Photoshop illustration by Mark Goerner of the retail floor of the main concourse at night.

Robert Stromberg takes the high-resolution digital photography of JFK and combines it with the 3D model from previs to create a beautifully lit and rendered painting of the view from the Main Concourse toward our fictional runway. The view is combined from elements of Mirabel Airport, JFK Terminal 4 and runway, and our fictional architecture.

An added element that makes full use of the capability of 3D — we distort the wire-frame image before Robert gets it, to compensate for the ultimate curve of the backing around the set. This is highly effective when the backing is finally viewed — the perspective in the backing remains true to the camera from every angle inside the Departure Gate.

JC Backings will take a print of Robert’s painting scaled at 1" to a foot, and transfer it to six 100' x 50' canvas panels, which are painted on traditional vertically rolling paint frames at Sony Studios. The completed paintings will be stitched into a single 600' x 50' image that is rigged 40 feet away from the glass wall of the set.

I’m increasingly in favor of using painted backings, as opposed to translites, particularly when one can composite and massage the source image digitally. A painted backing can be lit for day or night, backlit and front lit, and altered to camera. For The Terminal, thousands of tiny lighting elements were physically added to the surface, so that flashing runway lights and lighting in terminal and hotel windows change the night look of the set.

This giant backing, one of the largest ever painted, saves a potentially large number of greenscreen and composite shots, and adds in-camera production value and atmosphere to the whole set.

July 21, 2003: More than 200 workers join the steel crew to start work on main set. We set up full art department offices at Palmdale and many of us start traveling 100 miles a day to and from the Universal offices. The tedium of the drive is alleviated for me when I find a back route through the Los Angeles Mountains — 40 miles of hairpin bends and magnificent scenery.

The previs helped director Steven Spielberg see wide array of shot choices within the set.

Beginning of August, 2003: We are now working our construction crew six days a week, 24 hours a day, running day and night shifts. This pace will continue until just before the production moves onto the set. Many departments — grip and electric, air conditioning, set dressing, et al, — are working side by side to integrate elements into the structure as it takes shape. Although it was originally planned that we start shooting the Main Concourse set at the start of principle photography on Oct. 1, it is now clear that this will not be possible. Patty and Sergio propose to DreamWorks that we start shooting in the Immigration Offices (a location set near LAX), then move to Viktor’s apartment in the adjacent Hangar 704, allowing Steven and Janusz to monitor the final dressing and lighting of the main set. At the same time, it will maximize the remaining preparation period. Steven agrees to this change.

August 15, 2003: I land in New York with my wife Kirsten to speak at a Design Conference, and we find ourselves trapped like a couple of Viktor Navorski’s at JFK Terminal 6 during the East Coast’s worst ever power outage. Eight hours of being wedged on the floor between frustrated travelers is enough — we head back into New York City as the power starts to return.

August 18, 2003: With some considerable budget overruns, Chris Burian, Patty Whitcher and I analyze what elements of the set could be modified to reduce or remove costs, and present Steven a proposal. He is still on the East Coast, and I use high resolution lit and dressed images from previs to indicate changes to the set as accurately as possible so that Steven can provide feedback long distance. I propose modifying the central Starbucks island in several ways, and removing a rear staircase, and moving the entrance to the concourse closer to the terminal. Steven agrees to several of these changes.