TV SHOWS NEED HOME SETS - SO?
We all realize that attempting to shoot a weekly TV series with no interiors would be...
challenging. So how do we create standing sets for a show that takes place on a tropical island? The first three episodes (or perhaps as few as two) focus on a growing concern amongst our castaways - rescue isn't coming. The food on the plane is gone. There's no fresh water. So...
The mission is clear - Despite the inherent dangers of the jungle, they have to RELOCATE.
Our idea is to build a jungle inside a soundstage. And in this patch of jungle, our characters will begin to build their own "mini" sets. Call it a primitive "Melrose Place."
This new "camp" will become our home set. A set where we can regulate time of day, weather conditions, etc. This is where our thirteen characters live, eat, sleep - it is their base of operations. It is their Precinct House. Their ER. Their Law Firm.
And as we mentioned earlier, if and when these sets grow visually tiresome, some or all of the castaways may relocate to the vast UNDERGROUND COMPLEX they uncover, although this might not happen until well into the second season.
The goal for LOST is this - structure each story so that half of the episode plays out at HOME (the camp) and the other half plays out AWAY (any where else on the island). "Home"stories will traditionally be more character-driven and survival-based while the "Away" stories will obviously have more action/adventure elements.
Cost containment on the "home sets" seems to be a selling point to the network. Half of the stories would center around character interaction at the camp (home set) and the other half would be the action-adventure in the jungle. The whole series would be moving toward permanent locations such as the camp and the "vast" underground complex the survivors would find by the end of Season 2.
It appears that the producers tried to make this set/location map work.
Hawaiian island of Oahu was used for most of the diverse filming locations. The original island scenes for the pilot were filmed at Mokuleia Beach, near the northwest tip of the island. Later beach scenes take place in secluded spots of the famous North Shore, the big wave surf area. Cave scenes in the first season were filmed on a sound stage built at a warehouse. In 2006, the sound-stage and production offices moved to the Hawaii Film Office-operated Hawaii Film Studio, where the sets depicting Season 2's "Swan Station" and Season 3's "Hydra Station" interiors were built. Various urban areas in and around Honolulu are used as stand-ins for locations around the world, including California, New York, Iowa, Miami, South Korea, Iraq, Nigeria, United Kingdom, Paris, Thailand, Berlin, Maldives and Australia. For example, scenes set in Sydney Airport were actually filmed inside the local Convention Center, while a World War II-era bunker was used as both a Republican Guard installation and a Dharma research station. Several scenes in the Season 3 finale, were shot in Los Angeles, including a hospital set borrowed from Grey's Anatomy. Two scenes during season four were filmed in London because actor Alan Dale (Widmore) was at the time performing in the musical and he was unable to travel to Hawaii.
Very few people would criticize the look and feel of the LOST series. The photography and sets used in the series really transported viewers to a tropical island. The transition shots between vast island valleys, to the close, dense jungle vegetation led us to believe that the show did create a real environment that the characters had to live in. It was probably shot more "on location" that originally proposed, because the main characters never moved everyone from the beach camp into the vast underground bunker. In fact, the beach became less and less a focal point as the series moved forward. The remaining survivors did not set up a functioning "town" at their original camp as inferred by the guidelines above.
The show's original idea that the 13 main characters would have two leaders (Jack and Kate) would have a home base for story structure seems to have been abandoned toward the more action-adventure elements of finding new mysteries, exploring the jungle, being attacked by the unknown and hiking about the jungle on sometimes dubious missions. Then things get really skewed when the O6 gets rescued by Penny's boat and a good chunk of story is removed from the island to LA.
But all in all the stage and setting of the series did work.
We all realize that attempting to shoot a weekly TV series with no interiors would be...
challenging. So how do we create standing sets for a show that takes place on a tropical island? The first three episodes (or perhaps as few as two) focus on a growing concern amongst our castaways - rescue isn't coming. The food on the plane is gone. There's no fresh water. So...
The mission is clear - Despite the inherent dangers of the jungle, they have to RELOCATE.
Our idea is to build a jungle inside a soundstage. And in this patch of jungle, our characters will begin to build their own "mini" sets. Call it a primitive "Melrose Place."
This new "camp" will become our home set. A set where we can regulate time of day, weather conditions, etc. This is where our thirteen characters live, eat, sleep - it is their base of operations. It is their Precinct House. Their ER. Their Law Firm.
And as we mentioned earlier, if and when these sets grow visually tiresome, some or all of the castaways may relocate to the vast UNDERGROUND COMPLEX they uncover, although this might not happen until well into the second season.
The goal for LOST is this - structure each story so that half of the episode plays out at HOME (the camp) and the other half plays out AWAY (any where else on the island). "Home"stories will traditionally be more character-driven and survival-based while the "Away" stories will obviously have more action/adventure elements.
Cost containment on the "home sets" seems to be a selling point to the network. Half of the stories would center around character interaction at the camp (home set) and the other half would be the action-adventure in the jungle. The whole series would be moving toward permanent locations such as the camp and the "vast" underground complex the survivors would find by the end of Season 2.
It appears that the producers tried to make this set/location map work.
Hawaiian island of Oahu was used for most of the diverse filming locations. The original island scenes for the pilot were filmed at Mokuleia Beach, near the northwest tip of the island. Later beach scenes take place in secluded spots of the famous North Shore, the big wave surf area. Cave scenes in the first season were filmed on a sound stage built at a warehouse. In 2006, the sound-stage and production offices moved to the Hawaii Film Office-operated Hawaii Film Studio, where the sets depicting Season 2's "Swan Station" and Season 3's "Hydra Station" interiors were built. Various urban areas in and around Honolulu are used as stand-ins for locations around the world, including California, New York, Iowa, Miami, South Korea, Iraq, Nigeria, United Kingdom, Paris, Thailand, Berlin, Maldives and Australia. For example, scenes set in Sydney Airport were actually filmed inside the local Convention Center, while a World War II-era bunker was used as both a Republican Guard installation and a Dharma research station. Several scenes in the Season 3 finale, were shot in Los Angeles, including a hospital set borrowed from Grey's Anatomy. Two scenes during season four were filmed in London because actor Alan Dale (Widmore) was at the time performing in the musical and he was unable to travel to Hawaii.
Very few people would criticize the look and feel of the LOST series. The photography and sets used in the series really transported viewers to a tropical island. The transition shots between vast island valleys, to the close, dense jungle vegetation led us to believe that the show did create a real environment that the characters had to live in. It was probably shot more "on location" that originally proposed, because the main characters never moved everyone from the beach camp into the vast underground bunker. In fact, the beach became less and less a focal point as the series moved forward. The remaining survivors did not set up a functioning "town" at their original camp as inferred by the guidelines above.
The show's original idea that the 13 main characters would have two leaders (Jack and Kate) would have a home base for story structure seems to have been abandoned toward the more action-adventure elements of finding new mysteries, exploring the jungle, being attacked by the unknown and hiking about the jungle on sometimes dubious missions. Then things get really skewed when the O6 gets rescued by Penny's boat and a good chunk of story is removed from the island to LA.
But all in all the stage and setting of the series did work.
