Set in 1947, the drama of Mildred Ratched was my very first experience working on a Ryan Murphy TV show. I entered the Art Dept. halfway through right about the time when episode 4 was about to be shot. However, some parts of the previous episodes were not fully complete so prepping multiple episodes simultaneously became a new norm. Other than normal day-to-day Assistant Art Director runs, luckily, I was involved in two of the flashback scenes on episode 3 and 6 which were scheduled to be shot close to one another.
In both episode 3, "Angel of Mercy” and episode 7, “The Bucket List” we see a brief flashback of Mildred’s younger self-serving in an army file hospital on an island in the Philippines during War World II. The scene was prepped and shot on location at Point Mugu State Park then was partially recreated on a sound stage at FOX Studios. We knew we only had one night to shoot on location therefore many details were planned ahead of time. Our construction crew started to layout the sets about a week and a half before the Greens, picture vehicles, and other heavy equipment arrived. The majority of the build and preparation were completed at FOX such as period graphics for the ambulances and some medical tents. Point Mugu had the perfect beach for our scene in terms of the scale. We were able to set the tents between the tide line and the rocky background. In order to see the tide line at night, we needed to set one of the major medical tents pretty close to the water. Therefore, some extra measures were implemented to avoid the wash from the waves when we left the set overnight.
Prepping at location
Prepping on stage
Concept Model
Preparation
The Night Of
In episode 6, "Got No Strings” we were introduced to Mildred’s childhood tragedies through a marionette theatre. Ryan wanted the whole live-action flashback to match the marionette show when Mildred was drowning in her childhood memories. Multiple departments were coordinated to create two looks of the same narrative. One we shot in live-action with actors on location and some built sets. We also prepped a mini version for the marionette theater. If you look close enough you will find that some puppets have the same facial expression from the previous live-action shots. Not to mention the sets were matched and included some identical mini hardware.
Concept Sketches
Stills
Backdrop Painting
