Art Directors Guild : Perspective – Recreating a Familiar World WHITE NOISE

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Perspective Archives

Perspective

Recreating a Familiar World WHITE NOISE

BY JESS GONCHOR, PRODUCTION DESIGNER

November - December 2022

Above Image: EXTERIOR ROADWAY MOTEL SET SKETCH BY GREGORY HILL.

When someone asks me: “What’s the hardest thing about being a Production Designer?” I always say: “Trying to become an expert on a subject in twelve weeks!” It’s like getting hired to create a visual world I know very little about. For example, a period Western like True Grit or high- end fashion world, The Devil Wears Prada—what did I know about old Western towns or Vogue magazine? Not much, that’s for sure. But, I do now because every time I do a show, I get a crash course in the subject. I’ve only had two movies that I felt comfortable tackling right from the start—A Serious Man, about a bar mitzvah and Moneyball, a sports film.

So when I got a call from Noah Baumbach about a 1980s film set in a small college town and during an isolation lockdown, I jumped at the opportunity. I had personally lived through both of these scenarios! I wanted to shoot the movie in Upstate New York where I went to school, but it turned out New York State was too expensive. So, after searching four other states, the production found that Ohio had the best locations to offer and also the best tax credits.

A. EXT. ROADWAY MOTEL FOAM CORE MODEL IN FRONT OF LOCATION PHOTO. THIS IS LIKE PUTTING A TRANS LIGHT BEHIND A SET.
B. VISUAL REFERENCE FOR THE FIRST ACT, TINA BARNEY.
C. VISUAL REFERENCE FOR THE SECOND ACT, *PARIS, TEXAS.*
D. VISUAL REFERENCE FOR THE THIRD ACT, ANDREAS GURSKY PHOTO.

Even better was the opportunity I had to collaborate with some familiar crew members. (And it goes without saying that they are just amazing!) Supervising Art Director Chris Farmer, Art Director Zack Gonchor, Senior Set Designer Adam Mull, Illustrator Greg Hill, Lead Graphic Artist Carly Sertic, Graphic Artist Skyler Pinkerton and Assistant Art Director Adam Gascho. I was lucky enough to meet some very talented new people, Assistant Art Director Michael Manne, Set Designers Colin Sieburgh and Stephen Manka, Graphic Designer Camellia Cox and Art Director Stephen Dudro.

My favorite moment while working on the movie was when costume designer Ann Roth called me up and said, “Can you please give me three visual references for the movie that tell me what you think the first, second and third acts look like? I just need three pictures from you to let me know what you were thinking.” I loved that way of thinking and it hadn’t ever been asked of me...I think it’s a brilliant way of getting on the same page.

A. GLADNEY HOUSE EXTERIOR. LOCATION PHOTO.
B. GLADNEY HOUSE LIVING ROOM. SET PHOTO.
C. GLADNEY HOUSE KITCHEN AND DINING ROOM. SET PHOTO.
D. GLADNEY HOUSE BEDROOM. SET PHOTO.

Also, the one big reference the creative team kept in mind while making this movie was the film Paris, Texas with its use of light and bold colors and the way it mixes primary colors to make secondary colors. This ended up being a key element to the whole look of our film.

One of the biggest interior builds on the film was the Gladney family house interior. The production found a closed-down Kmart that we were able to use as a stage for all three floors of the house. The home—as most houses are—needed to be a hub of activity for a family of six centered around the kitchen. The flow and circulation were particularly important to map out. With all the moving dialog spoken, it had to allow for energy and movement. We would have preferred to build a three-level set, but the stage ceiling was too low. Instead, we built the first floor, the second floor and the attic on three platforms next to each other. Adam Mull, Set Designer, took the lead on the Gladney house and did an amazing job. I really loved the stairs and spindles in the mail foyer.

**Above Image:** GLADNEY HOUSE FIRST- FLOOR ELEVATIONS BY ADAM MULL.

The production found an old Victorian house, the home of a college professor, in Oberlin, Ohio, which served as the exterior for the Gladney home. It fit perfectly because Oberlin itself is a college town that seemed like it could be Blacksmith, our fictional college on the hill town.

A. GLADNEY HOUSE FIRST FLOOR. SET PHOTO.
B. GLADNEY HOUSE RAILING DETAIL.BY ADAM MULL.
C. GLADNEY HOUSE RAILING, IN PROGRESS.

Wellington, Ohio, served as the exterior college on the hill town. This was my favorite set—it was really a blast to create a town that I knew well from the period. As all designers know, sometimes we don’t get to see all we built in the final cut of the film, but White Noise really does show most of the hard work of the crew! Carly Sertic did the most amazing mural for the local record shop and Zack Gonchor was Art Director on this massive project.

