…God gets the last laugh!
Episode 5 of “The Other Two” season 2, takes place almost entirely inside a fictional “cool church” called “Christsong.” A ripe area for hilarious jokes and one of the sets we worked hardest to nail the very specific and unique vibe of the “cool church” phenomenon.
When I detail the true saga of dressing this set and finally filming it, you will see what I mean by “God gets the last laugh.” And by saga I mean S-A-G-A.
First joke to me, was when we scouted the rooftop pool party and baptism location in mid-Feburary with literal ice still on the ground:
you tell me we are going to film a pool party with actors in the water out here in a few weeks? Pictured on. the tech scout: Leadman Bo Wangkeo and Production Designer Maggie Ruder.
Ice or not, Maggie the production designer and the set decorating team got to work pulling references of the aesthetic of cool church mixed with a Coachella pool party (another touchstone mentioned in the script) to inspire and ground our design and decoration.
Maggie even found this INCREDIBLE research reference: a graphic designer who specializes in design for cool church and defining that aesthetic.
For instance for this very real magazine “Bible Study Magazine.”
Fast forward to mid-March on a nice sunny Friday when spring truly feels right around the corner, we are dressing the pool party set. We secure the valances we custom made and installed with zip ties crossing our fingers they will be secure over the weekend for when we film on Monday.
That Sunday cold winds were howling across New York City, and I only had one thought: I HOPE OUR VALANCES STAY PUT.
I kept thinking about how the maintenance workers at the pool said the winds can get so intense where the pool is that they have seen pool furniture and umbrellas lift right off the roof in the wind 😱.
I had a full body moment of anxiety even wondering if I should stop by the pool location (two boroughs away from where I live) to check on the valances and the set. But I was able to talk myself down and remind myself my grandma’s favorite saying “que sera sera.”
So I set my alarm for the next morning at 4am 😭 since we were scheduled to finish the pool set that morning before filming, said a small prayer for our valances and went to sleep.
Remember that saying “Beware the Ides of March?”
Monday March 15 was unseasonably cold. LIKE BELOW FREEZING COLD (25 F). ☠️ ☠️ ☠️Remember this is a pool scene where actors get inside the pool???
Here’s a little snapshot of the Art and Set Decoration team getting to work at 5am:
can you hear how cold that is?
Leadman Bo with set dressers Mina and Sean.
Regardless we all keep on gamely dressing the set getting it ready for filming or for someone to call off filming those scenes today (whichever comes first). Our fingers were literally freezing.
And then we get to the famous hurry-up-and-wait portion of tv making.
I’m extremely grateful everyone kept a good attitude going when it would have been perfectly understandable to be cranky at this point.
And finally we get the set finished! After those weeks of research and planning it has materialized before our eyes…
the whole pool party vibe makes it look so much warmer than it actually was. You can see more set photos here.
…and of course once everything was ready to go, the call was finally made to not shoot the pool party scenes that day. A VERY SENSIBLE DECISION.
You might think that’s what I meant by saga, but hahaha that’s only the beginning of the journey of dressing this set and what you finally see on screen in Episode 5.
We have decided to now film these pool party scenes a week later on March 23. Ok great. So we start taking everything down and securing it all to film again in a week.
On March 22, I had a tech scout, but I get a photo from the set dressers that everything is going well. It is even warm enough for one our set dressers Aaron to get in the pool to wrangle everything.
Things are looking great for filming the next day, but then all of a sudden Monday afternoon we get some abruptly shocking news: our production is shutting down for two weeks because of a COVID outbreak in our cast and crew. 😱.
So the next day we take down all the dressing again for two weeks later when we can film this scene finally…
When that time comes now, in early April…we get shut down AGAIN because of another COVID outbreak. (Yes, if you are keeping track at home that is THREE TIMES we have dressed this set only for weather or pandemic viral outbreak to prevent us from filming the scenes…an “Act of God” you might say?”)
Finally mid-April (at which point I’m no longer on this job because the next job I’m decorating has already started and I found another decorator to replace me to oversee the fourth time this set will be dressed) the pool scene (in wonderful warm weather) is finally shot.
More than 1 month later than originally planned, 4 times dressing and taking things down:
HALLELUJAH
To see more shots of this set, please see the portfolio section of my website here.
Ok, one little extra behind-the-scenes tidbit related to this set:
During one production meeting showrunner, creator, and writer Chris Kelly expressed his wish that not only would there be jokes in the lines and the set up of all the cool church scenes, but that visually each frame shot in these scenes would contain jokes from the wardrobe department, hair and makeup, props, and in the sets. In essence we were all coming together to really milk all the comedy potential from this premise.
Growing up in a Southern Baptist church, years of Sunday School, Bible Studies, Vacation Bible School I felt this was a challenge I was uniquely positioned to answer. So I started the wheels turning in the background of my mind of how we could add in some jokes in the decor details…
One weekend while going through Manhattan it dawned on me JESUS TURNING WINE INTO WATER! That should be the theme of our centerpieces in the VIP section of “Christsong” and the bar area near the pool.
Graphic Designer extraordinaire Loren Kane came up with these drink menus based on the idea.
You can also see the drink menus as centerpieces when we get into the VIP church members only party.