When the disappearance of a young girl grips the city of Baltimore on Thanksgiving 1966, the lives of two women, Maddie Schwartz and Cleo Sherwood, converge on a fatal collision course. -Apple TV+
Set Decorator Karuna Karmarkar SDSA gives us behind-the-scenes details about teaming with Production Designer JC Molina to create sets that allowed the audience to step into the Baltimore of the 1960s, collaborating with Showrunner/Director Alma Har’el to bring about her vision of this intricate tale.
Collaboration...
“My friend JC Molina was our production designer on LADY IN THE LAKE. In prior years, our collaborations were solely based on commercials in the Los Angeles area. This was our first big narrative project on location together, and I was really honored that he was determined to bring me on board as set decorator.”
Maddie Schwartz wants to escape her world as a Jewish housewife and become an investigative journalist. Natalie Portman as Maddie. Images courtesy of Apple TV+. All Rights Reserved.
Maddie's confining world. Courtesy of Apple TV+. All Rights Reserved.
Maddie's bedroom. Note in the mirror, the complete matching bedroom set, and the dressing table chair. On the dresser, the tree of pearls and jade. Courtesy of Apple TV+. All Rights Reserved.
The Schwartz's basement, year-round golf practice...Courtesy of Apple TV+. All Rights Reserved.
“By that point, we had a shorthand and workflow style established, so it made sense to be paired on this. Even though the show features dream sequences and fantastical elements, it was our mission to ground the story in realism and avoid falling into a situation of “spectacle for the sake of spectacle”. The people of Baltimore are very prideful of their city, so we had an obligation to honor their story and do it justice.“
“Many of the sets in LADY IN THE LAKE are based on real places, real people and real events from Baltimore’s history....and many of these places have fallen from their glory days or no longer exist, so pretty much all of what you see in the show are full dresses and sometimes full builds.”
“We had many challenges during the making of our show, but one of the most memorable successes we had was the set for our 1960s department store, Hecht’s. Much like the Penn Avenue in our story catered to the black community in Baltimore, Hecht’s was created by Jewish business owners with their communities’ tastes and interests in mind.”
Hecht’s Department Store,1966. Courtesy of Apple TV+. All Rights Reserved.
Editor’s note: See our SETDECOR Fall/Winter 2024 Issue in the Archives section for a detailed showcase of this fabulous set and the inside stories about creating it! A favorite!
“The crux of the story is a pair of murders that rocked Baltimore in the 1960s. Our method of creating authenticity was to avoid looking at any established ‘60s period pieces and instead relying on historical photos, local archives, local historians and local people who were born and raised in Baltimore and could tell us about that time.”
“JC’s image bible was roughly 1000 pages long, with an interactive map for the city incorporated where you could click on one area and it would take you to Pikesville, a historically Jewish neighborhood in Baltimore...from our story...or click on Penn Ave and go to an area that was a cultural hub for the Black community at that time.”
Weinstein's Jewelry & Pawn shop...
“This set is the first place Natalie Portman's character, Maddie, goes after she leaves her family to search for the missing young girl. We dressed an actual jewelry store in Hamilton, a cute neighborhood outside the downtown area of Baltimore. Our filming location, Lakein’s Jewelers of Hamilton, has been in business since 1913.”
Weinstein's Jewelry, exterior. Courtesy of Apple TV+. All Rights Reserved.
“It felt serendipitous and special that this store was owned by a Jewish family (like in our series) and we were lucky to be able to leave up some of the framed historical photos of the family in the set.”
“We wanted the store to be a hodge podge of jewelry, fine china, electronic equipment, keepsakes and glassware to make it clear this space was also a pawn shop rather than a dedicated jewelry store. The jewelry and pawn items were locally thrifted by our wonderful buyers and also from our friends at Warner Bros. Property department.”
Weinstein's Jewelry, interior. Courtesy of Apple TV+. All Rights Reserved.
“The velvet jewelry display stands and pads were matched to an existing photo from Lakein’s. The art dept added blush pink wallpaper and with the existing pastel blue backing of the display shelves and lime green velvet inside the cases, a spontaneous color blocked look emerged.”
“This was my second favorite set, after The Pharaoh club. I love that the quirky charm of the space came together in an organic way, which is always a difficult thing to achieve!”
The Pharoah club...
The Pharaoh Club: “JC and Alma came up with the idea for these hanging louvers (which we actually cut from canvas firehose). When the set was lit, the way the light passed through the louvers, casting long shadows on the ceiling, it was like a film noir...the perfect sexy moody vibe for the home base of our mob king character Shell Gordon.” –Set Decorator Karuna Karmarkar SDSA. Courtesy of Apple TV+.
Shell Gordon’s office: Maddie is trying to find information from the slick mobster who ordered the killing of Cleo, and owns The Pharaoh nightclub and the Gordian Hotel. Wood Harris as Shell Gordon, Natalie Portman as Maddie Schwartz. Photo courtesy of Apple TV+. All Rights Reserved.
Editor’s note: For additional photos of the splendid nightspot, The Pharaoh, and the Gordian Hotel click on the SHOW MORE PHOTOS button below.