***Above Image:*** WELLINGTON FACADES. GRAPHIC LAYOUT BY CARLY SETRIC.

The A&P Supermarket was probably the film’s most time-consuming set. Start to finish, it was about a six-month ordeal. We found an empty Target-like department store with a high- enough ceiling and turned it into the supermarket from scratch. I can’t say enough about what Set Designers Colin Sieburgh and Michael Manne and Graphic Designers Carly Sertic and Skyler Pinkerton did with that supermarket. It was probably the biggest undertaking I’ve ever had on a job. There was nothing in there at all. The set decorators (Claire Kaufman and her team) did an insane job of filling the store after it was built.

A. WELLINGTON FACADES. SET PHOTO.
B. RECORD STORE MURAL. SET PHOTO.

I spoke to Noah about the supermarket really being the nucleus of the town and of the story, so I decided to go very colorful, very bold and very graphic with the set. I wanted to make it the brightest and the cleanest parts of the film. The supermarket being so clean and graphic with no can, box or bag out of place allowed the rest of the movie to unravel a little bit more and feel more unkempt.

I kept thinking about all the products in the supermarket and the journeys they took after being bought. I tried to have some product/branding
in all the sets that came from the supermarket. It’s interesting to see the effect of consumerism and how it filters and amortizes through the sets and story, and of course, this is a key message of the film—the effects of consumerism on human culture.

A. SUPERMARKET EXTERIOR. ILLUSTRATION.
B. SUPERMARKET INTERIOR. FLOOR PLAN DRAWN BY COLIN SIEBURGH.
C. SUPERMARKET INTERIOR. GRAPHIC LAYOUT BY CARLY SETRIC.
D. SUPERMARKET INTERIOR. SET PHOTO.

If the supermarket was the highlight and the brightest set in the movie, the motel exterior was the darkest place of the movie—the wrong side
of the tracks. For Iron City, the very seedy and moody part of town, location manager Ronnie Kupferwasser found an old gravel yard underneath five connecting bridges. It was an amazing fit for the motel facade.

Iron City was also the setting of a German hospital, which was a converted abandoned church that served as a great location to build into. It took a lot of abatement cleaning but was well worth it.

**A-B.** SUPERMARKET INTERIOR. SET PHOTO.

Another big set piece was Murray’s lecture hall, where the Hitler/Elvis debate took place. I didn’t have too many chances to show the campus classrooms of College on the Hill. I took this opportunity to show what a 1980s liberal arts college might look like. I had remembered a multi- purpose theater lab from my college days at SUNY Brockport, which I embellished to create a very theatrical informal improvisational learning space.

A. MOTEL EXTERIOR IN PROGRESS. SET PHOTO.
B. MOTEL SIGN. CONSTRUCTION ELEVATION BY ADAM MULL.
C. MOTEL SIGN. SET PHOTO.

The production wanted to do as much of the train crash in-camera as possible. It’s hard to work with trains and tracks for obvious reasons. We finally found a short private track rail line in Sandersville, GA, that was taken out of commission, allowing us to own a mile of track with complete safety.
We brought in twenty 60-foot tankers from around the country and actually created a collision between a tractor trailer and a train car assembly. Steven Dudro did a great job as Art Director of this while the rest of us were still in Ohio. After the crash, we had a few days to dress the cars for the scene. It was a big job to say the least. The Boy Scout camp was in Ohio and involved
a big build/dress with one hundred fifty period picture cars. This was also a lot of fun. Zack Gonchor did another great job as Art Director—it was a Close Encounters kind of vibe. There was a lot of coordination between stunts, SPFX, picture cars and extras.

A. GERMAN HOSPITAL. SET PHOTO.
B. MURRAY’S LECTURE HALL. ILLUSTRATION BY MICHAEL MANNE.

For the creek—there was no way the crew was going to find an existing creek to hold the needed mechanics. Ultimately, I suggested that we dig our own trench four hundred feet long, line it with asphalt and build in all the rigging for the car. For extending the shot later, the location department found a piece of land about an hour outside of Cleveland that was actually a motocross track and we were able to use that for all the woods driving and digging the creek to create the floating car.

It’s funny but when you finish a film and time goes by, you forget how much you did until you write or talk about it like this. Man, we did a lot! One last thing, none of this would have gotten done without Chris Farmer, Supervising Art Director who led us down a flawless and confident path. Thank you! ADG