CREATING THE FORESTS OF LACONIA FOR EXPANSE S6

A view of the uper rigging that supported 200 trees in Stage B

Rigging gaffer Gary Deneault’s lighting plot showing the placement of 100 Kino Flo Image 87 fixtures. They were lamped with 5600K bulbs

An early lighting test we shot with the Alexa Mini and Cooke Classic Pancho lenses to get a sense of how the day lighting was looking with a hint of SFX haze.

Laconia S6 features a story line set on the new planet Laconia, in amongst its dense forests. The collective decision was made to make this a studio build rather than try to accomplish this in a real forest. We needed controllable weather / light conditions & dealing with the restrictive hours of the child actors (minors) who are the leads in this story line.
 
 Over 200 25’ tall real tree trunks were trucked in. Rigging grip Ed Lipscombe and his team and engineer consultant Jeff Archbold, created a system of pipe, aircraft cable and concrete floor anchors to erect and support these trees. 2500 individual tree branches were hand screwed to all the trunks. Branches were treated with a fire retardant spray. Tons of soil and mulch were used to create super realistic ground cover. All by greensman Jim Peters. Rob Valeriote and his construction team made the rocky glade (pond) area and Cara’s family hut – which was fully practical inside and out. The whole process took roughly 4 months.

Early progress of the tree trunks being erected. The grid cloth has been rigged to the rafters, house lights are on here.

 
Rigging gaffer Gary Deneault was involved even before the trees went in, weeks in advance. 100x Kino Flo Image 87’s were hung at the very top of the metal truss ceiling in that stage. Ed’s team covered the entire ceiling with Lite Grid Cloth a few feet below the 87’s, to create a sky ambience. Curtain track was run around the entire stage, with 40 foot tall Day Grey fabric, Solid and blue screen. Day Grey we used for day scenes for the illusion of overcast sky when viewed through the trees. For night, we would draw the solid curtains. When more of an opening was seen through the trees, we would draw the blue screen. We had enough fabric on this degree track that we could cover a 180 degree view. 
 

The late day gloom look on little Cara.

 
Studio Force 72’s, Robe Blades and Arri 360 SkyPanels at around 2800K & 3200K (87’s were lamped w/ 5600K tubes) on scissor lifts that could move around the entire perimeter of the set to create a warm soft/hard sun. 
 
Laconia was shot Cooke Classic Speed Panchros, 2:39:1 ratio (the rest of the show was 2:1, Cooke S5). 
 
 
When the set was struck, the trees were used by Water Front Toronto in the new Don River redirection project, where they will form part of an underwater fish habitat.