Z: The Beginning of Everything

Project: Z: The Beginning of Everything

Client: Amazon Prime (Molecule in house)

Matte Painting, Set Extension, Environment Design

Taking NYC Back to the Jazz Age

Amazon’s series, Z: The Beginning of Everything, follows the turbulent romance of Zelda Fitzgerald, née Sayre, and her husband, the author F. Scott Fitzgerald.
I was hired to design period elements to recreate the New York City of the Roaring Twenties.

RESEARCH

Time Machine

FROM MODERN DAY TO A TIME IN THE PAST

One of our biggest building remodels for this project was the exterior of Penn Station. Today's Penn Station is a completely different building from the one that existed in the 1920s. The original was considered an architectural masterpiece, complete with enormous columns, a pink granite interior, and vaulted glass ceilings. It was demolished in 1963, and many believe that what exists today is a sad, dark, underground holding cell for travelers who wish they could have gone to Grand Central instead.

DESIGN

Revisionist History

A NOVEL OF ZELDA FITZGERALD

To reconstruct the bygone transit hub, we searched for buildings that were architecturally similar. We discovered that the Federal Courthouse was actually modeled after Penn Station, so we filmed the courthouse and placed a matte painting over the street and buildings.
As we moved through the production and post-production phases, research was ongoing.