Hot Set (2012) s01e06 Episode Script
Super Villain's Lair
Tonight on Hot Set Quiet on the set and roll tape! A secret agent's worst nightmare It's dangerous stuff.
caught in a diabolical trap.
The cage is electrified.
Make sure you know what you're doing perfectly.
Two production designers go head to head It's the major piece The cable just completely snapped! that has to work.
to create a super villain's lair in just 3 days.
That's what I'm talkin' about.
Only 1 team will walk away with $10,000.
To come out on top, they'll have to impress our award-winning panel of judges.
Curt Beech, whose credits include "The Social Network" and "Star Trek.
" Lilly Kilvert, 2-time Oscar nominee for "The Last Samurai" and "Legends Of The Fall.
" Barry Robison, production designer, "X-Men Origins" and "The Chronicles Of Narnia.
" The clock is ticking.
3 hour warning, guys.
3 hours.
And the pressures on.
Oh, shit.
Here on Hot Set.
My name is Tudor Boloni, and I've been lucky enough that I've worked in film and TV and videos.
My favorite genre so far is actually music videos.
They allow you to be really creative.
I'm here today because I'm a person that loves competition, and this is right up my alley.
My name is Carol Clements, and I am a production designer.
I've mostly designed for commercials.
Over the course of my career, I've worked with some great talent, including Aerosmith, Heidi Klum, and Michael Jackson.
The opportunities that will come from this kind of exposure hopefully will open new doors.
Production designers, welcome to Hot Set.
I'm your host Ben Mankiewicz.
Sound stages just like this one here in Los Angeles are where the magic of movies happens.
Directors James Cameron, Martin Scorsese, and Guillermo del Toro have all shot scenes right here on this lot.
Carol, Tudor, you and your teams are gonna have a chance to create your own movie magic.
You'll have just 3 days and $15,000 to turn these empty spaces into what the film industry calls "hot sets.
" That is, sets that are perfectly dressed, locked, and camera ready.
You'll be given a scene and an inspiration item to get started.
At the end of 3 days, you'll present your camera-ready sets to our panel of judges.
- Curt Beech.
- Hi, guys.
- Lilly Kilvert.
- Hi.
- And Barry Robison.
- Welcome.
- Hello, hello.
- Hello.
Every great set starts with a solid script, and yours is no exception.
Let's set the scene.
Behind this curtain is a critical element that you'll have to incorporate into your final set.
Carol, Tudor, here is your inspiration.
Production designers, meet Agent Triple Oh Nine.
He's been captured and left to die in Professor Death's headquarters.
And what's a super villain lair without a super villain death machine.
So, there is one more script line and an added challenge for you.
Agent Triple Oh Nine struggles to free himself from Professor Death's fatal trap, releasing himself in the knick of time.
You and your team will have to invent and build the diabolical death device that Agent Triple Oh Nine is trapped in, so, tap into your inner evil.
Judges, please let Carol and Tudor know what you're going to be looking for in their final sets.
Curt? I know you're on a limited budget, but your average evil super villain is not.
So, I want to see a level of finish that reflects that idea.
You have two opportunities here.
You can go Austin Powers or Jason Bourne.
Make your choices clear and stick with it.
Barry? This is a genre that goes way back into film history.
This is a high bar to move up to, so, if you find yourself in time crunch, keep it simple.
Are you ready? - Yes.
- Yes, we're ready.
Good luck.
Because your challenge begins right now.
My first thought is, "how is he going to escape?" I'm thinking he's bound somehow.
Not traditionally with rope, but maybe encased in layers of mesh or something like that.
I'm happy to see that the guy looks fit and in shape and can do something physical, if necessary, but I'm also thinking that it's a very ambitious request and could be very challenging.
All right, guys.
Your teams are waiting for you in the design studio.
Thanks and good luck to both of you.
Thanks.
So, you ready? Yeah.
What are we doing? What are we doing for the next couple of days? The challenge is a double agent has a very short time to live unless he can figure out his escape mode.
My team consists of a man named Bela Tenari.
Bela is my assistant art director.
He can literally operate any sort of major building machinery.
I also have with me Bob Ratti.
He has his own talents.
He's an amazing builder.
He built his own home, and does fine finished work.
All right.
Well, we're doing a lot of stuff.
So, I walk into the design space and I, you know, I see the boys there.
We got super Steve Lind.
He's going to be our set decorator.
He's a completely airtight solid on set and set decorator.
He's also got a great attitude and an amazing skill set.
And we've also got Eligh "Boom Boom" Macias.
He's got no inhibitions, no fear.
Any task, any job, anything.
He doesn't balk ever.
He's a pro.
So, Curt, 2 parts to this challenge.
Both of them difficult, yes? Absolutely.
These are often highly-designed spaces.
Hugely.
Very carefully considered by whoever the architect of the evil lair is.
And it's usually a big idea, and it's-- it's very carefully thought out.
The lair can be anywhere.
It can be architectural.
Or it could be an "odd cave.
" I hope not.
It can be in a ruined structure.
I mean, they've really got the whole world to play with.
I think the scariest thing is the death trap machinery.
They've got to settle that right a-- right off the bat.
How big it is and what it does.
It's the major piece on a set, the piece that has to work, that the whole story revolves around.
Well, guys, as with, uh, Agent Triple Oh Nine, the clock is ticking for our designers already.
So, it will be interesting to see what they come up with.
- Excellent.
- Great.
Thanks, guys.
This man is an ex-architect.
He's retired to his mountain home.
As a child, he lived in this area with his parents, and he, um, went out into the world in the Russian Bauhaus era.
Made a name for himself, but then was scorned by them because he actually was quite an artist.
Carol doesn't view her sets as inanimate objects.
It's a living, breathing thing that she's creating.
And so she takes her sets very personal.
This room is filled with industrial elements.
Professor Death has basically embalmed his childhood room.
He's turned this room into a chamber of death.
He's got a gallows with a cage.
The cage is electrified.
And he basically embalms and mummifies people while they're living.
It's beautifully macabre, though.
It's going to be gorgeous.
Imagine like, uh, if Stonehenge and a natural cave met.
This is a very traditional, almost comic book approach to villain and super-agent.
So the villain's going to live in a very traditional villain's lair which, to me, is a natural cave in some kind of mountaintop.
He has a lot of crazy technology that you've never seen before, including a cryonic chamber that he is freezing to death our hero.
He's gonna escape from our little cryogenic chamber that is gonna exist here.
These are all-- two by twos? And then, like, one of them, this guy, will be our hero candy glass panel.
Our actor will need to break through a piece of candy glass.
Ok.
I need to go meet my construction team now so that we can actually start rocking and rolling.
So it's very gritty, very graphic, but very architectural.
You come in through a small corridor that's filled with water.
So Professor Death has made into a fine art the act of embalming people.
He's actually, in his head, preserving.
Our inspiration today was we saw a dude bound and gagged to a chair.
So what happens is right here we're building, like, a plexi chamber two feet 8, uh, wide-- 8 feet tall, 5 panels.
And then over here, one panel only will actually be candy glass, 'cause I want him to get out just by pure heart.
Like, not some big genius trick or anything, he just is like, fuck this.
So that's what's gonna be along this rock wall.
Then we have our case.
I was hoping you guys could put that thing up and start building this case.
We're gonna do rock walls which, I think, we'll be able to convey a really cool super villain's lair.
But until I see what I can actually get, I don't want to lock in the exact dimensions.
So I will go and shop.
I'm going to Alley Cats.
They have a great selection of industrial props and debris that will totally pull together my concept.
How big are these? 10 by 10? - Mm-hmm.
- I'll take 1.
I'll take 3 of these.
I'll take that.
I like some of your ladders.
