- This episode of “Movies Insider,”Find out how movies, TV shows and books disguise modern-day city streets in order to suit historical settings.
- Rena deAngelo, Oscar nominated set decorator, discusses how she made modern-day cities look old for Wes Anderson. “The French Dispatch,”The new “West Side Story,”There are many other period pieces.
- She shows us how window dressing, fake storefronts and period-appropriate colors would make a modern New York City block look like it was 1957.
Below is the transcript of the video.
Narrator:This is Dumbo, Brooklyn in the opening scene. “Bridge of Spies.”Here’s what the block actually looks like today. This street was altered in order to look convincingly like 1957. Rena DeAngelo, an Oscar-nominated set designer who has worked on period pieces such as “The French Dispatch,” “West Side Story,” “The Post,” “Mad Men.”
Rena:Here’s a newsstand you’ll see in every movie. It’s likely that every decorator in New York used it at least 10 times.
Narrator:Rena took us through Eclectic/Encore Props NYC to show how she transformed a New York City street into an 1950s time capsule.
First, hide anything that doesn’t belong in this era when you are scouting a site. This involves removing security cameras and replacing all cars on the streets with vintage vehicles with period plates. Signage is an essential part of any swap. It is important to know your history and choose the right signs.
Rena:In the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s, they used to paint ads on benches. These are fantastic. These would be great in a smoke-shop window.
Narrator:This huge tire sign was used in “Bridge of Spies”Dumbo looked more industrial in the 1950s than its modern look of high-rise apartment blocks. Many neighborhoods were also historically defined through their communities. Therefore, you would need cultural signifiers such as these Hebrew signs or specific food ads. Rena: I think I used Murphy & Ashcom salted fish in “Bridge of Spies.”They look more aged because they are hand-painted. They aren’t mass-produced.
Narrator:It’s the little things that make a difference. It’s likely that the raised text is from the 50s or 60s. The flat text on these signs indicates they were produced later since many cities stopped embossing road signage in the 70s and ’80s. Also, the font is a sign of its age. The spitting sign appears older than the hair parlor sign due to the fact that this typeface was popularized in the ’80s, while the sans serif category is more common. When deciding which sign will fit into an era, decorators consider more than font and embossing. This means that you need to know what signs have been made of in the past.
Rena: Metal. Wood. It’s likely that it dates back to the 20s or 30s because it’s made of cast iron.
Narrator:The signs made with plastics in recent years were lighter than those made of the more modern materials. However, signs can only do so much. Many giveaways today are bolted to the ground. Rena will take care of those who use hollow barrels or crates. Old telephone booths may visually block modern features. This one would look right at home on any Manhattan street corner, from the mid-’50s through the late ’70s. Rena is able to tell that these payphones are from the 50s because of the style and width the dial has. Later, the plastic dial and push button were added in the 70s and 80s. Strategically placed kiosks can conceal larger giveaways such as streetlamps or modern traffic lights. For the ’70s setting, she created six newsstands with a more modern look. “The Post.”To make a 1950s movie, she would use this type of newsstand to fill it up with magazines, newspapers, signs, products, and all things specific to that decade. Eclectic has tons of them.
Rena:It’s all in real packaging.
Narrator:Apart from sourcing period products from prop homes like this one set decorators will also look in the basements of local grocery shops, where shopkeepers often have surplus products from decades past.
Rena:You can use this stuff in a hardware store or beauty parlor.
Narrator:Rena says that the most important thing to make storefronts appear real is the product quantity. Sometimes, she will scan the packaging and print copies. Then, she’ll use them to wrap rows upon rows of empty boxes. Also, set decorators conduct extensive research into the consumer culture of that era, especially when it comes to ’50s pieces. Consumer goods were a major influence on the decade’s imagery. They should know what people bought and sold and what types of services were offered at each block.
Rena:A shoe-repair shop was always available because people didn’t just buy new shoes for the sake of it. They would take them to get their shoes fixed. There’s always a guy who can fix shoes on every street.
Narrator:Window displays were used to showcase new technology like televisions.
Rena:This is ideal for electronics stores.
Narrator:This type of TV would be great for the 1950s.
Rena:This is the ’50s. This is definitely the ’50s. This is the early ’50s.
Narrator:Radios such as this were used by her in the 1950s setting. “French Dispatch.”Even clothing stores have models to fit specific eras.
Rena:They would look great in a ladies clothing store.
Narrator:For the 50 mannequins that filled Gimbels departmental store’s front. “West Side Story,”Rena discovered vintage mannequin head for females that were more round and had less makeup than later decades.
Rena:You can see the differences between the faces. The faces are just different in structure and the hair is molded. This is what I would use in a movie set from the 1950s.
Narrator:In the 1950s, male mannequins appeared much slimmer and skinnier than they do today. She modeled their bodies after teenage-boy mannequins. Another custom-made element “West Side Story”It was not as glamorous.
Rena:This is a modern city street garbage can that we must get rid of. These wire cans, which are older than the current ones, were used on the streets in the ’50s or ’60s. Although it is not very old, we have sprayed paint on it to make it look newer. You can find more “West Side Story,”These were about 400, as they wanted to throw away garbage everywhere.
Narrator:Some details, however, are more difficult to replace like lampposts. You can simply replace the lampposts digitally, but you need these wraps to get that look on set.
Rena:These are these wraps. These are fake wraps that can be used to wrap contemporary light posts and make them into one of these, without having to bring one of the 70-million-pound ones.
Narrator:Designers could also replace the light bulbs as in “Joker.”1981 Gotham had sodium-vapor streetlamps. These gave off an icky orange glow. The team replaced all the LED bulbs with old sodium-vapor ones to achieve the correct lighting.
These fine distinctions can make or break an entire period scene. It can take several days to dress up in all the details necessary to film a few minutes. This is what it takes in order to create a timewarp in the middle bustling urban centers. Rena: 200 newspapers will be made and props 10 will be given to the participants so they can enjoy reading them. If there are 100 people reading the newspaper, props will be made 100. You could go on and on. “The Post,”It was simply piles upon piles of newspapers.