Interview with Michael Corenblith
AS: What obstacles did you face in creating the set? It’s understood that there were some political problems within Disney while The Alamo was in production.
MC: Considering the scale of what I was proposing and attempting (the largest standing set ever built in North America) I encountered few genuine obstacles or problems in creating the Set. The transition of Ron Howard from Director to Producer, and the hiring of John Lee Hancock to Write and Direct, was a surprisingly small hiccup. The Disney Executive to the project was Bruce Hendricks, also a Texan, and University of Texas at Austin alum, and John Lee Hancock’s Texas Credentials were such that I was allowed to maintain the course that had been determined prior to all of these transitions.
AS: When were you first approached to work on The Alamo?
MC: I had heard about an Alamo project that was in development at Imagine Entertainment, with Leslie Bohem working on the initial screenplay. I was contacted by colleagues at Imagine in late September of 2001. The screenplay was very much a work-in-progress, so my primary source when conceiving the necessary Set Requirements was Stephen Harrigan’s “The Gates of the Alamo” which had been recently published. I have known Stephen since college at The University of Texas, so I had read the book before knowing that there was the possibility of a film, or that I might someday be designing it.
AS: After seeing a photo of you in the niche of the Alamo as a boy in The Alamo: The Illustrated Story of the Epic Film, it seems you’ve had a great interest in the Alamo even then. What responsibility did you feel in creating the set for the film?
MC: Growing up in Texas, and seeing the John Wayne film when I was nine years old had left a major impression with me. My father was a 7th Grade Texas History teacher, and I had read his curriculum after seeing the film. My family lived in Houston, and then in Austin, so San Antonio, and The Alamo, was a frequent weekend destination. Brackettville was a bit of a mystery, but had I known that it was only a couple of hours from San Antonio, I would have definitely lobbied for a trip there as well. My credentials as a Texan gave the Producers at Imagine, and the Executives at Disney a high level of confidence that my approach to the design of the Set was going to withstand the scrutiny of the Community of Dedicated Individuals, in the same way my work on Apollo 13 had received the endorsements from the NASA Community.
AS: What obstacles did you face in creating the set? It’s understood that there were some political problems within Disney while The Alamo was in production.
MC: Considering the scale of what I was proposing and attempting (the largest standing set ever built in North America) I encountered few genuine obstacles or problems in creating the Set. The transition of Ron Howard from Director to Producer, and the hiring of John Lee Hancock to Write and Direct, was a surprisingly small hiccup. The Disney Executive to the project was Bruce Hendricks, also a Texan, and University of Texas at Austin alum, and John Lee Hancock’s Texas Credentials were such that I was allowed to maintain the course that had been determined prior to all of these transitions.
AS: What resources did you look to for assistance with the historical accuracy for the sets?
MC: My first Official Act when actually beginning the project was to visit San Antonio, and make the trip to Brackettville that I had been wishing for since childhood. It was there that I met Rich Curilla for the first time. Rich was incredibly generous with his lifetime passion for gathering research, and really got me off on the right path. Gary Zaboly’s book was incredibly helpful at this stage, particularly in the way that he so clearly presented the time-line for how the compound had developed across time. Having this “backstory” was essential to the way that my thinking and approach was to develop.
As I became more immersed in the material, I attended a Battle of San Jacinto seminar in Houston, where I met Dr. Stephen Hardin, who again, illuminated parts of the history in exciting and compelling ways. It was soon determined that the Filmmakers would be immeasurably helped by conducting a Seminar of our own, and we gathered the top scholars in the field, which ultimately included Dr. Hardin, Alan Huffines, Frank Thompson, and Andres Tijirina (sp) who became our core group of Advisors and Consultants. Craig Covner, working out of San Diego, also was remarkably generous with his research, and visited our Art Department both in Los Angeles, as well as on-site in Dripping Springs. Rich Curilla remained at the center of our research-nexus, and was always available to direct us to the sources that we required at any given moment, be it paintings of the period as we developed our color palette, details for our Costume Designer, Daniel Orlandi, or any obscure tidbits that caught our attention.
AS: How long did it take to construct the sets? And how many people were hired to help? Obviously, each individual had a certain task he or she had to accomplish.