This one right here.
It's great.
- That one right there.
- Yeah.
I want a fan in a wall.
You were gonna show me fans.
So I have to find the fan first so I know how it sits.
And I want some skylights, so I have to find these existing period skylights.
These are key set pieces that we have to have on the set as fast as possible so we can actually design around them.
I'm going to Jackson Shrub for our rock walls.
But first, I want to just jam into LCW, which is a great prop house.
The reason I go to lcw is I don't want it to look hokey and old.
I really want it to look modern and clean.
He's Professor Death, so I have to make sure that we add a little bit of technological props, things that look like computer parts and servers and big racks and wires and gauges and things of that nature.
Tudor's plan for the set is these rock walls that come out.
And so it's looking like a re-purposed cave.
Like a crazy scientist kind of thing.
But we're limited to the amount of what we can actually do until the rock walls arrive.
- Yeah.
- So we're just waiting on these rocks.
I could spend 5 days in here.
Let's put just one of these on there, too.
You know? - Yeah.
- Like one of these bad boys, ok? - I'd love to get a total.
- Ok.
Because I think I'm kind of already at my budget.
That's rad.
Put that blue one on hold.
I found this really cool rocket pack that has these chrome thrusters.
Agent 0009 takes a jet pack to escape.
Yeah, let's put this on hold for sure.
Let me give him a call really quick.
Are you at Jackson yet? No.
We're leaving in about one minute.
We can't do anything 'till we get to Jackson.
We just run through the house.
Coming up, super villain deathtraps get dangerous.
- I'll take that.
- Make sure you know what you're doing.
It's leaking too much.
It's melting the pieces.
You're gonna end up breaking the fogger.
It's not working.
It's nerve-wracking to-to wait.
We don't have our rock walls in yet.
I'm finally going to Jackson shrub.
I need a variety of rocks.
I have just got to go look at them and see if they'll make sense because it's like putting together a big Jigsaw puzzle.
Look at this darn thing.
It's freaking amazing.
402 is a wiener.
I like 707.
Hey, man.
I feel bad 'cause we're, like, hanging out doing nothing.
Ok.
All right.
We're gonna get this thing going.
While we're waiting for Tudor to come back, we're gonna get the construction crew started building this cryonic chamber.
Um, we got a pretty good pull from Alley Cats.
- Yeah.
- I've got our corrugated, I've got our plans, I've got all sorts of, like, netting and things like that.
I want to put a skylight.
Well, let's-let's see how it goes, 'cause-- Because I do think-- I think they'll see it.
Because we're gonna do some upshots of this guy getting out.
She's got beautiful taste.
Her sets are creative.
But at the end of the day, we've got to get the main design done.
What I found was this really cool antenna that I thought would be affixed to the top of the gallows, so that it was like a lightning rod going down into the metal cage.
- Ok.
- It's almost like an electrocution thing.
And I think it could-- that's why I wanted that skylight.
It is a constant battle with Carol wanting to prop things heavily.
All right, you no-good sons of bitches, let's see what you done.
So I'm back from shopping, and I wasn't expecting much to have happened.
And, uh, in fact, there was no real great progress at all.
Which sucks.
I'm upset because I want people to get things done.
We were limited to the amount of what we could actually do until the rest of our pieces arrived.
When is that order coming? Tomorrow, like, first thing.
The truck's bringing it in.
We won't have the rocks until tomorrow, so that is a bit of a concern.
I'm a little bit stressed about the competition's set because they are further ahead than me.
We are going to have our work cut out for us.
That's not gonna go anywhere.
No.
It looks great, great, great.
All right, it's starting to happen.
The cryo square, with the little 24 x 24 squares of plex that we're essentially building it with, are going to give it a bit more of a stylized kind of look.
These guys are rad.
You guys are rad.
It looks beautiful.
We need to come up with all of the elements that create the plumbing that gives us the look that this is an embalming situation.
Professor Death has turned his childhood bedroom into a torture chamber by which he embalms his victims alive.
His device is designed to deliver embalming fluid to his victims via an electric keypad and timer.
This is where I can capitalize on Bela's engineering background.
This doesn't matter.
This one does in the 30 seconds as it's coming up to level status.
Stop before it hits that.
I know that this is an ambitious design with all the mechanics.
But to me, a set is a living, breathing thing.
And if you don't pay attention to every detail, it does fall apart.
Time's up! Um-- so, uh, thank you, everyone.
Really great job.
Like, shockingly good.
I know tomorrow this will come together because we've basically erected the whole set.
It's gonna be great.
I'm happy with how things are going and where we are on set.
Pleasantly surprised.
I've got the old list.
Today I came up with a list for everyone.
I'm gonna set everyone to their tasks.
It's gonna be a super busy day.
I have ordered a fogger.
Smoke machine.
Do we know when Jackson's getting here? Any minute.
I think it's-- I think it's coming along really quickly at this point.
Walking to the set today, I was feeling pretty good because we did accomplish a lot construction-wise yesterday.
But today, we have tiling to do, more walls to go up.
We have to paint and we also have to start our water feature.
Ok.
See you, boys.
This morning, I'm sending Bela to Dapper Cadaver.
This prop house has all the main props that we need, including the gallows and cages as well as smaller elements that will help put together our story.
This is our double gallow.
About 12 feet tall.
The gibbet cage is made out of aluminum.
- Ok.
- This cage over here, that's designed for a person to actually climb in.
- Let's go with that.
- It's not built to hang.
Ok.
That's fine.
We'll rig it.
Make sure you know what you're doing.
Luckily I'm finding everything that we need.
And I think everything will work beautifully once everything is put together on the set.
The rocks are here! Finally the rocks showed up.
I can't wait to start pulling everything out.
We need to start pushing it all around and see how it looks, and make it look right.
I'd like to start bringing them up onto the pad.
Is that cool? I need this little guy right here to make sweet love to this guy right here.
We should hold.
Everything ok? The vibe on set right now is just a little bit of chaos because there's a lot to do.
Everyone's scrambling.
Yay.
Ok, I love these.
These are great.
Ok, this is gonna work.
Great.
- It's gonna work.
- Totally.
Carol? Tudor? All of a sudden, Ben and Lilly come into my set and want to get an overview.
And I'm nervous about talking about my set.
My concept is that this Professor Death I see him as an architect.
He basically built a bunker to house his former house.
And what he's protecting is his childhood.
And then you come into this room, which has got-- it's like a flooded-out interior of a bunker.
As you come into the set, you can shoot through here.
This will not be obscured glass, it'll be clear.
You'll have a gallows.
On this gallows are two sets of cages.
One is called a gibbon, and its an old vertical cage that they used to hang people in until they died.
- Right.
- In the second cage, we have 0009.
He's got to get out of this cage before he's embalmed.
There's a touch of old cabinetry here, 'cause he basically has enshrined his bedroom.
I may have a touch of his old bed.
And then we have extra cages over here that have-- people have died in.
Ok, so my major concern is this feels like a very small space for all of this stuff to go-- be going on.
I just want to be sure that you don't add so many different superficial surfaces-- And I don't really want to-- yeah.
- It becomes cluttered.
- Right.
Don't make it too complicated.
- Good luck.
- Ok.
Thank you.
Tudor.
- You remember Lilly? - Of course.
Pleasure to meet you.
The idea is it's Professor Death's kind of like science lab for evil.
Ok.
Couple of things I want to tell you about rock.
Organic rock like this has to have an organic quality.
It either has to have some water, something a little bit growing on it-- What's the danger if the rock isn't treated? It just looks dead and flat, and it's just another crappy rock wall.
On the top, we've got something very interesting happening that, again, little bit of a risk.
I've never done it before or had anyone do it for me.
But-- spray foam onto the screen.