“One of the photographers we turned to constantly was Irving Henry Webster Phillips Sr, a noted local photojournalist who had worked for the Baltimore AFRO AMERICAN newspaper. We were in touch with the Phillips family during production and really leaned on his archive to create an accurate, visually rich interpretation of Black life from that time period.”
“As a set decorator, I would take our photographic references and break them apart, study all the little details and separate them into components and layers. It’s the layers that makes a set feel like a real place.”
BALTIMORE STAR newspaper, where Maddie now works: “Of course, every desk was personalized, and changes were made to show daily use. I loved adding period touches such as the vintage thermos and rolodexes, pencil sharpeners, desk lamps.” Photo courtesy of Apple TV+. All Rights Reserved.
Collaborating with Show Runner/Writer Director Alma Har’el...
“Alma Har’el has been described as a visionary director, and that really is true. She thinks outside of the box and comes up with unique solutions on the fly. She was deeply involved in establishing the color palette and how that tied to our two main characters as we were establishing the sets, and she definitely gave input for changes as we went.”
“Alma has a background in documentary and experimental filmmaking, so her process is at once spontaneous and vérité. She films as if she is making a documentary. She wants the audience to get lost in the story like they are right there with the characters as if it’s the present. So part of this organic process is that she doesn't storyboard: the whole world is her canvas, and everything becomes fair game as far as what the camera catches.”
“For most of the time, we had no idea what she was going to see so we had to prepare ourselves to cover more area. For example, in Episode 1, we follow Natalie Portman’s character, Maddie, through an indoor Kosher Jewish market - the scene lasts about 2 minutes.”
Lombard Street Market: Karuna’s team dressed almost a full block of market stalls. Courtesy of Apple TV+. All Rights Reserved.
Lombard Street Market: Vendor side of the aisle. Courtesy of Apple TV+. All Rights Reserved.
“The market itself was a co-op that stretched almost a full block, and we had to dress every inch because while we knew the general story points, we did not know what Alma may or may not choose to feature.”
“That’s why it was important to have an illustration for each set—we had 132 of them—and these illustrations were released to every department, so we were on the same page with everyone.”
“The illustrations were a close representation of what we ended up with because the set dressing that I was sourcing would make its way into the drawing. At times, it became an elaborate dance to find the correct pieces JC and the art directors needed to make the drawings, sometimes months in advance of when that set would even be shot.”
Filming in Baltimore, for 1960s Baltimore...
“Several movies and shows have been made in Baltimore about Baltimore...Barry Levinson, John Waters, and David Simon have all made their own love letters to the city. However, Baltimore does not have the same kind of infrastructure for filmmaking that a city like Los Angeles or New York has. There are no prop houses for set dressing.”
“While it was a challenge to source what we needed for our many sets, in a way I think the end result was a more original and organic look. There was something nice about dressing a set with elements that were found locally.”
“When we did have to ship items from outside, it was usually because we had to meet the deadline of being ready with limited prep time or because we needed multiples of that item, such as the period hanging lamps for The Pharaoh club from City Knickerbocker, NYC...or multiple tanker desks for the Newsroom from Alpha Companies Motion Picture Rentals, Atlanta...much more nightclub dressing from Omega Cinema Props, LA...various lots from Warner Bros. Property...”
Editor’s note: For addtional photos and more details, click on the SHOW MORE PHOTOS button below.
“The time obligations definitely created pressure, and I don’t know if it was always understood by certain people higher up in the hierarchy that we can’t just get these period items at Home Depot!”
“Even though we were re-creating spaces that had since been lost to time, I think it was very important to shoot Baltimore for Baltimore, and it gave the story some visual weight.”
The unexpected…
“We did have a great serendipitous moment with our Tropical Fish Heaven shop set...the interior is packed with period-appropriate large Metaframe brand tanks. We needed roughly 40...but tanks in that size were pricey, not abundantly available online, and would be expensive to custom fab, plus the time factor.”
“Thankfully, we got a very lucky break. JC and I visited House of Tropicals fish store in Baltimore, and JC happened to overhear a gentleman lamenting his wife’s request to give up the 40+ Metaframe tanks he was storing in his basement. JC convinced the man to sell us the tanks, our set dec team did the hard work of cleaning the tanks, and then the fish store resealed them for us!”
Editor’s note: To see the results, click on the SHOW MORE PHOTOS button below!
“There were many unexpected moments during the job. I don’t know how much I can share due to the NDA we all signed but basically anything that could have gone wrong did go wrong. The schedule was a moving target, there were talent changes, department head changes, Covid, extreme weather, rats and an even an on-set armed extortion threat that shut down production and ended up making national news.”
“I suppose we cumulatively had some good karma on our side, and I couldn’t be happier with how our sets turned out. But it should still be emphasized that our set dressing crew lead by Mike Raybould was literally making miracles happen every day. We would not have gotten through the job without this specific crew with their skill, talent, professionalism and temperament.”
“A special shout out to: Assistant Set Decorator Dustin Berry, Leadperson Mike Raybould, Buyers Angie Ratliff, Lisa Dietrich and Beth Bell, and Set Dec Coordinators Katelyn Cocherell and Mona Ezzat. Thank you, all.”
