This
year the Sundance Film Festival lineup will include “Rocket Science,” a film
about a teenager named Hal Hefner who, despite a speech impediment, joins the
debate team in an attempt to pursue his high school crush. The film’s production
designer, Rick Butler, discusses his work on “Rocket Science,” as well as the
specific challenges of working on indie films.
As a
production designer, Butler’s
tasks included scouting the right locations for a story involving
high school debate tournaments. “Rocket Science” takes place in a number of high
schools and residences in New
Jersey, but
for production reasons was actually shot in Maryland.
Fortunately, both director Jeffrey Blitz and Butler are
self-professed Jerseyites and therefore able to discern the subtle differences
between both locales. After scouting dozens of sites, they noticed slight
differences in landscape, flora and fauna between the
Maryland sites
and the intended Jersey
counterparts. Eventually, they found what Butler
described as “middle class residential neighborhoods which we knew to be
identical to what we knew in New
Jersey.” This
meant ’60s era high schools that represented the middle-class American
experience but also had diverse populations, as the students were to be included
as background extras.
Because
the story includes a number of high schools involved in forensic events,
Butler
included high schools with a range of socio-economic backgrounds, including prep
schools and “upper class white suburbia.”
In many
independent movie productions, budget constraints often limit the choice of sets
to locations that already exist, excluding sets built inside rented studios.
However, such constraints can sometimes be a stylistic advantage, as genuine
locations can provide a more lived-in, authentic look. Instead of creating a set
to suit the production’s needs, the challenge lies in finding an existing
location that will do the job.
“We did
extensive location scouting we must have looked at more than a dozen high
schools,” said Butler. “We
looked at dozens of suburban homes to get just the right economic background.”
Butler and
his team enhanced the visual message of class distinction with props and picture
vehicles. “Hal’s high school had run-of-the-mill school buses,” said
Butler. “The
prep school had spiffy people movers.” Butler said
that one character even arrives in a limousine, but most of the main characters
made their way on bikes.
Butler did
extensive research on current high school debate teams, visiting schools with
strong verbal test scores and active debate teams to get a sense of their
world. He also viewed videotapes of
national finals and looked at DVDs and tapes of actual debates.
“The
director wanted the debating materials to be absolutely authentic,” said
Butler. They
observed the way the students handled notes and research materials, noticing
that these days it involves the frequent use of laptops.
The
story required Butler to
find just the right book bag for Hal—and
then break it. “He keeps his notes in second hand book bag with broken wheel.
He’s lugging this little broken carrier everywhere he goes. This was written in
the script.”
“There
were a lot of little details that went into making up what seems like a normal
school environment,” said Butler.
Butler and
his team used actual high school auditoriums and prepared them
for forensic competitions. “Visually we basically had to create debating rooms,
auditoriums set up for debates.” They used a mixture of found objects, such as
an old podium dragged out from a corner, and their own prop creations for a more
authentic look.
For one
scene, which involved that perennial favorite of forensics education – the
Lincoln-Douglas debates, they created amateurish props such as cardboard cutout
trees and top hats. “We had a lot of fun recreating the high school pageant that
was the evocation of the Lincoln-Douglas debates.”
“The
style was intentionally crude,” said Butler about
the set for this scene. “It was made by scenic artists but made to look like it
had been made by high school students.”
While
the look of the film may evoke a typical, everyday high school experience, that
appearance was achieved through much careful consideration. “There were a lot of
little details that went into making up what seems like a normal school
environment.”
The
scenes outside the school environment involved even more complicated set design
than the internal shots. In one case, the set called for extensive environmental
effects to simulate the passage of time. Butler’s
assignment to recreate seasonal change proved to be one of his most difficult
for this project. The landscaping team spread an extensive amount of leaves over
various city streets for the autumnal scenes. Winter scenes required ground snow
and icicles. Artificial trees were made in various seasonal stages, from bald
and icy to lush and green. “We had a good greens team who work in artificial
foliage,” said Butler. “And
they prepared a variety of trees in different stages of the season.”
Despite
all these challenges, Butler feels
that the production design process on an indie movie does not significantly
differ from that of a big budget studio production. “It’s
just a matter of scale” said Butler.
“But the design process is still the same.” However, low budgets of indie films
require creative problem solving to maximize the resources available.
“The
budgets are smaller and there’s less money available to create,” explained
Butler.
“So we use unconventional techniques.”
