• About Us
  • Advertising on Awards Daily
Monday, March 27, 2023
  • Login
  • Register
No Result
View All Result
Awardsdaily
  • Home
  • Good As Gold
  • AD TV
  • Calendar 2023
  • Podcasts
  • Interviews
  • Follow us on Twitter
    • Awards Daily
    • Sasha Stone
    • Ryan Adams
    • Clarence Moye
    • Mark Johnson
  • All News
  • Home
  • Good As Gold
  • AD TV
  • Calendar 2023
  • Podcasts
  • Interviews
  • Follow us on Twitter
    • Awards Daily
    • Sasha Stone
    • Ryan Adams
    • Clarence Moye
    • Mark Johnson
  • All News
No Result
View All Result
Awardsdaily
No Result
View All Result

‘Run This Town’ Production Designer Chris Crane Realizes Journalism, Political Clash

The Ben Platt-starring film received a Canadian Screen Award nomination for Best Art Direction/Production Design.

by Clarence Moye
March 11, 2020
in Production Design
3
‘Run This Town’ Production Designer Chris Crane Realizes Journalism, Political Clash

(Photo: SXSW.com)

(Photo: IMDB)

Ricky Tollman’s Run This Town is a fictionalized account of Toronto mayor Rob Ford’s final year in office. In the film, journalist Bram Shriver (Ben Platt) tries to get his hands on a video of Ford (Damian Lewis) smoking crack to break the story for his struggling newspaper. The film premiered at last year’s South By Southwest film festival and recently received three Canadian Screen Award nominations.

Production designer Chris Crane received one of those CSA nominations for his work on Run This Town. On the surface, the film doesn’t appear to be the kind of period drama that typically receives awards attention. But look closer. For the film, Crane brilliantly recreates the political world of the Toronto mayor’s office as well as the crumbling world of print journalism. In all great production design, the tiniest details help sell the story and envelope the viewer in the world of the film. Crane’s work on Run This Town does exactly that.

Here, Chris Crane talks to Awards Daily about his cinematic inspirations for the film. He also shares his strategy for using color in key ways within the film, avoiding bland palates in favor of unexpectedly vibrant colors. Finally, he shares the biggest challenges in building the world of Run This Town.

Awards Daily: Congratulations on the Canadian Screen Award nomination for Run This Town! It’s nice to see production design that’s not necessarily a costume drama receive attention.

Chris Crane: Yes, variety is always good, I think.

AD: Absolutely. So, when Ricky Tollman approached you with the script for Run This Town, what were  your initial thoughts about working on the project?

CC: For me, I really liked the script, but I don’t know that I fully understood the aesthetic yet. I took it as a more serious drama, and while it’s obviously not a comedy, it does have these dark comedic elements to it. I went in with a package showing different office references I found and a vision of what city hall would look like and other things. Ricky wanted to have a little more fun with the newspaper since it’s totally fictionalized. He saw it as a little more run down and dated than I expected it to be. It caused us to have more fun with the overall aesthetic. I already liked the material, but it became more exciting as we shifted focus from making it hyper-realistic to making it just look really good.

AD: The newspaper office featured in Run This Town is an office on the decline. How do you reflect that in the design?

CC: First, we went through as many options as we could find. I didn’t want to make it look super period. I didn’t want people to see it and think it was totally from the past. So we leaned into a lot of oranges. There’s some older technology in the corners of the spaces, but there’s still computers everywhere, phones, and everyone’s using texts. The office has been declining since the late 80s, early 90s, so there’s stuff left over – awards from back in the day or articles framed on the walls. We’re leaving these breadcrumbs as to it not really getting that overhaul that it should have had.

AD: Backing up a bit, when you started getting engaged in the project and thinking about what the spaces would look like, what were some of your cinematic inspirations? Did you call back to any films?

CC: Ricky had some films that he and the DP, Nick Haight, were influenced by, especially in the tone of the script like All the President’s Men or Absence of Malice.

AD: It reminded me a lot of Zodiac too.

CC: Yes, that was a big one. We looked at those films as a way to update the aesthetic but still have a nod to something retro. It was fun to try and fight that as well. We did the door in some of the side rooms  in bright oranges, so I wanted to keep the bullpen a little more neutral. When he walked in, Ricky was like, “Where’s all the orange?” So I ran out and grabbed a few things to fill the space. It was fun for him to want more. I’m so used to doing films where the director wants it hyper realistic, very lived in. That’s fun to do, but it’s also fun to play a little more and have fun with colors, graphics, and stuff like that.

