Patric

This psychological Thriller starring AnthonyLawton (Silver Linings Playbook) needed some dark and detailed sets to highlight the main character’s alienation from society and decent into delusional madness. I designed the set for his Living Room, where most of the action takes place, to look like a first floor pre- war brownstone that was originally decorated by his wife, but has gradually become more utilitarian and disheveled. We used real reprint Victorian wallpaper and 30’s era antiques. To create sympathy for his character, and show Patric’s love of books, the real centerpiece of the room was the massive Bookcase. Acting as a representation of his highly intelligent, yet increasingly unhinged mind, the bookcase was a carefully disorganized jumble of encyclopedias, fishing books and memorabilia, and religious iconography.

To serve the story, we purchased a working Rowboat to use for the scenes of Patric on a lake, and then as he descends into madness, made it look as if he was cutting the boat apart to build what would become a bizarre Mobile in this apartment. Attached to the grid of the studio, and able to hold the weight of a person, this mobile is where he believes he is hanging his victims for his tiger-like cats to rip apart. We hid climbing harnesses in thick rope so hanging there would be a little more comfortable for the actress.

There is quite a bit of action that takes place in Patric’s Bathroom, and it needed to have running water for the shower, so Hill Studios built the set up on a platform for water drainage, and we were able to fly walls in and out to shoot in such a small space.

Production was so happy with the other sets that they decided to have us build a kitchen instead of finding one, so I had 4 days to design, build, and prop the Kitchen set.

For the Diner scenes, we looked into shooting in a practical location, but for a variety of logistical reasons, it made more sense to build it. I designed the diner based on the classic Kitchen/Counter/Booths setup, just shrunken slightly to match the Exterior location of the Silk City diner in Philadelphia. Hill studios did a great job with all the Formica work, and I added a ledge of soffit up-lighting to get that classic diner look. The tricky part was switching between a Present day diner one day, and changing it overnight to shoot Patric’s paranoid fantasy of a wired in, antisocial Futuristic Diner the next day. The future diner had Beakers of “Energy Drink”, Robotic Mannequins, and geometric, Unappetizing food. Because the windows only had blinds in them, we could raise them and shoot into the set from outside, getting Camera angles that would have been impossible in a real diner.

Credits:
Writer/Director: Sean McGarry
Executive Producer: Jason Milstein
Director of Photography: Mitch Martinez
Production Designer/Art Director: Christopher Jones
Propmaster: Michael Cherkowsky
Set Decorator: Tony Trov
Wardrobe Designer: Rita Squitiere
Set Build/ Studio Location: Hill Studios