All that, you know, kind of thing-- Yeah, it's dangerous stuff, that.
It can look really crappy.
- Thank you for telling me that.
- Thank you very much.
Ok.
Do you have a better sense of where Carol is headed? She's got a lot of story going on.
To see a set that tells a story is really exciting.
And I don't know if all of that story will be revealed in such a small space.
- Very ambitious.
- It's a whole movie.
She's worked out the whole story.
Whether we'll understand any of it, I'm not sure.
Regarding Tudor.
If you have an organic wall, it has to have some life.
Some water, some cake, some thumping.
Because you very rarely see rock that has nothing in it.
Especially when it's plaster rock.
- All right, Lilly.
We'll find out tomorrow.
- Yeah.
As Lilly came into the room, she was immediately focusing on the fact that it was very claustrophobic.
Really de-clutter it.
So we tone it down a little bit? Not have so many-- just maybe one cage? - Is that the deal? - One cage, one gibbet.
I'm gonna simplify my set using big, broad strokes.
So we've got our kind of hero gag where our actor will need to break through a piece of candy glass and get the flock out of there.
That's the trouble with.
Alfonso's-- oh, shit.
I didn't pick up the candy glass.
Holy shit.
Holy shit.
Eligh, quick.
Just come with me.
No one did the Alfonso's glass pick up.
Holy shit.
Holy shit.
I didn't pick up the candy glass, and this is going to be a huge problem.
Eligh.
Quick, just come with me.
No one did the Alfonso's glass pick-up, dude.
I'm going to get.
You get me the address and phone number for Alfonso's glass, asap.
Mo, hello, it's Tudor.
I fucked up big time.
I totally spaced on the Alfonso's Glass pick-up.
- Alfonso's Glass-- - Where's that at? You're going straight to Alfonso's Glass.
Where is it? Give me the address.
- Sun Valley.
- Sun Valley.
Don't worry about the line you'll see.
They're open tomorrow.
That's my homie.
Go get that shit tomorrow.
Get over to Alfonso's, ASAP.
Drive.
I want to cancel some stuff before we pick it up.
Lilly had a suggestion to add a bit more excess, and in doing so, already, I felt lighter and more clear about my set.
It's already been picked up.
It's already been picked up.
I want to return some stuff so I'm not charged.
Will you do this for me? Oh, ok.
Well, thanks.
We're going to make it look amazing with this more precise vision, which Lilly helped me see.
Lilly, she's telling me that it looks like a big, fake rock room.
We're going to make the rocks come alive.
- We're going to amp it up.
- That'll work.
You know how natural rocks sweat because there's springs and water and stuff releasing through them? Here, maybe just a little black drip and a little black green drip.
But it'd cool naturally where it pools.
I think we should use this other side.
Yeah, I figured that little crevice.
This is like-- this is what it's all about, a little sweet crevice.
- All right, you're spinning.
- Yeah.
Lilly doesn't seem to really be feeling what I was planning to use as my crown material.
So you know what, let's sell Lilly on this technology again.
Maybe she's just had a bad experience-- Just didn't have the right guys.
Yeah, like, you know what, it can look great.
We're forming our own rock walls.
Spray foam, essentially.
As it hardens, it becomes a solid shape.
And it's a really nice effect.
That's what I'm talkin' about! The cave! Hit it.
This is Friday, it's almost 5:00, and we only have 30 minutes to go before the end of day two.
Yes, do you guys have any clear vinyl? - Heavy clear vinyl? - Oh, ok.
Do you know what I'm talking about? That's basically what I'm looking for, that material.
One of the key things in my shot was a vinyl, industrial curtain.
It is the entry way into this lair.
You know the plastic curtains that you have in your shop? We know a vendor that had this specialty item.
Once you have the cash in your hand, will you kick us out or will you let us load if we're there before 5:00 with the cash? It's got to be before a quarter to five.
You're going to punish a production designer who's been loyal to you-- I'm not punishing anybody.
I'm just following the policy.
- Who are you? - I'm the general manager.
Basically I couldn't pull it off with him in time.
It's not going to happen.
That's the candy glass.
You guys rock.
Breathing sigh of relief, because this is the lynchpin for this hero gag to work.
Need to be careful with that.
Tomorrow morning or tonight.
Tomorrow morning.
Fabric place has it.
I know they have clear vinyl.
I know they do.
- In their walls? - Yeah.
Finally after several phone calls, we did find a place that was open and does have what we need and will sell it to us.
I can get this thing tomorrow morning, so I'm saved.
But it just takes days off your life.
All right.
Come on in, guys.
That is the day today.
Excellent day.
You're lookin' good.
All we've succeeded in getting done up till now are the big pieces.
It's now time for all the small pieces.
We're done, people, let's get the hell out of here.
Thank you for a rad day.
That's it for tonight.
We still have quite a bit more to accomplish, but we've got to walk away.
As we're leaving, I'm looking around the set and it's looking really good to me.
But we have still so much to do.
We have some very specific things we need to do.
We've got to finish up that corridor, our exit corridor.
There's a ceiling to put in, there's some, not a ton.
Bela's got a master plan with this gag happening.
We won't have triple zero nine in this cage.
The cage is basically electrified.
- I want my bunker wall.
- No problem.
- Ok.
- I'll get on that first thing.
Ok.
Whoa! It's today.
We have 4 hours.
Let's, uh, let's get-- we have kind of-- not an easy day, by any stretch of the imagination.
But I think it's an absolutely doable day.
All we have right now is literally a blank piece of paper.
Now we put in our world.
We want glistens of silver and stainless and lights to pop.
It's green, blue, red, LEDs.
We have to figure out how to make that smoker do that little gag.
Let's get going.
All right.
The cages are a key element, because it establishes that our villain has a past history of killing.
In fact, next to triple zero nine is a mummified body, proof of past victims.
My amazing Bela, he has been up and down in a scissor lift rigging the two cages with airline cable that can hold the weight of a 220 pound man who's struggling to get free.
We have to add a secondary cable that can take the weight of the agent and the cage.
It's a security, which is key in this.
We got 3 hour warning, guys, 3 hours.
I'm very worried that we're not going to make it on time.
How would you design a hot set for tonight's challenge? Tell us on Twitter using #HotSet.
Clear.
Go.
The biggest thing for right now is the technical aspect of rigging the cage.
Basically we've got to stop this coming in here.
Time is of the essence and we've got a lot to do today.
Lock the cage to that and then we can even have the taglines off the back.
It's leaking too much.
You've got to get pressure.
The way that our hero is going to actually escape the cryo chamber is that he's going to rip the pipe off the wall, break through a piece of glass.
But we're having a difficult time getting the fog to go where we want it, which is into a hose.
- Can you switch the funnel? - Yeah, this is melting.
We've tried some plastic funnels, plastic tubing, and the problem we're running into is everything is melting.
Hey, Tudor, it's melting the pieces.
You're going to end up breaking the fogger.
It's not working.
We need something that can take the heat and deliver the product.
How about that guy? This is like a 3 second gag.
This will work for me.
I got to get this done.
We need to install the industrial vinyl curtain that thankfully we were able to find yesterday.
This was center to my design.
You want to overlap it, right? Yeah.
Ok.
We have a lot to do, but the set has a personality that's actually growing, and I have a feeling it's going to be really quite beautiful.
We have one hour.
We've got to get much faster on that.
I'm sorry to rush you like a bastard.
All right, by myself, dude.
I know, I know.
The cryo chamber, it's kind of the money shot on many levels.
We need to install every piece of candy glass.
We're trying to get it done.
It's kind of a mad dash scramble.
- The candy glass is in.
- Ok.
We're looking good.
We only have one more hour before the shoot.