AD: So, how do you think color is used in your design? 

CC: For me, because the movie mostly takes place in different office environments, I was really afraid of having the offices look really similar. So, we obviously knew what Toronto city hall looked like. Luckily, there was a lot of blues and purples, kind of mid-century aspects to the space. We then came up with the orange as the accent-ish color for The Record with a lot of creams and black to offset it. Then, we had some fun with the police station. It was a mid-century closed police station in Toronto that you can shoot in. It had a weird accent wall of turquoise tile left over from a city pool. A lot of shows filming there covered it up, but we leaned into it and brought some stark turquoises and plums for that space. Ultimately, I didn’t want people to think we just rolled the scene dressing from one scene to the next, so we honestly tried to reinvent each space and make them unique. For me, an easy way to do that is through color.

AD: The interior scenes weren’t obviously filmed, for example, in the actual mayor’s office. Tell me about finding spaces in which you could create these sets.

CC: We thought the newspaper office would be the hardest to find. We ended up finding a very old, closed down media office which hosted smaller newspapers in the 1990s that was empty. It was kind of perfect in a way, even though it was a newspaper office, it didn’t function as we needed it to. That was mostly painting and set decoration and cleaning up. Some of the ceiling had caved in.

But then we found out that, no, city hall was going to be the hardest to find. There was a space that we looked at for the newspaper office that didn’t work. It was an old Lever Brothers soap factory in Toronto. The carpet was destroyed. The walls had been used as practice for golf. But it had some of the look for city hall and the right space. That was the biggest build and transformation.

AD: You’ve talked about some of the challenges already, but what was the thing that kept you up the most at night?

CC: I think it was probably getting city hall right. We shot the city hall and council chamber at city hall at night, so we could kind of roam around and take photos to make sure we’d copied things appropriately for our fake city hall. My worry was that it wouldn’t look enough like the real thing. The real mayor’s office is actually on the second level. There were a lot of details that I wished we could have brought in, but because of space and time, we couldn’t do it. That was the most stressful, but I think we did pull it off.

Run This Town is now playing in theaters.

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Reddit
  • WhatsApp
  • Print
Tags: Chris CraneProduction designRun This Town
Clarence Moye

Clarence Moye

Clarence Moye is an editor of film and television at Awards Daily. He is a member of Critics Choice and the Hollywood Critics Association. Follow him on Twitter at @ClarenceMoye.

Related Posts

Production Designer Rick Carter and Set Designer Karen O’Hara On Chronicling Steven Spielberg’s Family Life for ‘The Fabelmans’

Production Designer Rick Carter and Set Designer Karen O’Hara On Chronicling Steven Spielberg’s Family Life for ‘The Fabelmans’

by Joey Moser
January 13, 2023
0

Dealing with a person's past can be tricky. You might wonder if a writer or director is going too deep...

‘After Yang’ Production Designer Alexandra Schaller Creates a Subtle Vision of the Future

‘After Yang’ Production Designer Alexandra Schaller Creates a Subtle Vision of the Future

by Ben Morris
January 5, 2023
0

Alexandra Schaller is the production designer for A24's After Yang. Starring Colin Farrell, Jodie Turner-Smith, and Haley Lu Richardson and...

How ‘Cabinet of Curiosities’ Production Designer Tamara Deverell Created 8 Distinct Worlds to Terrorize Us

How ‘Cabinet of Curiosities’ Production Designer Tamara Deverell Created 8 Distinct Worlds to Terrorize Us

by Joey Moser
December 30, 2022
0

Everything Guillermo del Toro puts on screen is atmospheric. He is a master of mood, color, and pacing, and his...

How Victoria Paul Transformed the Surrounding Pittsburgh Area For ‘A League of Their Own’

How Victoria Paul Transformed the Surrounding Pittsburgh Area For ‘A League of Their Own’

by Joey Moser
December 29, 2022
0

As a Pittsburgh native, I was enthralled when I realized that Prime Video's A League of Their Own was filmed in...

‘Banshees,’ ‘Empire of Light’ Production Designer Mark Tildesley on Creating Uniquely Cinematic Worlds

‘Banshees,’ ‘Empire of Light’ Production Designer Mark Tildesley on Creating Uniquely Cinematic Worlds

by Clarence Moye
December 15, 2022
0

Celebrated, Emmy-winning production designer Mark Tildesley (London 2012 Olympic Opening Ceremony: Isle of Wonder; Netflix's The Two Popes) boasts two...

