How ‘Saturday Night’ recreated Studio 8H on a massive Atlanta soundstage
Production designer Jess Gonchor has worked on some of the most acclaimed and rewatchable movies over the last two decades, including every feature film directed by Bennett Miller, every Joel and Ethan Coen movie from “No Country for Old Men” through “The Ballad of Buster Scruggs,” and notable one-off titles such as “The Devil Wears Prada,” Greta Gerwig’s “Little Women,” Noah Baumbach’s “White Noise,” and John Krasinski’s recent hit “If.”
“To be a production designer, you have to become an expert in a subject in a very short amount of time. So when I get a job on something, I start researching it immediately,” Gonchor tells Gold Derby.
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But for his latest project, Jason Reitman’s “Saturday Night,” Gonchor was already well-versed in the material. The film is about the first-ever “Saturday Night Live” episode and unfolds in real-time as the clock hits 11:30 p.m. on October 11, 1975. Gonchor is a longtime fan of the venerable sketch comedy series and even worked as part of a set shop in the late 1980s that occasionally built items for the show. That familiarity with the rush of “Saturday Night Live” left Gonchor in a unique position as the production designer, something he says happened only once previously in his lauded career.
“The other one was ‘A Serious Man,’ which is about being bar mitzvahed, which I’m very well versed in,” Gonchor says. “So with ‘Saturday Night,’ I felt so connected to the project that I knew we were going to build it all on one stage and knew how to have the set be ready all at once. Because the camera was going to see everything, and we needed to touch, move, and inspire the cast and the crew because they were going to be living in it for weeks.”
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Based on interviews Reitman and co-writer Gil Kenan conducted with several people involved with the first-ever “Saturday Night Live” broadcast – including many members of the cast and crew – “Saturday Night” came together quickly. Gonchor only had 12 weeks to build a replica of 30 Rockefeller Plaza’s Studio 8H, one that would allow the cast and crew to run around without fear of breaking the illusion that the film was happening in the original location 50 years earlier.
“Everybody was really confident in their approach to it and I think it didn’t need any more time than we had,” Gonchor says of the build, which took place in a 40,000-square-foot studio in Atlanta. Because so much of the set is part of the film, Gonchor’s team was responsible for several things perhaps not normally in the purview of a production design team. “The lighting was baked into the set too. If you see the source, what’s lighting scene, it falls under the jurisdiction of the art department because it has to be visually pleasing or correct for the period,” he says. “So we baked in all the lights and all the rooms and on the sound stage had period lights in there. So it just kind of had to be ready for whatever was going to happen.”
In creating the set, Gonchor says he focused on accuracy as much as possible when it came to the broadcast stage very familiar to anyone who has watched a clip from “Saturday Night Live” over the last five decades. But for the hallways, offices, and backstage areas, Gonchor tried to follow the spirit of the show rather than a perfect recreation.
“A lot of it was real and there was a lot that was very much in the style of the time but where we’re not exactly sure what it was,” he says. “So we recreated some stuff but also totally respected what was there already.”
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Gonchor is a two-time Oscar nominee for “True Grit” and “Hail, Caesar” and, as mentioned, has worked with some of the most acclaimed directors of the last 30 years. But this was his first project with Reitman, an Oscar nominee for “Up in the Air” and “Juno,” who could be back at the Academy Awards again next year for his original screenplay.
“Jason’s amazing,” Gonchor says. “It starts with that. His communication with the crew – everybody I’ve worked with is really good at that, but he was just [so buttoned-up]. He wanted to make sure that everybody knew what we were doing that day.”
Gonchor adds that the camaraderie Reitman fostered among the department heads was infectious overall. “It was a really pleasurable experience. It was special.”
“Saturday Night’ debuted at the Telluride Film Festival earlier this year and played to enthusiastic crowds at the Toronto International Film Festival soon after. The Sony film has won over those audiences who have seen the film since its release last month and continues to play in theaters. Gonchor’s work has been praised as one of the high points, but he says the project gave him a newfound respect for the people who help get “Saturday Night Live” on the air every week.
“I did get to go to a show last year when Josh Brolin was hosting and I watched the whole set and how it moves around,” Gonchor says. “So my appreciation is very high – just how they can pull that thing off in a week in the way they do. It’s nuts.”
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