We still have so much to do.
Fill that thing with water right now.
I'm getting worried at this point that we're starting to run out of time, and I still have to rig the high voltage lines, the keypad and the countdown timer.
Do-- the timer.
Get the timer on.
We're just going like mad men trying to get it done.
We've got about five minutes.
I need a team to get on dirt world.
The table has to get dressed.
Well, look at this.
I really would like to do a lot more, but I know we're not going to have time for it.
Trying to like look at it through the lens a little bit in my brain.
I think it's going to be really beautiful.
I think it's going to totally work.
- That's enough.
- Yeah.
No, just nail it into the top, go up underneath.
Just give me a fucking screw.
The set is about to become hot.
Go up.
It looks so good.
I knew that it would be great, but I didn't think it would come together quite as beautifully as it is.
Nice.
- Is this tested? - All right.
It's done.
Walk away.
Ok, cool, thank you.
All right, teams.
That's it.
Your time is up.
The sets you have built are now completed, and they are camera-ready.
Each of you will have 30 minutes to shoot a scene on your set before you present it to the judges.
Good luck to both of you.
Good luck, dude.
Bye, you guys, thank you so much.
Art, grip, electric, techno.
And 3, 2, 1, in! Make sure this clock is like straightened out.
- Let's add the water.
- Here we go.
He needs to convey sheer terror, and the fact that he has no option other than his wits to get out of the situation.
Push! Camera moves.
Maybe we want to push it closer to the set.
We have power failure.
It needs batteries.
It's dead.
There are a lot of components to my set, and we keep having issues with some of the props, which is eating in for the shooting time.
This is the last one, so stand by.
Here we go.
The cable just completely snapped.
That's a cut.
I think that's your time.
The cable falling doesn't bother me.
Even thought the cable snapping wasn't planned, I think it's going to add great excitement to the film.
You know, you could even do something like-- - take the blue one and run out.
- Ok.
Stand by, and go green.
Go.
And then stand by on lasers.
I'm going personally for a James Bond kind of thing.
There it goes.
- What's going on? - Stop the smoke.
Forget it.
Come on, pop it on, you've got to get it on.
The strap for the jet pack broke.
Zip tie, zip tie, zip tie.
Very important.
Let's put a little snow on his head.
I hope the judges like the way it looks on camera.
Yeah! - I love what I'm seeing.
- Got to cut.
There you go.
Thank you, everyone.
Thanks for helping out, you guys made it look great.
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Production designers.
Welcome to the hot set presentation.
Tonight, one of you will leave here with $10,000.
The other will leave with nothing.
You remember our judges-- - Curt Beech.
- Hi there.
- Lilly Kilbert.
- Good evening.
- And Barry Robison.
- Welcome back.
Your challenge this week was to design a super villain's lair with the added requirement of creating a death trap for our potentially doomed secret agent.
You were given very specific stage directions that your set had to accomplish.
Interior, Professor's headquarters, day.
Agent Triple Oh Nine is having a very bad day.
In fact, this might be his last day.
He struggles to free himself from Professor Death's fatal trap; releasing himself in the knick of time.
Carol, we'll start with you.
Tell us about your set.
The set I've designed revolves around a Russian Professor of architecture who's captured an international agent.
He's given this agent two choices-- either give him a password that he desires or be put to death by electrocution.
I've used reflective surfaces, water, and ambient pennants of light to create a general mood.
And here is my hot set.
Carol, you told us about your set.
Let's see how you did.
Here's my hot set.
Carol, now that you've presented your set, it's time to see how it plays on the big screen.
Awesome.
Really nice.
Carol, thank you, nice work.
Thank you so much.
Tudor, tell us about your set.
Agent Triple Oh Nine finds himself in a cryogenic chamber.
Dangerously close to death, he breaks out of there, winds up stealing the jet pack from Professor Death, and actually escaping.
Here's my hot set.
Ultimately in production design, it's all about how your craft looks on the big screen.
Let's see how you did.
Tudor, nice job, nice work.
- Thank you, thank you.
- Judges, I'd like to invite you on set for a closer look.
I'm not sure about this at all.
- Never quite sure about that.
- The water's great.
The water's great, the water's great.
Interesting things here.
Good details.
It feels foreign.
It happens without you even knowing.
- Exactly.
- And that's huge.
The escape is really terrific.
I love the escape.
- Let's go over to the other set.
- Yeah.
Good placement of the chamber in the corner.
- I agree.
- The action on the panels is good.
I thought all of that was really wonderful.
The quality of the rock.
It's a shame, because I warned him of that.
I said, this is stuff you've got to really be careful with.
This is really good.
It was very successful.
It felt like a super, super villain lair.
- Thank you.
- Thank you.
Thank you.
Judges, of course you have many questions for these guys.
We'll start with Carol.
First of all, I don't understand the concept at all.
But it's such a great set that I don't care one bit.
Your finishes are great, the layers are great, the flow of the set is great.
It's extremely impressive.
- Thank you so much.
- About that wall over there, what are you trying to tell us with that wall? This portrays the exterior of this place and is actually part of this bunker.
It is about actual light that he's allowing in.
The stunt was amazing.
It looked so great on film.
Good work.
- Thank you so much.
- As good a set as this is, my one thought is, is this a super villain set? There is a certain operatic scale.
- I missed that.
- Tudor? These guys, I know, have questions for you, as well.
The chamber is off the charts.
Breaking glass, love it.
And if I'm Triple Oh Nine, I am stealing that jet pack.
Let's talk about the rocks.
- They're not successful.
- They're not? Not even this much.
So you've got a top part of your set that's not very good.
I completely agree with you.
It's one of these things where I took a little risk.
If we had had more time kind of thing, we'd put more coats and it would take more of that bumpiness away.
Super villain set, absolutely, I know there's a very bad guy in charge of this set.
I think it's a smashing looking set and really very good work.
- Thank you.
- Thank you both.
Judges will now take a moment to review what they've seen.
Please rejoin your teammates while the judges make their decision.
- Thank you so much.
- Thank you.
All right, judges, two very different approaches.
What did you think of Carol's work? Technique-wise, some of the best stuff we've seen.
She thought about how the set moves, you know, how the character moves through the set.
It's quite successful, and I do love her details.
You know, I cannot say enough how much I hate that other wall.
It's obviously not a real wall.
It's nearly perfect.
I did love the water because it added a kind of reality.
We go by our criteria, the one bit of this challenge that I think she sloughed it off, the super villain, there is a scale to that.
It doesn't quite make it to super villain.
Yeah, he's not a super villain.
But on screen, it was great.
I quite agree.
And Tudor's set.
He understands the super villain.
- Yes.
- I mean, he really nailed it.
He narrowly gets it right.
I wish that the stone wall had been treated differently.
It would have helped a great deal if there was a sense that everything was built into this wall and there was not a sense of things being placed in there.
Yeah, it's a cave with stuff in it, and it's not a highly designed lair.
There's another layer of finish on things that I crave when I look at this.
But I like a lot of his details and I think his chamber and escape sequence is fantastic, off the charts.
All right, well, given all that information, - have you reached a decision? - I think so.
Yeah, I think we have.
So, judges.
Who has the hot set and leaves here tonight with $10,000? Judges who has the hot set and leaves here tonight with $10,000? Tudor, super villain, yes.
We really felt the peril of our hero.
But your set needed another layer.
Carol, you did suggest a world very clearly and very completely.
But that wall, I fear you undercut yourself.
This is the best work we've seen so far on this show.
However, there can only be one winner.
And the designer with this week's hot set is Carol.
Carol, you gave us the beautiful movie set.
Really well done.
Thank you.
I was pretty sure that we were going to take it, but it was awesome, I loved it.