Trailer Drops for She Said

‘She Said’ Production Designer Meredith Lippincott on the Challenges of the Globe-Spanning Contemporary Film

by Clarence Moye
December 12, 2022
0

Production designer Meredith Lippincott primarily designs environments for contemporary films. Her growing resume includes the indie sensation Never Rarely Sometimes...

Next Post
Emmy Spotlight: Netflix’s ‘Invader Zim: Enter the Florpus’ for Outstanding TV Movie

Emmy Spotlight: Netflix's 'Invader Zim: Enter the Florpus' for Outstanding TV Movie

Whoopi Goldberg Conducts In Conversation Event with Forest Whitaker During Finale Screening of ‘Godfather of Harlem’

Whoopi Goldberg Conducts In Conversation Event with Forest Whitaker During Finale Screening of ‘Godfather of Harlem’

March 25, 2023
daisy jones and the six ayesha harris

Daisy Jones & The Six’s Ayesha Harris on Whether Bernie is in a Love Triangle with Simone and Daisy

March 25, 2023
Reframe: Zero Dark Thirty

Reframe: Zero Dark Thirty

March 25, 2023
daisy jones and the six ayesha harris

Daisy Jones & The Six’s Ayesha Harris on Whether Bernie is in a Love Triangle with Simone and Daisy

by Megan McLachlan
March 25, 2023
0

Awards Daily chats with Ayesha Harris, who plays Bernie on Amazon's Daisy Jones & The Six, about her character's backstory...

2023 Emmy Predictions: Have Our Drama and Comedy Series Emmy Winners Marched In?

2023 Emmy Predictions: Have Our Drama and Comedy Series Emmy Winners Marched In?

by Clarence Moye
March 24, 2023
6

It's time to start taking the Emmy race seriously. Especially since the month of March debuted two extraordinarily strong contenders...

The Best of SXSW 2023: ‘Air,’ ‘John Wick,’ ‘Dungeons & Dragons’ and More Epic Crowd-Pleasers

The Best of SXSW 2023: ‘Air,’ ‘John Wick,’ ‘Dungeons & Dragons’ and More Epic Crowd-Pleasers

by Shadan Larki
March 26, 2023
6

I’m a few days removed from SXSW 2023; I’ve given myself time to sit with the 30+ movies and TV...

Apple Joins Amazon in Committing to Help Save Theaters

Apple Joins Amazon in Committing to Help Save Theaters

by Sasha Stone
March 23, 2023
77

The debate rages on as to whether films in theaters will survive. We already know event films will have no...

Doezzz ‘Yellowjackets’ Zzzeason 2 Avoid the Dreaded Zzzophomore Zzzlump?

Doezzz ‘Yellowjackets’ Zzzeason 2 Avoid the Dreaded Zzzophomore Zzzlump?

by Clarence Moye
March 21, 2023
0

We're back after a week off following the Academy Awards, and we're diving into one of our most feverishly anticipated...

daisy jones & the six music supervisor frankie pine

Music Supervisor Frankie Pine On Turning the Cast of ‘Daisy Jones & The Six’ Into Rock Stars

by Megan McLachlan
March 17, 2023
2

Daisy Jones & The Six music supervisor Frankie Pine talks to Awards Daily about band camp, featuring "Gold Dust Woman"...

AwardsDaily Crew

  • About Us
  • Sasha Stone
  • Editor Ryan Adams
  • Editor Clarence Moye
  • Editor Mark Johnson
  • Contact Us

ADTV Crew

  • ADTV Home
  • Megan McLachlan, Editor
  • Joey Moser, Editor
  • Clarence Moye, Editor
  • Jalal Haddad, Senior Contributor
  • Shadan Larki
  • Ben Morris
  • David Phillips
  • Advertising on Awards Daily
  • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Oscar Podcast
  • AwardsDailyTV

© 2023 JNews - Premium WordPress news & magazine theme by Jegtheme.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Good As Gold
  • AD TV
  • Calendar 2023
  • Podcasts
  • Interviews
  • Follow us on Twitter
    • Awards Daily
    • Sasha Stone
    • Ryan Adams
    • Clarence Moye
    • Mark Johnson
  • All News

© 2023 JNews - Premium WordPress news & magazine theme by Jegtheme.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password? Sign Up

Create New Account!

Fill the forms below to register

All fields are required. Log In

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In