MC: Once we had selected the site at Eugene Reimer’s ranch, groundbreaking began in March 2002, with grading and site preparation taking about a month before the first structures began being erected in May. The sets were completed approximately eight months later. At our peak, we had over 300 people working on-site. Our Construction Coordinator, Terry Scott, had organized this large workforce into numerous teams, each under the aegis of a Foreman, who coordinated the major Crafts involved in the building process. Typically the sequence begins with Engineering, Grading and Site Prep, then Armatures and Carpentry and Sculpting where required, followed by Plastering, then Painting and Scenic, followed by Thatching and Greens. At this point, the Set Decorating Department, lead by Set Decorator Carla Curry, would come in and breathe life into these buildings.
So you can see that while a very complex undertaking, it was highly sequenced and orchestrated, so there could be simultaneous progress across all of our Fifty-One Acres.
AS: To make filming easier, false walls were created. Much like what existed in Bowie’s room when certain angles needed to be captured. Can you tell us where all these little tricks existed on set?
MC: One of the more daring conceptual decisions that I had advocated early on, was that there would be no distinction between the usual pattern of shooting Exteriors on Location, and Interiors on Stage. For the sake of verisimilitude, I envisioned the entire Set as One Unified and Integrated Entity, meaning that each Interior existed within the Exterior, with NO work separated and taken to Stage. This meant that I would have to make accommodations for “wild” walls that would enable our Cinematographer, Dean Semler, to achieve camera positions that were beyond the confines of the Set. I brought the techniques and tricks of “Stage” design into the realm of our worlds of Bexar and The Alamo. Using the Architecture of the Period, including arches, vaults, pillars and pilasters, I was able to include and disguise these portals into the primary Interior sets, including Bowie’s Room (which had a very large page-count, due to Bowie’s confinement) as well as Travis’ Room, and the Cantina. Other sets were imagined and designed with generous openings, carefully aligned to afford these Ordinal Camera Positions, so we could in essence, “break the fourth wall” without having to actually move walls. This technique can be found in The Verimendi Palace, Long Barracks, and Santa Anna’s quarters.
AS: During filming, were there any repairs that had to be made to the set? I’m sure there were possibly little touch ups here and there.
MC: Movie scenery, particularly out in the Elements, requires constant attention. Because we are using plaster and paint to depict both finished and rough stone, adobe bricks, stucco and river rocks, the Scenic elements are always in need of being touched-up. Our thatch came from Eastern Europe, and was also subject to the wear and tear of wind and weather. Maintaining the grounds and turf, particularly in inclimate and muddy conditions was another challenge for our Greens Department.
But beyond this usual maintenance, the Siege Sequence presented a set of challenges of a Different Order of Magnitude. Our Compound Walls were all build with large hollow cores, which enabled our Physical Effects Department, lead by Larz Anderson, to reset the cannon and bullet hits in the walls, for multiple takes. Since our siege was filmed for six weeks during the night, we worked literally around the clock, with a Day Crew, coming in at the end of each night’s filming, and resetting all of the pyro charges in the wall for the following evening’s shooting. The effects crew was followed by Plasterers and Painters, who then disguised these new pyrotechnics. The same was true of the areas of thatch roof that was burned each evening, as Carpenters and Greensmen would arrive each morning to replace what had been burned the evening before.
AS: Do you have any scenes that remain your favorite when it comes to showing the amazing detail of the sets?
MC: One of the motifs that I was interested in exploring was the Cinematic Alignment of apertures to create Framing Devices for the film. The most bravura example was the alignment of the Dome of the San Fernando Church through the window between the upper niches of The Alamo, as seen from the cannon platform in the East Nave of the church. This sight line is more than a quarter mile long, and while it worked out on the drawing board, we didn’t know if it was actually going to “sing” till it was fully built. The positioning of the cannon apertures on the West Wall, as well as the views from Travis’s Room and interior archways of the West Wall, are all Signature Moments for me, and beautifully captured by John Lee and Dean Semler.
AS: As soon as I walked through San Antonio de Bejar and finally onto the Alamo compound, I remember how inspiring it was. It was almost like taking a trip back in time.
MC: This was easily the most gratifying part of the entire experience. The ability to command the resources and determination to bring this scale and fidelity to a Geography and Architecture that has been imagined and dreamed of by so many dedicated enthusiasts, defies description.
My sense of being part of something bigger was always heightened when seeing this through the eyes of those who cared so deeply and never imagined having the experience of taking this trip back in time. The fact that some of my design decisions are appearing in the Fine Art that others are creating is as deeply touching as it is unexpected.
A HUGE thanks to Michael Corenblith for taking the time out of his very busy schedule, in which he’s currently working on another anticipated film, to do this interview!