I really did have a great time.
It's still sinking in right now.
But it's like an accolade from an amazing world that I love so much.
caught in a diabolical trap.
The cage is electrified.
Make sure you know what you're doing perfectly.
Two production designers go head to head It's the major piece The cable just completely snapped! that has to work.
to create a super villain's lair in just 3 days.
That's what I'm talkin' about.
Only 1 team will walk away with $10,000.
To come out on top, they'll have to impress our award-winning panel of judges.
Curt Beech, whose credits include "The Social Network" and "Star Trek.
" Lilly Kilvert, 2-time Oscar nominee for "The Last Samurai" and "Legends Of The Fall.
" Barry Robison, production designer, "X-Men Origins" and "The Chronicles Of Narnia.
" The clock is ticking.
3 hour warning, guys.
3 hours.
And the pressures on.
Oh, shit.
Here on Hot Set.
My name is Tudor Boloni, and I've been lucky enough that I've worked in film and TV and videos.
My favorite genre so far is actually music videos.
They allow you to be really creative.
I'm here today because I'm a person that loves competition, and this is right up my alley.
My name is Carol Clements, and I am a production designer.
I've mostly designed for commercials.
Over the course of my career, I've worked with some great talent, including Aerosmith, Heidi Klum, and Michael Jackson.
The opportunities that will come from this kind of exposure hopefully will open new doors.
Production designers, welcome to Hot Set.
I'm your host Ben Mankiewicz.
Sound stages just like this one here in Los Angeles are where the magic of movies happens.
Directors James Cameron, Martin Scorsese, and Guillermo del Toro have all shot scenes right here on this lot.
Carol, Tudor, you and your teams are gonna have a chance to create your own movie magic.
You'll have just 3 days and $15,000 to turn these empty spaces into what the film industry calls "hot sets.
" That is, sets that are perfectly dressed, locked, and camera ready.
You'll be given a scene and an inspiration item to get started.
At the end of 3 days, you'll present your camera-ready sets to our panel of judges.
- Curt Beech.
- Hi, guys.
- Lilly Kilvert.
- Hi.
- And Barry Robison.
- Welcome.
- Hello, hello.
- Hello.
Every great set starts with a solid script, and yours is no exception.
Let's set the scene.
Behind this curtain is a critical element that you'll have to incorporate into your final set.
Carol, Tudor, here is your inspiration.
Production designers, meet Agent Triple Oh Nine.
He's been captured and left to die in Professor Death's headquarters.
And what's a super villain lair without a super villain death machine.
So, there is one more script line and an added challenge for you.
Agent Triple Oh Nine struggles to free himself from Professor Death's fatal trap, releasing himself in the knick of time.
You and your team will have to invent and build the diabolical death device that Agent Triple Oh Nine is trapped in, so, tap into your inner evil.
Judges, please let Carol and Tudor know what you're going to be looking for in their final sets.
Curt? I know you're on a limited budget, but your average evil super villain is not.
So, I want to see a level of finish that reflects that idea.
You have two opportunities here.
You can go Austin Powers or Jason Bourne.
Make your choices clear and stick with it.
Barry? This is a genre that goes way back into film history.
This is a high bar to move up to, so, if you find yourself in time crunch, keep it simple.
Are you ready? - Yes.
- Yes, we're ready.
Good luck.
Because your challenge begins right now.
My first thought is, "how is he going to escape?" I'm thinking he's bound somehow.
Not traditionally with rope, but maybe encased in layers of mesh or something like that.
I'm happy to see that the guy looks fit and in shape and can do something physical, if necessary, but I'm also thinking that it's a very ambitious request and could be very challenging.
All right, guys.
Your teams are waiting for you in the design studio.
Thanks and good luck to both of you.
Thanks.
So, you ready? Yeah.
What are we doing? What are we doing for the next couple of days? The challenge is a double agent has a very short time to live unless he can figure out his escape mode.
My team consists of a man named Bela Tenari.
Bela is my assistant art director.
He can literally operate any sort of major building machinery.
I also have with me Bob Ratti.
He has his own talents.
He's an amazing builder.
He built his own home, and does fine finished work.
All right.
Well, we're doing a lot of stuff.
So, I walk into the design space and I, you know, I see the boys there.
We got super Steve Lind.
He's going to be our set decorator.
He's a completely airtight solid on set and set decorator.
He's also got a great attitude and an amazing skill set.
And we've also got Eligh "Boom Boom" Macias.
He's got no inhibitions, no fear.
Any task, any job, anything.
He doesn't balk ever.
He's a pro.
So, Curt, 2 parts to this challenge.
Both of them difficult, yes? Absolutely.
These are often highly-designed spaces.
Hugely.
Very carefully considered by whoever the architect of the evil lair is.
And it's usually a big idea, and it's-- it's very carefully thought out.
The lair can be anywhere.
It can be architectural.
Or it could be an "odd cave.
" I hope not.
It can be in a ruined structure.
I mean, they've really got the whole world to play with.
I think the scariest thing is the death trap machinery.
They've got to settle that right a-- right off the bat.
How big it is and what it does.
It's the major piece on a set, the piece that has to work, that the whole story revolves around.
Well, guys, as with, uh, Agent Triple Oh Nine, the clock is ticking for our designers already.
So, it will be interesting to see what they come up with.
- Excellent.
- Great.
Thanks, guys.
This man is an ex-architect.
He's retired to his mountain home.
As a child, he lived in this area with his parents, and he, um, went out into the world in the Russian Bauhaus era.
Made a name for himself, but then was scorned by them because he actually was quite an artist.
Carol doesn't view her sets as inanimate objects.
It's a living, breathing thing that she's creating.
And so she takes her sets very personal.
This room is filled with industrial elements.
Professor Death has basically embalmed his childhood room.
He's turned this room into a chamber of death.
He's got a gallows with a cage.
The cage is electrified.
And he basically embalms and mummifies people while they're living.
It's beautifully macabre, though.
It's going to be gorgeous.
Imagine like, uh, if Stonehenge and a natural cave met.
This is a very traditional, almost comic book approach to villain and super-agent.
So the villain's going to live in a very traditional villain's lair which, to me, is a natural cave in some kind of mountaintop.
He has a lot of crazy technology that you've never seen before, including a cryonic chamber that he is freezing to death our hero.
He's gonna escape from our little cryogenic chamber that is gonna exist here.
These are all-- two by twos? And then, like, one of them, this guy, will be our hero candy glass panel.
Our actor will need to break through a piece of candy glass.
Ok.
I need to go meet my construction team now so that we can actually start rocking and rolling.
So it's very gritty, very graphic, but very architectural.
You come in through a small corridor that's filled with water.
So Professor Death has made into a fine art the act of embalming people.
He's actually, in his head, preserving.
Our inspiration today was we saw a dude bound and gagged to a chair.
So what happens is right here we're building, like, a plexi chamber two feet 8, uh, wide-- 8 feet tall, 5 panels.
And then over here, one panel only will actually be candy glass, 'cause I want him to get out just by pure heart.
Like, not some big genius trick or anything, he just is like, fuck this.
So that's what's gonna be along this rock wall.
Then we have our case.
I was hoping you guys could put that thing up and start building this case.
We're gonna do rock walls which, I think, we'll be able to convey a really cool super villain's lair.
But until I see what I can actually get, I don't want to lock in the exact dimensions.
So I will go and shop.
I'm going to Alley Cats.
They have a great selection of industrial props and debris that will totally pull together my concept.
How big are these? 10 by 10? - Mm-hmm.
- I'll take 1.
I'll take 3 of these.
I'll take that.
I like some of your ladders.
This one right here.
It's great.
- That one right there.
- Yeah.
I want a fan in a wall.
