Painkiller Jane TV series
Originally the scripted world of Painkiller Jane, found Police Officer Jane living in a future US city on the verge of collapse. The Government was controlling and culling the population to keep the elite healthy and in luxury. With that in mind, I designed a Subway station that had been sealed up and forgotten and a squatters loft in an old abandoned office building. We needed large sets with series flexibility and lots of textures and tones that lit up and back with slight lighting changes for mood and time of day. In Jane’s pad we used brick details, old ad signs as illumination and installed industrial air ducting to allow for longer shots without exposing the lack of ceilings. It worked really well. Dressing was an assortment of cast off furniture and remnant industrial details. An accessible steel stairway and an (one floor and a half) elevator and brick/concrete hallway added realism.
The bathroom was fully plumbed and the upper shower wall was removable to shoot Jane when she got back to her place, and was covered in grime and in pain.
We named the station Deckard St. Station as an homage to “Blade Runner” that was the inspiration for all sorts of details in the series. When the set was lit, it was very “real” considering where we were and what we had to do. Lighting and effects such as wind and steam were built right into the set
We used the far left corner of the subway deck as the headquarters of Jane and her team and by adding cables cut into the walls and the detritus of the society around them we made the privacy and isolation from the world above apart of the character of this set.
I designed a tunnel with emergency doors and a refurbished subway car that was used as a medical lab.
It had wildable panels and builtin lighting to ease the difficulties inherent in shooting in small places.
The Subway station, the tunnel and the train were all designed and built in a fairly tiny commercial space. I endeavored to give it a mini Grand Central feel. We used real tiles and classic details that were tarnished by time, misuse and neglect.
Setsplus did an amazing build. Lots and lots of layers of aging and graffiti were used with period printed matter and old faded back-lit advertising and info panels. It was the first time I actually requested burned out, flickering ballasts for the light boxes. Instead we used a flicker system that made the kinos look like they were buzzing.
Below please find final design drawings for the Painkiller Jane Series main sets. I designed and we built a full Subway station and short tunnel with an on track remodeled Train car medical lab. In an adjoining building we built Jane’s squatter pad with a working elevator and fire escape. Included in the drawings are some Weapon designs and assorted graphics and misc. other work. It was amazing designing a different future earth. Great, great construction work by Sets Plus’s Brilliant Randy Taylor and teams.
