Lucas's bedroom. Photo courtesy of Alan HookHere’s part two of our three-part interview with Alan Hook, One Tree Hill’s production designer.
You can read part one here, and check back next week for part three.
CW Source: What are some challenges you’ve faced over the years creating OTH sets?
AH: In general, the pace of television production makes everything move at a breakneck speed. We’re filming a new episode every eight days. We’ll get a script, and if we’re lucky we’ll get it eight days before it starts shooting. In those eight days, we have to come up with everything: we design it, build it, and get it up in time.
There was one sort of off-the-wall prop that Mark had written. Last year, it was a mug that looked like Scary Spice or Posh Spice – supposed to be an old mug from years ago that Lucas had given Peyton. Mark had seen something like that on Ebay. We tried to track it down, and of course, it didn’t exist anymore. We ended up having a sculptor sculpt this mug. They got into a fight with it – threw it at each other – so we had to do that as well.
Everybody that’s here really is good at what we do. We’re able to really handle most anything that Mark throws at us. It’s sort of analogous to the train running down the tracks is the filming company, and we’re laying down the track right in front of them. The train barely stops, and we’re right in front.
CW Source: Tell us about the Honey Grove, TX episode. It looked like you were filming right in the high school, the parking lot, and the hotel. What does your job entail when the sets are already built?
AH: We did go out there and film that in their town square. We built the gazebo. That sign that was there when Mouth was sort of talking to it -- we scouted it out with Mark. We wondered, “What do we do with this big sign?”
We were sort of goofing around, talking about the movie LA Story, when Steve Martin talks to the sign, and then Mark said, “That kind of works, actually. Let’s use it.” When you go on location, it sparks things that you might not have ever thought of.
The gym that we used for the prom really was that high school gym. We took an army of people out there and spent four days dressing their gym -- hanging fabrics, lights, and getting it ready for the prom.
The bus stuff was out on a little road, just outside of town. They tried to really shoot there as much as possible. The whole town came out to watch while we were filming.
CW Source: What other challenges have you faced?
AH: Last year, [it was] the basement. Derek had Peyton tied up in the basement. In Wilmington, NC, the houses don’t have basements. They’re so close to the coast, they would flood.
That was a fairly large and detailed set. We had a little more than eight days to make it.
Basement where Derek tied Peyton up. Photo courtesy of Alan HookAH: Our joke is that we’re in charge of everything that’s out of focus. We have a lot of detail in the set, but you don’t see it all the time. We go into close-ups – everything behind them is blurry.
One of the things you try to do with the look of the show is not make anything look too jarring/out-of-place – so when they edit it together, it looks cohesive. We try to keep our color palettes all sort of cohesive, so no matter how they cut it together, it all works.
CW Source: What happens to sets like the basement or the store Brooke visited? Do they get destroyed?
AH: A lot of times we’ll repaint them or use them as something else. We seem to be in a lot of hotel rooms. People keep going to different hotel rooms all the time. We re-wallpaper, change curtains, and play it again as a different hotel room. That’s the kind of thing where we’ll recycle. But sometimes a set is too distinctive; you can’t use it again. But for the most part, when it’s done, it goes in the trash.
A lot of the set dressing and prop materials, we keep. We never get rid of any of that – we can reuse it. They even auction some of that stuff off for charity – iconic images, props, they’ll get rid of that way. Come the end of the run, however many years this show goes, there will be a huge sale of every piece of costume, they’ll sell it off.
CW Source: Is that typical, auctioning stuff from the show off for charity?
AH: Yes. I had done Dawson’s Creek. They put a lot of that stuff on eBay and sold off a lot of the memorable pieces. And even weird things like a window of Joey’s dorm room, people bought. Things you’d think no one would ever want. People will buy that stuff. They’re attached to the show, they’re attached to the character, and they get a little piece of it then.
Mouth's Texas jail cell. Photo courtesy of Alan HookCW Source: What do you mean by the color palette of the show?
AH: Brooke has a definite style that we try to incorporate into her set. Because she’s a fashion designer and that’s her passion, we try to keep that in mind. She might have a little more refined style, but also a little more out there kind of style. We use purples, silvers for her colors.
Lucas is a little more conservative, actually. Because he was living at home before, we balanced that between what his room would be and what his parents would have.
Rachel, when we did her last year, she was sort of over-the-top.
CW Source: I bet that was fun.
AH: There was a lot of crazy stuff on her set, since she’s a wild child.
Check back next week for the final installment, including scoop on how they filmed the Season Three finale car crash and more!
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