You were gonna show me fans.
So I have to find the fan first so I know how it sits.
And I want some skylights, so I have to find these existing period skylights.
These are key set pieces that we have to have on the set as fast as possible so we can actually design around them.
I'm going to Jackson Shrub for our rock walls.
But first, I want to just jam into LCW, which is a great prop house.
The reason I go to lcw is I don't want it to look hokey and old.
I really want it to look modern and clean.
He's Professor Death, so I have to make sure that we add a little bit of technological props, things that look like computer parts and servers and big racks and wires and gauges and things of that nature.
Tudor's plan for the set is these rock walls that come out.
And so it's looking like a re-purposed cave.
Like a crazy scientist kind of thing.
But we're limited to the amount of what we can actually do until the rock walls arrive.
- Yeah.
- So we're just waiting on these rocks.
I could spend 5 days in here.
Let's put just one of these on there, too.
You know? - Yeah.
- Like one of these bad boys, ok? - I'd love to get a total.
- Ok.
Because I think I'm kind of already at my budget.
That's rad.
Put that blue one on hold.
I found this really cool rocket pack that has these chrome thrusters.
Agent 0009 takes a jet pack to escape.
Yeah, let's put this on hold for sure.
Let me give him a call really quick.
Are you at Jackson yet? No.
We're leaving in about one minute.
We can't do anything 'till we get to Jackson.
We just run through the house.
Coming up, super villain deathtraps get dangerous.
- I'll take that.
- Make sure you know what you're doing.
It's leaking too much.
It's melting the pieces.
You're gonna end up breaking the fogger.
It's not working.
It's nerve-wracking to-to wait.
We don't have our rock walls in yet.
I'm finally going to Jackson shrub.
I need a variety of rocks.
I have just got to go look at them and see if they'll make sense because it's like putting together a big Jigsaw puzzle.
Look at this darn thing.
It's freaking amazing.
402 is a wiener.
I like 707.
Hey, man.
I feel bad 'cause we're, like, hanging out doing nothing.
Ok.
All right.
We're gonna get this thing going.
While we're waiting for Tudor to come back, we're gonna get the construction crew started building this cryonic chamber.
Um, we got a pretty good pull from Alley Cats.
- Yeah.
- I've got our corrugated, I've got our plans, I've got all sorts of, like, netting and things like that.
I want to put a skylight.
Well, let's-let's see how it goes, 'cause-- Because I do think-- I think they'll see it.
Because we're gonna do some upshots of this guy getting out.
She's got beautiful taste.
Her sets are creative.
But at the end of the day, we've got to get the main design done.
What I found was this really cool antenna that I thought would be affixed to the top of the gallows, so that it was like a lightning rod going down into the metal cage.
- Ok.
- It's almost like an electrocution thing.
And I think it could-- that's why I wanted that skylight.
It is a constant battle with Carol wanting to prop things heavily.
All right, you no-good sons of bitches, let's see what you done.
So I'm back from shopping, and I wasn't expecting much to have happened.
And, uh, in fact, there was no real great progress at all.
Which sucks.
I'm upset because I want people to get things done.
We were limited to the amount of what we could actually do until the rest of our pieces arrived.
When is that order coming? Tomorrow, like, first thing.
The truck's bringing it in.
We won't have the rocks until tomorrow, so that is a bit of a concern.
I'm a little bit stressed about the competition's set because they are further ahead than me.
We are going to have our work cut out for us.
That's not gonna go anywhere.
No.
It looks great, great, great.
All right, it's starting to happen.
The cryo square, with the little 24 x 24 squares of plex that we're essentially building it with, are going to give it a bit more of a stylized kind of look.
These guys are rad.
You guys are rad.
It looks beautiful.
We need to come up with all of the elements that create the plumbing that gives us the look that this is an embalming situation.
Professor Death has turned his childhood bedroom into a torture chamber by which he embalms his victims alive.
His device is designed to deliver embalming fluid to his victims via an electric keypad and timer.
This is where I can capitalize on Bela's engineering background.
This doesn't matter.
This one does in the 30 seconds as it's coming up to level status.
Stop before it hits that.
I know that this is an ambitious design with all the mechanics.
But to me, a set is a living, breathing thing.
And if you don't pay attention to every detail, it does fall apart.
Time's up! Um-- so, uh, thank you, everyone.
Really great job.
Like, shockingly good.
I know tomorrow this will come together because we've basically erected the whole set.
It's gonna be great.
I'm happy with how things are going and where we are on set.
Pleasantly surprised.
I've got the old list.
Today I came up with a list for everyone.
I'm gonna set everyone to their tasks.
It's gonna be a super busy day.
I have ordered a fogger.
Smoke machine.
Do we know when Jackson's getting here? Any minute.
I think it's-- I think it's coming along really quickly at this point.
Walking to the set today, I was feeling pretty good because we did accomplish a lot construction-wise yesterday.
But today, we have tiling to do, more walls to go up.
We have to paint and we also have to start our water feature.
Ok.
See you, boys.
This morning, I'm sending Bela to Dapper Cadaver.
This prop house has all the main props that we need, including the gallows and cages as well as smaller elements that will help put together our story.
This is our double gallow.
About 12 feet tall.
The gibbet cage is made out of aluminum.
- Ok.
- This cage over here, that's designed for a person to actually climb in.
- Let's go with that.
- It's not built to hang.
Ok.
That's fine.
We'll rig it.
Make sure you know what you're doing.
Luckily I'm finding everything that we need.
And I think everything will work beautifully once everything is put together on the set.
The rocks are here! Finally the rocks showed up.
I can't wait to start pulling everything out.
We need to start pushing it all around and see how it looks, and make it look right.
I'd like to start bringing them up onto the pad.
Is that cool? I need this little guy right here to make sweet love to this guy right here.
We should hold.
Everything ok? The vibe on set right now is just a little bit of chaos because there's a lot to do.
Everyone's scrambling.
Yay.
Ok, I love these.
These are great.
Ok, this is gonna work.
Great.
- It's gonna work.
- Totally.
Carol? Tudor? All of a sudden, Ben and Lilly come into my set and want to get an overview.
And I'm nervous about talking about my set.
My concept is that this Professor Death I see him as an architect.
He basically built a bunker to house his former house.
And what he's protecting is his childhood.
And then you come into this room, which has got-- it's like a flooded-out interior of a bunker.
As you come into the set, you can shoot through here.
This will not be obscured glass, it'll be clear.
You'll have a gallows.
On this gallows are two sets of cages.
One is called a gibbon, and its an old vertical cage that they used to hang people in until they died.
- Right.
- In the second cage, we have 0009.
He's got to get out of this cage before he's embalmed.
There's a touch of old cabinetry here, 'cause he basically has enshrined his bedroom.
I may have a touch of his old bed.
And then we have extra cages over here that have-- people have died in.
Ok, so my major concern is this feels like a very small space for all of this stuff to go-- be going on.
I just want to be sure that you don't add so many different superficial surfaces-- And I don't really want to-- yeah.
- It becomes cluttered.
- Right.
Don't make it too complicated.
- Good luck.
- Ok.
Thank you.
Tudor.
- You remember Lilly? - Of course.
Pleasure to meet you.
The idea is it's Professor Death's kind of like science lab for evil.
Ok.
Couple of things I want to tell you about rock.
Organic rock like this has to have an organic quality.
It either has to have some water, something a little bit growing on it-- What's the danger if the rock isn't treated? It just looks dead and flat, and it's just another crappy rock wall.
On the top, we've got something very interesting happening that, again, little bit of a risk.
I've never done it before or had anyone do it for me.
But-- spray foam onto the screen.
All that, you know, kind of thing-- Yeah, it's dangerous stuff, that.
