Today AD joins Joshua Jackson and production designer, Jamie Walker McCall, to tour the set of Ryan Murphy’s ‘Doctor Odyssey’. Bringing The Odyssey cruise ship to life was no mean feat–from a fully functioning pool on the leisure deck to the most stylish infirmary a doctor could ask for, this set creates a luxurious backdrop for all the show’s medical drama.
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00Hey AD, I'm Joshua Jackson.
00:02Welcome to the set of Dr. Odyssey.
00:04Let's go take a look around.
00:13Well, where we are right now is in the hallway
00:15into the infirmary, my home away from home.
00:18Our beautiful art deco design out here
00:22turns into what I think of kind of like
00:26deco Apple store in the infirmary.
00:28I think that this is maybe the most beautiful
00:31medical set that I've ever seen.
00:33So you've got Max's office on the one side,
00:36then you've got our treatment room.
00:38And then what I think is the most beautiful piece of this,
00:40our pill room, if you look at it,
00:42the back wall is all negative space light,
00:46which if you're paying attention
00:48when you watch the episodes,
00:48changes episode to episode,
00:50sometimes scene to scene
00:51to help set the mood inside of here.
00:53All of the glass is curved,
00:55which gives us these beautiful bent reflections
00:57and all of the light play that happens in here,
01:00which allows our DFP a ton of fun
01:02playing with how we get light into rooms.
01:07We shifted gears a few weeks in
01:10when we wanted to just up the luxury.
01:13Mentally, I switched to,
01:14let's not look at this as a ship's infirmary.
01:18Let's look at this as more of a concierge service,
01:21warm tones.
01:22A lot of my inspiration came from wine tasting rooms
01:25because they're very warm and luxurious,
01:27but I still wanted to have a little bit
01:28of the medical feel,
01:29which is why I chose the glossy floors and the windows.
01:32The windows were important to me
01:34because especially in a set that's not very large,
01:37you want to give throw,
01:38you want to see what other people are doing.
01:40I thought it'd be very interesting
01:41to have this layer upon layer upon layer
01:43of things happening throughout.
01:44We also installed privacy film
01:48that you click with a button
01:50and it immediately goes to opaque.
01:52So you can't see, it creates privacy.
01:55Here's something that Jamie and the lighting designers
01:58did beautifully.
01:59Turn around and look at the floor.
02:03Are you getting the crosshatch?
02:05So this is something that was done really specifically
02:08so that the light actually breaks up the space.
02:11So the light becomes another design detail
02:13as it's built into the inlays.
02:15So depending on where we are, how we bend the glass,
02:18we can bend the light with the pill room
02:20and it gives both a beautiful geometry to the floor
02:23as we're playing in it
02:24and can allow us to play with color and warmth
02:27and depth in the room, even using the space.
02:30I just think it's brilliant.
02:31It was important for Ryan and I to make sure
02:34that everything on the show felt not typical.
02:37Medical equipment is not the most sexy.
02:39So we've been custom designing and 3D printing
02:43special things to make it look a little bit more high-end.
02:47So I really was able to open up on this one
02:49and truly take it into a fantasy world.
02:51And he allowed us all to treat it like a fantasy.
02:54So there's some things on, you know,
02:56the boat that aren't necessarily realistic,
02:58but that's okay because it's a fantasy.
03:00It's a dream.
03:01It's your ultimate luxury cruise ship.
03:04Did you by any chance stop by the seafood buffet?
03:07Oh, honey, you know I love a cocktail, a shrimp cocktail.
03:11This is the life.
03:14Have I died?
03:15Have I died and gone to hog heaven?
03:18Cheers.
03:20We had some shrimp.
03:23Every detail of Max's office is like done to the nines.
03:31Doctor has to have his bar.
03:33So we've got that here.
03:34It's something I really, really appreciate
03:36that I cannot possibly get across to you in video.
03:38All of the couches are comfortable in this set.
03:41That never, ever, ever happens.
03:43Our set decorator, Kim Wanham,
03:45she thought it would be a clever moment
03:48to put a painting of Hippocrates in Max's set.
03:52It is for the Hippocratic Oath.
03:54It just gives it a classic feel in his office.
03:57If you look at the walls and you look at the desk
03:59and you look at the surfaces,
04:00even though there's a lot of detail in here,
04:02it's all very small.
04:03There's only one painting hanging.
04:05Even all of his medical books,
04:07everything's just exactly in his pace.
