Los Angeles' Union Station books another starring role: The Oscars
The Oscars are headed to downtown Los Angeles' Union Station this year for the first time, simply the historic site and active transportation hub is already a moving-picture show star.
John Parkinson and his son Donald Parkinson's stunning blend of Mission Revival and Fine art Deco styles has been a popular film site since it was completed in 1939, with supporting roles in movies from Bract Runner to The Dark Knight Rises.
"Visually, information technology's such an incredible identify and it's such a throwback to onetime Hollywood," said JJ Levine, a location manager. "I beloved that the Oscars are going to be there."
Union Station has been in car commercials, reality shows and procedurals (Levine shot there for "NCIS: Los Angeles"). But with its beamed ceilings, Spanish tile floors and regal statuary chandeliers, it actually shines in picture palace when it's playing a train station, depository financial institution, constabulary station, club or airport.
"Through its corridors and main lobby take passed gangsters (Bugsy), drug dealers (Mike'due south Murder), political protesters (The Style Nosotros Were), munchkins (Under The Rainbow) and even an alien in heat disguised equally a railroad usher (Species)," filmmaker Thom Andersen observed in his 2003 documentary Los Angeles Plays Itself.
The building is also a "favourite site for movie kidnappings" in films like Nick Of Time and To Live And Die In LA.
And it doesn't always "play itself". It'southward the police station in Blade Runner and the Los Angeles International Aerodrome in The Replacement Killers. It was a New York railway station in the World War 2 epic Pearl Harbor and the modernistic Justin Timberlake rom-com Friends With Benefits; the outside of a 1950s pic studio in Hail, Caesar!; Demi Moore'south pad in Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle; and the insurgents' Gotham Urban center courthouse in The Dark Knight Rises. Information technology also had a starring role in the 1950 film noir Spousal relationship Station with William Holden and Nancy Olson, only that was set in Chicago.
"I can't await to see information technology. I'm sure it will await fantastic," said Mike Fantasia, a supervising location managing director who worked there on Catch Me If You Can and Seabiscuit.
In Grab Me If You Can, the ticketing area was transformed into the Miami bank where Leonardo DiCaprio'southward grapheme meets Elizabeth Banks' teller. For Seabiscuit, they turned the then-defunct Harvey House eating place into a club.
"Everyone wants to get there because it'south an iconic edifice in Los Angeles. It's been beautifully maintained and restored. It's but a classic building," Fantasia said. "You see the exterior, you meet that ticket berth – anyone who knows LA knows where you are."
Information technology's not cheap, Fantasia said, simply, "You more than get your money'southward worth".
Matrimony Station also recently wrapped an viii-yr, US$four.i million restoration project, and so information technology volition be looking its all-time for the stars and viewers around the world on Sunday (Apr 25).
The Academy Awards testify has moved effectually quite a few times in its 93 years. The first ceremony, a banquet with 270 guests, was held at The Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel in 1929. Afterward that information technology shifted to the Administrator and Biltmore hotels. It's been held at Grauman's Chinese Theatre, the Shrine Civic Auditorium, the University'southward Melrose Avenue Theater, the Pantages Theater, the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, and, since 2002, the Dolby (formerly Kodak) Theater at Hollywood and Highland, just a block away from the inaugural show's location.
"The producers were clear that they were committed to doing this in a different way and looking at alternative venues," said David Rockwell, the production designer for the 93rd Oscars. "We thought nearly ways to create the elegance of the earliest Oscars."
There will still exist some testify elements from the Dolby, merely the bulk of the activeness – from the red rug to the ceremony – will be at Union Station.
Rockwell said the venue was "appealing on the concept level and the practical level." He noted the "generous scale" and distinctive expect of the spaces.
The bear witness'southward producers will be using natural light from the 40ft windows in the main bear witness area before the sun sets during the ceremony, and localised lighting at the tables in the room. Information technology'll exist a significantly less crowded affair than in the past, down from the 3,400 available seats at the Dolby to only 170 in the main room at whatever given time, due to COVID-19 protocols. The thought is to make the ceremony an intimate experience for both attendees (but nominees and a guest) and the audience at abode.
"It's not about spectacle, it's about storytelling," Rockwell said. A constant refrain from those involved is that this year will feel more like a movie than a tv set evidence.
"It's kind of a bright notion to apply LA'due south Union Station every bit a setting for the Oscars," said Fandango Managing Editor Erik Davis. "It'south got that movieland history as a classic filming location and as a destination where the stars arrived in boondocks during Hollywood'southward Golden Age."
The venue selection did not come without some controversy and worries about how it will impact double-decker and rail services, which Metro has said will not be afflicted.
Reporter Alissa Walker wrote in Curbed that, "Every bit anyone who has been there during a picture show shoot, navigating closed-off entrances and heavily patrolled detours, knows, it will cease up negatively impacting people who rely on transit." Only the decision had already been made.
Davis thinks Union Station might be simply what the testify needs.
"Information technology's a existent chameleon equally a movie location with so many unlike looks that viewers will feel like the bear witness is constantly changing, and that kind of versatility will hopefully assistance go along their attention for more than three hours. It should re-energise the Oscars," Davis said. "There's a sense of cinematic déjà vu about the place... fifty-fifty if yous never visited, you have been in that location in many movies! When producer Steven Soderbergh said that this year's Oscars would feel similar a movie, we now know exactly what that is."
Viewers in Singapore tin can take hold of the awards show alive on Channel 5 and meWATCH on Apr 26 from half-dozen.30am for cherry-red carpet arrivals and at 8am for the main show.
(Source: AP)
0 Response to "Los Angeles' Union Station books another starring role: The Oscars"
Post a Comment