It can look really crappy.
- Thank you for telling me that.
- Thank you very much.
Ok.
Do you have a better sense of where Carol is headed? She's got a lot of story going on.
To see a set that tells a story is really exciting.
And I don't know if all of that story will be revealed in such a small space.
- Very ambitious.
- It's a whole movie.
She's worked out the whole story.
Whether we'll understand any of it, I'm not sure.
Regarding Tudor.
If you have an organic wall, it has to have some life.
Some water, some cake, some thumping.
Because you very rarely see rock that has nothing in it.
Especially when it's plaster rock.
- All right, Lilly.
We'll find out tomorrow.
- Yeah.
As Lilly came into the room, she was immediately focusing on the fact that it was very claustrophobic.
Really de-clutter it.
So we tone it down a little bit? Not have so many-- just maybe one cage? - Is that the deal? - One cage, one gibbet.
I'm gonna simplify my set using big, broad strokes.
So we've got our kind of hero gag where our actor will need to break through a piece of candy glass and get the flock out of there.
That's the trouble with.
Alfonso's-- oh, shit.
I didn't pick up the candy glass.
Holy shit.
Holy shit.
Eligh, quick.
Just come with me.
No one did the Alfonso's glass pick up.
Holy shit.
Holy shit.
I didn't pick up the candy glass, and this is going to be a huge problem.
Eligh.
Quick, just come with me.
No one did the Alfonso's glass pick-up, dude.
I'm going to get.
You get me the address and phone number for Alfonso's glass, asap.
Mo, hello, it's Tudor.
I fucked up big time.
I totally spaced on the Alfonso's Glass pick-up.
- Alfonso's Glass-- - Where's that at? You're going straight to Alfonso's Glass.
Where is it? Give me the address.
- Sun Valley.
- Sun Valley.
Don't worry about the line you'll see.
They're open tomorrow.
That's my homie.
Go get that shit tomorrow.
Get over to Alfonso's, ASAP.
Drive.
I want to cancel some stuff before we pick it up.
Lilly had a suggestion to add a bit more excess, and in doing so, already, I felt lighter and more clear about my set.
It's already been picked up.
It's already been picked up.
I want to return some stuff so I'm not charged.
Will you do this for me? Oh, ok.
Well, thanks.
We're going to make it look amazing with this more precise vision, which Lilly helped me see.
Lilly, she's telling me that it looks like a big, fake rock room.
We're going to make the rocks come alive.
- We're going to amp it up.
- That'll work.
You know how natural rocks sweat because there's springs and water and stuff releasing through them? Here, maybe just a little black drip and a little black green drip.
But it'd cool naturally where it pools.
I think we should use this other side.
Yeah, I figured that little crevice.
This is like-- this is what it's all about, a little sweet crevice.
- All right, you're spinning.
- Yeah.
Lilly doesn't seem to really be feeling what I was planning to use as my crown material.
So you know what, let's sell Lilly on this technology again.
Maybe she's just had a bad experience-- Just didn't have the right guys.
Yeah, like, you know what, it can look great.
We're forming our own rock walls.
Spray foam, essentially.
As it hardens, it becomes a solid shape.
And it's a really nice effect.
That's what I'm talkin' about! The cave! Hit it.
This is Friday, it's almost 5:00, and we only have 30 minutes to go before the end of day two.
Yes, do you guys have any clear vinyl? - Heavy clear vinyl? - Oh, ok.
Do you know what I'm talking about? That's basically what I'm looking for, that material.
One of the key things in my shot was a vinyl, industrial curtain.
It is the entry way into this lair.
You know the plastic curtains that you have in your shop? We know a vendor that had this specialty item.
Once you have the cash in your hand, will you kick us out or will you let us load if we're there before 5:00 with the cash? It's got to be before a quarter to five.
You're going to punish a production designer who's been loyal to you-- I'm not punishing anybody.
I'm just following the policy.
- Who are you? - I'm the general manager.
Basically I couldn't pull it off with him in time.
It's not going to happen.
That's the candy glass.
You guys rock.
Breathing sigh of relief, because this is the lynchpin for this hero gag to work.
Need to be careful with that.
Tomorrow morning or tonight.
Tomorrow morning.
Fabric place has it.
I know they have clear vinyl.
I know they do.
- In their walls? - Yeah.
Finally after several phone calls, we did find a place that was open and does have what we need and will sell it to us.
I can get this thing tomorrow morning, so I'm saved.
But it just takes days off your life.
All right.
Come on in, guys.
That is the day today.
Excellent day.
You're lookin' good.
All we've succeeded in getting done up till now are the big pieces.
It's now time for all the small pieces.
We're done, people, let's get the hell out of here.
Thank you for a rad day.
That's it for tonight.
We still have quite a bit more to accomplish, but we've got to walk away.
As we're leaving, I'm looking around the set and it's looking really good to me.
But we have still so much to do.
We have some very specific things we need to do.
We've got to finish up that corridor, our exit corridor.
There's a ceiling to put in, there's some, not a ton.
Bela's got a master plan with this gag happening.
We won't have triple zero nine in this cage.
The cage is basically electrified.
- I want my bunker wall.
- No problem.
- Ok.
- I'll get on that first thing.
Ok.
Whoa! It's today.
We have 4 hours.
Let's, uh, let's get-- we have kind of-- not an easy day, by any stretch of the imagination.
But I think it's an absolutely doable day.
All we have right now is literally a blank piece of paper.
Now we put in our world.
We want glistens of silver and stainless and lights to pop.
It's green, blue, red, LEDs.
We have to figure out how to make that smoker do that little gag.
Let's get going.
All right.
The cages are a key element, because it establishes that our villain has a past history of killing.
In fact, next to triple zero nine is a mummified body, proof of past victims.
My amazing Bela, he has been up and down in a scissor lift rigging the two cages with airline cable that can hold the weight of a 220 pound man who's struggling to get free.
We have to add a secondary cable that can take the weight of the agent and the cage.
It's a security, which is key in this.
We got 3 hour warning, guys, 3 hours.
I'm very worried that we're not going to make it on time.
How would you design a hot set for tonight's challenge? Tell us on Twitter using #HotSet.
Clear.
Go.
The biggest thing for right now is the technical aspect of rigging the cage.
Basically we've got to stop this coming in here.
Time is of the essence and we've got a lot to do today.
Lock the cage to that and then we can even have the taglines off the back.
It's leaking too much.
You've got to get pressure.
The way that our hero is going to actually escape the cryo chamber is that he's going to rip the pipe off the wall, break through a piece of glass.
But we're having a difficult time getting the fog to go where we want it, which is into a hose.
- Can you switch the funnel? - Yeah, this is melting.
We've tried some plastic funnels, plastic tubing, and the problem we're running into is everything is melting.
Hey, Tudor, it's melting the pieces.
You're going to end up breaking the fogger.
It's not working.
We need something that can take the heat and deliver the product.
How about that guy? This is like a 3 second gag.
This will work for me.
I got to get this done.
We need to install the industrial vinyl curtain that thankfully we were able to find yesterday.
This was center to my design.
You want to overlap it, right? Yeah.
Ok.
We have a lot to do, but the set has a personality that's actually growing, and I have a feeling it's going to be really quite beautiful.
We have one hour.
We've got to get much faster on that.
I'm sorry to rush you like a bastard.
All right, by myself, dude.
I know, I know.
The cryo chamber, it's kind of the money shot on many levels.
We need to install every piece of candy glass.
We're trying to get it done.
It's kind of a mad dash scramble.
- The candy glass is in.
- Ok.
We're looking good.
We only have one more hour before the shoot.
We still have so much to do.
Fill that thing with water right now.