04:08It kind of tells you his psychology
04:10without ever having to verbalize it.
04:11You can see how he keeps his space.
04:14We are on a big, luxurious cruise ship
04:16that holds about 400 guests.
04:18Our main focus was aspirational,
04:20and we wanted it to feel ultra luxurious,
04:23but still attainable.
04:25One of the directives that Ryan Murphy and I talked about
04:27in the beginning was he wanted it to feel art deco modern.
04:30In my mind, this ship has been retrofitted.
04:33So I wanted it to feel like it had an old personality to it
04:37that then we modernized,
04:39but you still felt the old bones of the ship.
04:42You still felt the old bones inside of it.
04:45Building the exterior deck of the ship
04:47was a huge undertaking.
04:49Early on in our discussions,
04:51Ryan let us know that he wanted it built outside,
04:54and that just changes everything
04:57because a lot of film and TV things,
04:58we don't build things to last for years and years.
05:01Boats are constant maintenance
05:02and the leisure deck is constantly being maintained
05:05because we are still using products
05:06and things that we use inside.
05:08Luan, for example, is what our floor is.
05:10Luan with a high gloss finish with stain,
05:12vinyl stripping, it's not painted.
05:15The maintenance and upkeep is tremendous.
05:17We had engineers out there to give us wind ratings.
05:21We had to add, I think it was 36 concrete footings
05:25to support it.
05:27It was a huge undertaking in the six week build
05:30that we had time to do it.
05:32The pool and the spa are fully functioning.
05:34We designed it.
05:35The waterslides were actually a purchase.
05:37For safety purposes,
05:38we wanted to outsource that to a real company
05:41and have that installed.
05:42But the pool we built in Line-X,
05:43the entire pool and the jacuzzi,
05:46it's all been plumbed by the special effects team.
05:48And a few days before we start filming in it,
05:51it's heated to keep the actors warm.
05:53And it is a fully functioning pool.
05:55We have a pool company come every Monday to clean it
05:57and maintain it.
06:02Here we are inside of the Odyssey Grand Dining Room.
06:07When designing this set to have a very grand feel to it,
06:11the bar was inspired.
06:12I was actually really diving into the shining
06:16at that point.
06:17I just really wanted this romantic, warm, inviting bar.
06:21So it is deco,
06:23but with a little bit of the shining in it.
06:25The four corners include the reliefs
06:29that are our call back to the Odyssey,
06:33which we have Homer in Apollo.
06:35We have Odysseus in the sirens
06:37who are constantly luring you into the dining room
06:39for a cocktail or for the captain's lounge.
06:41The tree inspiration here, we call them the trees,
06:44is inspired by Warren Plattner,
06:45which is modernism from the 70s.
06:48And ours is a call back to the beautiful work that he did.
06:52But we kind of added our O's to it.
06:54As you'll see throughout the ship,
06:56we have O's everywhere,
06:57which is a call to the Odyssey.
06:59And all the spindles in the tree and all along.
07:01We also added these beautiful lighting fixtures
07:06that Kim Wannop, our set decorator, found.
07:08And it was important, her and I,
07:10to have fixtures that felt like sea urchins
07:14as the main focal point.
07:16I wanted to feel like we were underwater in here.
07:18So the sculpted ceiling by so many people,
07:21sculpting foam and then installing it,
07:23was such a huge undertaking,
07:25especially along with the skylights
07:28that actually hinge up to allow the soft boxes to come in
07:32and then go down for those big, wide, beautiful shots
07:35that we get early on in the season.
07:37What I love about working with Simon Dennis,
07:39who is one of the cinematographer on our show,
07:41he doesn't shy away from shooting upward.
07:44The ceilings are so important to me.
07:47The ceilings in the architectural were so beautiful.
07:49And it's something I really wanted to highlight
07:51throughout the set,
07:52especially when you're working with an actor
07:53like Joshua Jackson, who's 6'2".
07:56You're gonna get a lot of ceiling in there.
07:58Our performance stage,
08:00I wanted it to feel like it was also
08:02an underwater aquatic moment where the steps are moving.
08:06And if you stare at the textured bulbs in the back,
08:09it plays with your eye.
08:10You're not sure if they're going in or they're coming out.
08:12And I thought it was just a really fun moment to have.
08:15I just wanted to constantly try to create movement
08:17on the show so that even though we are in a sound stage,
08:21it feels like you're moving on a ship.
