Shroud — Set Design “Undercroft Manor”
Given our time table, limited budget and other logistics, we chose to only shoot in two rooms of a lovely Victorian house in Grapevine, Texas.
This location fulfills my First Tenet of Production Design: don’t build a set if you don’t have to. In short, if there is a great location—use it! Don’t go through the effort of building what someone has already built for you.
Undercroft’s Manor was perfect with the old style patterned wallpaper and even the textured ceiling, along with the proper color palette and of course, my favorite, textures. Small, the room made our camera choices for us, afforded us symmetry and brought an intimacy to the conversations within it.
One of the plot devices in Shroud are all the black and white family photos that festoon the Victorian furniture. In the script Victoria (Nicole Leigh Jones) notices them, and mistakes them for Mayor Undercroft’s (G. Russell Reynolds) relatives, when in fact they are stolen family heirlooms of his victims.
This room posed a slight problem with a sun-face window that we had to dim, but other than that the room was richly appointed, and with only a few additions of props, was an excellent location for Victoria’s pivotal encounter both with Lady Undercroft (Morgana Shaw) and Mayor Undercroft, later revealed to be the three-hundred year old child-killer Cinecusa.
David Jetre | Creative Director
Sandmerrick, Inc.
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