I'm getting worried at this point that we're starting to run out of time, and I still have to rig the high voltage lines, the keypad and the countdown timer.
Do-- the timer.
Get the timer on.
We're just going like mad men trying to get it done.
We've got about five minutes.
I need a team to get on dirt world.
The table has to get dressed.
Well, look at this.
I really would like to do a lot more, but I know we're not going to have time for it.
Trying to like look at it through the lens a little bit in my brain.
I think it's going to be really beautiful.
I think it's going to totally work.
- That's enough.
- Yeah.
No, just nail it into the top, go up underneath.
Just give me a fucking screw.
The set is about to become hot.
Go up.
It looks so good.
I knew that it would be great, but I didn't think it would come together quite as beautifully as it is.
Nice.
- Is this tested? - All right.
It's done.
Walk away.
Ok, cool, thank you.
All right, teams.
That's it.
Your time is up.
The sets you have built are now completed, and they are camera-ready.
Each of you will have 30 minutes to shoot a scene on your set before you present it to the judges.
Good luck to both of you.
Good luck, dude.
Bye, you guys, thank you so much.
Art, grip, electric, techno.
And 3, 2, 1, in! Make sure this clock is like straightened out.
- Let's add the water.
- Here we go.
He needs to convey sheer terror, and the fact that he has no option other than his wits to get out of the situation.
Push! Camera moves.
Maybe we want to push it closer to the set.
We have power failure.
It needs batteries.
It's dead.
There are a lot of components to my set, and we keep having issues with some of the props, which is eating in for the shooting time.
This is the last one, so stand by.
Here we go.
The cable just completely snapped.
That's a cut.
I think that's your time.
The cable falling doesn't bother me.
Even thought the cable snapping wasn't planned, I think it's going to add great excitement to the film.
You know, you could even do something like-- - take the blue one and run out.
- Ok.
Stand by, and go green.
Go.
And then stand by on lasers.
I'm going personally for a James Bond kind of thing.
There it goes.
- What's going on? - Stop the smoke.
Forget it.
Come on, pop it on, you've got to get it on.
The strap for the jet pack broke.
Zip tie, zip tie, zip tie.
Very important.
Let's put a little snow on his head.
I hope the judges like the way it looks on camera.
Yeah! - I love what I'm seeing.
- Got to cut.
There you go.
Thank you, everyone.
Thanks for helping out, you guys made it look great.
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Production designers.
Welcome to the hot set presentation.
Tonight, one of you will leave here with $10,000.
The other will leave with nothing.
You remember our judges-- - Curt Beech.
- Hi there.
- Lilly Kilbert.
- Good evening.
- And Barry Robison.
- Welcome back.
Your challenge this week was to design a super villain's lair with the added requirement of creating a death trap for our potentially doomed secret agent.
You were given very specific stage directions that your set had to accomplish.
Interior, Professor's headquarters, day.
Agent Triple Oh Nine is having a very bad day.
In fact, this might be his last day.
He struggles to free himself from Professor Death's fatal trap; releasing himself in the knick of time.
Carol, we'll start with you.
Tell us about your set.
The set I've designed revolves around a Russian Professor of architecture who's captured an international agent.
He's given this agent two choices-- either give him a password that he desires or be put to death by electrocution.
I've used reflective surfaces, water, and ambient pennants of light to create a general mood.
And here is my hot set.
Carol, you told us about your set.
Let's see how you did.
Here's my hot set.
Carol, now that you've presented your set, it's time to see how it plays on the big screen.
Awesome.
Really nice.
Carol, thank you, nice work.
Thank you so much.
Tudor, tell us about your set.
Agent Triple Oh Nine finds himself in a cryogenic chamber.
Dangerously close to death, he breaks out of there, winds up stealing the jet pack from Professor Death, and actually escaping.
Here's my hot set.
Ultimately in production design, it's all about how your craft looks on the big screen.
Let's see how you did.
Tudor, nice job, nice work.
- Thank you, thank you.
- Judges, I'd like to invite you on set for a closer look.
I'm not sure about this at all.
- Never quite sure about that.
- The water's great.
The water's great, the water's great.
Interesting things here.
Good details.
It feels foreign.
It happens without you even knowing.
- Exactly.
- And that's huge.
The escape is really terrific.
I love the escape.
- Let's go over to the other set.
- Yeah.
Good placement of the chamber in the corner.
- I agree.
- The action on the panels is good.
I thought all of that was really wonderful.
The quality of the rock.
It's a shame, because I warned him of that.
I said, this is stuff you've got to really be careful with.
This is really good.
It was very successful.
It felt like a super, super villain lair.
- Thank you.
- Thank you.
Thank you.
Judges, of course you have many questions for these guys.
We'll start with Carol.
First of all, I don't understand the concept at all.
But it's such a great set that I don't care one bit.
Your finishes are great, the layers are great, the flow of the set is great.
It's extremely impressive.
- Thank you so much.
- About that wall over there, what are you trying to tell us with that wall? This portrays the exterior of this place and is actually part of this bunker.
It is about actual light that he's allowing in.
The stunt was amazing.
It looked so great on film.
Good work.
- Thank you so much.
- As good a set as this is, my one thought is, is this a super villain set? There is a certain operatic scale.
- I missed that.
- Tudor? These guys, I know, have questions for you, as well.
The chamber is off the charts.
Breaking glass, love it.
And if I'm Triple Oh Nine, I am stealing that jet pack.
Let's talk about the rocks.
- They're not successful.
- They're not? Not even this much.
So you've got a top part of your set that's not very good.
I completely agree with you.
It's one of these things where I took a little risk.
If we had had more time kind of thing, we'd put more coats and it would take more of that bumpiness away.
Super villain set, absolutely, I know there's a very bad guy in charge of this set.
I think it's a smashing looking set and really very good work.
- Thank you.
- Thank you both.
Judges will now take a moment to review what they've seen.
Please rejoin your teammates while the judges make their decision.
- Thank you so much.
- Thank you.
All right, judges, two very different approaches.
What did you think of Carol's work? Technique-wise, some of the best stuff we've seen.
She thought about how the set moves, you know, how the character moves through the set.
It's quite successful, and I do love her details.
You know, I cannot say enough how much I hate that other wall.
It's obviously not a real wall.
It's nearly perfect.
I did love the water because it added a kind of reality.
We go by our criteria, the one bit of this challenge that I think she sloughed it off, the super villain, there is a scale to that.
It doesn't quite make it to super villain.
Yeah, he's not a super villain.
But on screen, it was great.
I quite agree.
And Tudor's set.
He understands the super villain.
- Yes.
- I mean, he really nailed it.
He narrowly gets it right.
I wish that the stone wall had been treated differently.
It would have helped a great deal if there was a sense that everything was built into this wall and there was not a sense of things being placed in there.
Yeah, it's a cave with stuff in it, and it's not a highly designed lair.
There's another layer of finish on things that I crave when I look at this.
But I like a lot of his details and I think his chamber and escape sequence is fantastic, off the charts.
All right, well, given all that information, - have you reached a decision? - I think so.
Yeah, I think we have.
So, judges.
Who has the hot set and leaves here tonight with $10,000? Judges who has the hot set and leaves here tonight with $10,000? Tudor, super villain, yes.
We really felt the peril of our hero.
But your set needed another layer.
Carol, you did suggest a world very clearly and very completely.
But that wall, I fear you undercut yourself.
This is the best work we've seen so far on this show.
However, there can only be one winner.
And the designer with this week's hot set is Carol.
Carol, you gave us the beautiful movie set.
Really well done.
Thank you.
I was pretty sure that we were going to take it, but it was awesome, I loved it.
I really did have a great time.
It's still sinking in right now.
But it's like an accolade from an amazing world that I love so much.