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Chasing Liberty Picture 19
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Chasing Liberty Full Production Notes "Every family has a rebel... even the First Family."
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 Chapter 8: 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in the U.K.Before any actor stepped foot on a Prague train or Venetian gondola, the production made camp in London and Essex, England, where production designer Martin Childs created amazingly realistic interiors and exteriors of the Fosters' residence, the White House.
"For security reasons it's very difficult to get access to the White House and you cannot even drive along Pennsylvania Avenue anymore," explains Parfitt, who previously collaborated with Childs on a number of productions including Shakespeare in Love. "So we were faced with either relying on CGI or trying to find another location, and going to the UK was the logical choice." It's not as much of a stretch as one might imagine. "The architectural origins of all those stately buildings in Washington, D.C. were the grand houses found in England and all its colonies. The White House was another example of that neoclassical style in vogue at the time." Indeed, the Executive Mansion, as it was originally called, was built in 1792 from an award-winning architectural plan by Irish-born architect James Hoban.
The Chasing Liberty locations team ultimately found a house in Essex, England, that bore a striking resemblance to the White House. "It's extraordinary," says Childs, "it's a two-thirds scale version if you shoot from specific angles," and if the shots are tight enough to exclude nearby cars or other structures that would reveal the building's actual size. Lighting aids the illusion, strategically placed on the property by DP Ashley Rowe.
Childs, renowned for his depth of research on assignments, studied not only the architecture and interior structure of the White House but also its décor through several presidential administrations. He built the Oval Office set to scale at renowned Pinewood Studios, after initially experimenting with a roomier construction designed to accommodate a camera crew. "The proportions just didn't work," he says of the enlargement. "You couldn't fit the picture frames in the proper places and it looked all wrong. So, for once, I built something the right size instead of improvising." The Foster White House furnishings include replicas of the real Oval Office's Remington bronze horses plus original landscape paintings commissioned by a local artist in the spirit of a John Ford Western as well as a formal portrait of President Foster.
Continuing in a theme of elegance blended with comfortable Americana, Childs designed the interior of Air Force One in natural warm tones and plush leather chairs. In contrast to the realistically scaled Oval Office set, the jet's interior, also constructed at Pinewood, was custom-made for camera and crew maneuvers, including a raised platform built alongside the aircraft's exterior, allowing for a camera to be dollied in through a window.
Next Page: Recreating the White House Ambiance |
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