Behind the Oscar scenes
DEREK McLane, production designer on this year’s Academy Awards — which under pain of death he can’t discuss — on designing last year’s Academy Awards:
“I’ve done many Broadway shows. Those old, narrow theaters have small stages with limited ability to fly sets and cramped wing space. Frontrow audiences can spot stagehands or actors awaiting a cue in the wings, scratching themselves. But the visual’s one way. People just sit in the seats. Also, no stairs.
“TV is different. Closeups of scenery. Different angles. Cameras go tight. On paper you draw lines and map ways to conceal sightlines. I started sketching in May. Then a scale model’s put together. Early fall you hone in on the design and four shops build it.
“Oscar stars must enter easily. To not torture them, I avoid stage stairs. From the auditorium stars walk up to the stage — not down. Last year, Jennifer Lawrence took a tumble. No banisters. They’d be in the way.
“Things can always go wrong. Daniel Radcliffe, removing his harness coming up from our Broadway ‘How To Succeed in Business’ pit, dropped his book prop. A pro, never blinking an eye, he just kept going. We knew everything, having worked on this show nine months before it opened. My assistant ran out, glued together a book cover and pages and got it backstage within minutes.
“You try to reflect an actor’s personality. Casting changes, script rewrites or a replacement can’t climb steps, you work with the director or quick add an unseen chair lift. Listen, sometimes a piece of the set falls off or there’s an automation hangup. Always some problem.” And how did he nail the job to design the Academy Awards?
“Like actors, set designers have agents.”