A fully operational Flight Information Display System is created to display realistic flight arrival and departure information for 51 departing flights and 49 arriving flights. This information is controlled via a main video control center that feeds this data to the giant split-flap Solari board, five large LED screens and 30 CRT monitors located throughout the main concourse. The information can be synched to specific scripted action and all the boards will auto-set to the time of day and action that the ADs call for.

September 2003: At this point the construction budget starts to run into serious difficulties. We’ve made dramatic cuts and changes to the set, but the large 24-hour labor force is so expensive that it’s very hard to reduce costs significantly without slowing down, and we cannot afford to do that with the other departments stacked behind us waiting for access to all corners of the set. I have to face Steven and the DreamWorks producers to explain the situation, and agree to make radical changes in the monitoring of the progress of the set.

A picture of the escalator area under construction versus the finished set.

From this point on, Patty meets with Steve Callas, Chris Burian and I in daily budget meetings, and slowly, with her help, we are able to bring the budget back into some semblance of control. It’s a terrifying place to be when there’s no way back but only the need to keep going into potentially deeper trouble, and the whole production breathing at your neck. It is our good fortune to be surrounded and supported by a tremendous crew that does not panic but continues to push forward.

October 1, 2003: We start shooting at the Immigration Offices, in a modified location near LAX. This set provides the visual foil to the Main Concourse and the bureaucratic layer in the strata of the airport. Its banal appearance reflects a careful study of U.S. security and immigration offices— a look that I find fascinating. Probably from spending too long in such places.

October 5, 2003: Final lighting test on the main set. Jim and Janusz set up some big camera moves to test the Technocrane in the space. The dailies give an encouraging glimpse into what we have in store when the set is finally lit.

October 10, 2003: the shooting crew moves out to Palmdale, to begin shooting Viktor’s apartment. At the same time, our Canadian crew starts work in Montreal on the modifications to Mirabel Airport, and on the jazz club, which we find in a fluke when we wander into the closed down airport hotel. Inside I see a perfect ’70s time capsule — a perfect look for the Ramada Inn bar where Viktor reaches his goal.

October 16, 2003. The Main Concourse set is complete. Although he is shooting in the hangar directly opposite, Steven has resisted visiting his largest set in its final stages of completion. It’s Steven’s reputation that he wants to approach his key sets as if they are extant locations — to try to retain as fresh a reaction to the set as it will be for his actors, he often will not visit a set during final construction. On Minority Report, he left his walk until a couple of days before shooting, to the nail biting of all. This set is 10 times more nerve-racking for us — months of shooting still to take place here, and will it work?

When can you catch a flight out of here?

Finally I hear that Steven has crossed over the vast expanse of tarmac between the hangars, and that he and Tom Hanks are already on the set. Trying not to look too concerned I hurry across, to be met by a golf cart driving toward me and as it pulls up the sound I’ve been hearing resolves into hands clapping — Tom and Steven shouting, hand shaking… no moment in my career more satisfying or as emotional.

June 2004: A couple of weeks before the release of the film I begin to get feedback from vfx producer Rob Yamamoto about the finishing of the film, and the extent of the visual effects work.

The backing has received enormous compliments from all, but the biggest is the fact that the final vfx shot count is 77 of which only 15 shots are associated with the views from the Main Concourse window. There is virtually no 3D animation, and just a few digital matte paintings to enhance the view through the departure gate glass. The backing has exceeded its brief, and become another example of the correct blending of the most sophisticated digital technology with good traditional art.

McDowell, who is a staunch advocate of using previs to help break down barriers between pre-and post-production, is currently working on Tim Burton’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory in London. He has also been a production designer on Burton’s The Corpse Bride, The Cat in the Hat, Minority Report and Fight Club, among others.

With thanks to Lili Ungar, Patty Whitcher, Anne Kuljian, David Devlin, Ron Frankel, Francois Audouy, Monika Gray, Rob Yamamoto and Andrea Carter for their contributions.