Visiting Mark at Blackhall Studio

We drove south of Atlanta to Blackhall Studios where Mark is Construction Foreman for the sets of the Step Up television series airing this year. He guided us in through security to the huge Stage 2, one of seven such buildings.

We were glad to get to see Mark and where he was working. The action was taking place on location in north Atlanta today, so he could take us through the sets.

He took us into two of these huge stages and we got to see the structure of the sets. The things they had built in the stage were mostly the interior of a house, a dance studio, and other living areas.

The sets were to allow internal shots of a house in north Atlanta where they did the external shots. But visible out the windows of these internal sets were large photoprints of the neighborhood of the real house so that you saw them when you looked out the windows.

But before we could get underway with that set tour, the girls had to finish clowning around with Uncle Mark.

Another interesting feature of these internal house sets was that the walls would hinge back, and the ceiling could be lifted off so that they could get cameras and lights at the angles they needed to make the shots.

Each of these huge buildings was called a "stage". Mark took us into Stage 1 and Stage 2 where they had built their sets. The sets were carefully decorating living spaces, as if you were in the house. If you looked out the window you saw the street or neighboring houses on the large pictoral prints.

Outside the set areas were the supporting shops for preparation of the building materials.

We walked back past the office area where we had met some of the staff on the way in - two ladies who were the buyer and the medic, and the Coordinator John Weeks with whom Mark works closely in the construction.

We got guidance back to where we had parked the car and asked Mark a few more questions about the process.

It was an interesting visit to a large movie production facility.