting on shooting there, with only two very, very small, rickety period elevators for access. The real challenge was finding the right apartment. I really wanted the apartment to feel like it was preserved architecturally as much as possible, as a lot of the apartments (all personally owned) had been remodeled and had lost much of their architectural integrity. Walls were knocked down into adjacent apartments, original metal cabinets ripped out and replaced with clashing materials (such as cherry- stained wood). It was truly horrifying. I wanted the most preserved and authentic unit for a character engaged in the criticism of art and architecture, but another problem was that the units that were perfectly period preserved were ridiculously small. I must have driven the location department absolutely crazy, as we scouted what seemed like an endless number of units in the buildings. I started researching architects that had renovated units, maintaining artistic integrity, and that’s actually how we found the hero unit. As inspiration for Finley’s taste, we looked at images of the home of Gae Aulenti, an Italian furniture designer and architect, with a timeless, classic, modernist look. Set decorator Ryan Watson filled it with a beautiful collection of classic Italian furniture pieces, in black and white, with shades of blue and gray and pops of red, adorned with modernist prints by Ellsworth Kelly.

We decided to build the hallway and bathroom needed for the story on stage, as hallways in the units weren’t something that existed. Nia had really specific blocking in mind for how she wanted to shoot the scene. With the buildings being round, all the units are like wedges of a pie, with everything on a curve. We decided to make the hallway leading to the bedroom and bathroom also curved to make it more interesting. To create the mirror scene, we built the set twice, so we could shoot both the action and “reflection” practically.

Candyman was a film that I really loved being a part of. There was so much opportunity for social commentary packed in what I thought could be a very stylish genre film. Nia DaCosta was also an incredible collaborator and she really allowed me to participate in the overall storytelling process throughout the film and that’s what I’ve always hoped to achieve by working in the Art Department. ADG

A. FINLEY’S HALLWAY. SET PHOTO.
B. ANTHONY’S GALLERY. PRODUCTION STILL. UNIVERSAL PICTURES.

Cara Brower, Production Designer

Jami Primmer, Art Director

Arifa Chand, Anita Gallo, Scott Herbertson, Lisa Korpan, Samia Malik, Set Designers

Mary Hayes, Joel Waldrep, Graphic Artists

Ryan Watson, Set Decorator

January - February 2022

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