08:24So this is Max's cabin.
08:25This is also the captain's cabin.
08:27And should we ever need it to be a swing cabin,
08:31then it is a swing cabin.
08:32The specific pieces that change for the captain,
08:36we have a different table, a different desk, right?
08:39Max's desk is very much in keeping
08:41with the theme of the boat.
08:42The captain has a sort of sturdier oak desk.
08:46This changes into a bar.
08:48We have the peekaboo fireplace that allows us
08:51Max's suite was super fun to design
08:53because that set the tone for all the cabins
08:55throughout the entire ship.
08:57It's very masculine.
08:59The captain and Max have the same cabin.
09:01And I'm just leaning into hotels, rooms all look the same.
09:05The dressing that we change out,
09:06that's pretty much what we do
09:08to make the characters different.
09:10So there's a big sheet, a transom light
09:13that slides across here.
09:15And again, this is where we run the lights
09:17and the lights are on the other side.
09:19And again, this is where we run this kind of genius
09:22that I don't fully understand visual effect
09:24that makes it feel as though the horizon line is tilting
09:27while we're very, very subtly while we're in the middle.
09:29So you get these beautiful kicks of light
09:32in the deep background and then the horizon line shifts,
09:34which makes you feel like you're swaying.
09:36And then we come into, sadly,
09:39one of the most beautiful spaces in the whole ship
09:41that we have not used, this incredible clawfoot tub
09:44that we will eventually find something to do with.
09:46So the interesting thing about these spaces,
09:48I think Max is fastidious,
09:50but he didn't actually design this space.
09:52I think it's more indicative of the captain's taste
09:55and the overall sort of luxury setting of the boat itself.
09:59The piece that's him is that this is Max.
10:02That's who he is.
10:03He is very much a man
10:04who likes to have everything in its place.
10:07No papers on the desk, nothing out of place,
10:10nothing extraneous, but it's pretty.
10:13And it's a nice place to come to work every day.
10:15Ah.
10:17Once again, all the seats are comfortable.
10:19It's a miracle.
10:20We make our sets fairly large
10:22because we are only shooting seven to eight day episodes.
10:25So we have to move quickly.
10:26There's not a lot of time to pull walls
10:29and to wait for those kinds of things.
10:30And this is the beauty of like modern set work.
10:33We go through the closet, but we're not in a closet.
10:37We're in the next suite.
10:38So you have the ability to be able
10:40to put together a steadicam shot
10:42that can run from hallway to hallway.
10:44We come back out here.
10:46Now we're in the hallway.
10:48Then the kids from The Shining come down here.
10:51And if you run out here,
10:54we're back in to the main elevator.
10:58These stairs go up to sometimes to the leisure deck.
11:01Depends on where we need them to go.
11:03And if we come down here, you have another hallway
11:05that has a bunch of doors, but no actual cabins.
11:08So we're able to shoot from place to place.
11:11Here we are on the Odyssey Bridge.
11:13This is Captain Massey's domain.
11:15And we have some things along here
11:18that I really call out to Captain Massey.
11:20Like he plays records as he's driving the ship.
11:23And we have a backing, which isn't typical.
11:26Normally you would have a green screen or something,
11:28but it was important to have,
11:30for Ryan Murphy to have a backing that was ocean.
11:33And then they in post actually automate the backing,
11:36which has really worked really well.
11:38The windshield is a little bit different
11:39but it worked really well.
11:40The windshield wipers do work.
11:41That was something we added for the hurricane episode.
11:45The windows gimbal, just for purposes of reflections.
11:48It is finished on the outside
11:50so that they can shoot outside going in.
11:52And then over here, we have our ship completely laid out,
11:56all nine levels.
11:58And this is actually very useful for directors coming in.
12:02I also have my own schematic
12:03that I've done in the connective tissue
12:06to explain to new directors coming in
12:08how, when you leave one corner
12:10and you're on the soundstage
12:11where you're supposed to pick it up on the other corner.
12:14If you were to go down these stairs,
12:15you would come around
12:16and land in the dining room upper level area.
12:21♪♪♪
12:33This is one of Ryan's particularities.
12:38These are actual real flowers.
12:40I know that it might not sound like much
12:41but you never, ever use real flowers on a set, ever.
12:45I've never seen this before.
12:46And he has them changed for every episode
12:48in keeping with the theme.
12:50I just love this show so much.
12:51Is every week a theme?