Shane Valentino

Legal Dramas typically contain many captivating cinematic spaces. The physical area of a court room lends itself to interesting plot dynamics and possible choreography within the space. In addition, the biographical or historical nature of some of these films can add a unique layer to the Production Design that gives these spaces a new meaning. In the new film, The Trial of the Chicago 7, written and directed by Aaron Sorkin, the history and storyline helped create a masterful representation of architectural spaces.

In an exclusive interview with Interiors, we spoke with Shane Valentino, who is the Production Designer for The Trial of the Chicago 7. The concept art and illustrations are courtesy of Jamie Rama and the set photos and production stills are courtesy of Niko Tavernise (Netflix).

INT: First off, we are curious how the opportunity to do the Film, The Trial of the Chicago 7, came about? What was it about it that made you want to work on it?

SV: I met with Aaron (Sorkin) and Producer Stuart Besser about doing the project in October of 2018, right around the same time as the senate hearings for Brett Kavanaugh. I had been feeling that these moments were collapsing on each other and replicating themselves; how the script spoke to now as much as it did to 1968 and ‘69. Aaron had been drawing those same connections and it was a great conversation. 

I was excited by the opportunity to work with Aaron Sorkin, on this movie. He’s an incredible wordsmith, and Molly’s Game showed his talent as a director. Also, in college I was a student of history, and was very aware of this trial, the impact it had on the counterculture movement, and its translation into a courtroom fiasco. It was a way to engage in this history and honor it. And I’m always intrigued by the challenges of working on period films.

INT: The Trial of the Chicago 7 joins classic films such as 12 Angry Men, The Verdict and A Few Good Men as being an incredible courtroom drama. What was the process like designing the courtroom space? Due to the biographical nature of the film, was the space relatively defined throughout or did it evolve over time?

SV: The courtroom we portrayed is not a reflection of what the original was -- the Federal Center (Everett Mckinley Dirksen US Courthouse) designed by Mies van der Rohe in the International style. The materials and vision Aaron had for this was totally different. He was keen on not trying to ground in absolutes, but to get at approximations of the moments of the trial. The films you mentioned are good reference points because they capture our imagination of what courtrooms look like. Aaron’s work on To Kill a Mockingbird led him to envision a more traditional looking courtroom for The Trial of the Chicago 7. Which, unconventionally, landed me at a church in Patterson, New Jersey.

We wanted elements of the Mies van der Rohe courtroom, but we couldn’t build it from the ground up. We needed a location-based set. So we looked for spaces that already had some of those elements -- decorative trim, exaggerated casings around the windows and doors, fluted columns and marble floors. The church we discovered was in very poor condition. We had to go through abatement to get it to a place where people could actually work in it. But the proportions were very in line with how the scenes were being laid out in the development of the film. It allowed space for the right number of defendants on one side, the jury on the other, and an audience in the room. The size of the space was very important because it had to be dynamic so the audience wouldn’t be repeating the same experience over and over, as the film spends so much time there. The high ceilings and great length of the room allowed the camera to move around a lot or be static. The windows allowed us to create a number of different looks and moods by creating lighting through the windows, so you feel like you’re in a different world, season, or time of day.

A church made sense -- like a courtroom, it’s a place of oration; a place where ideologies are expressed. The courtroom is the Judge’s space, and a subtle gesture we put in were the murals above him, which are different scenes from different mythologies -- Greek, Roman, Judeo-Christian. It’s about passing judgements onto a new generation.  

INT: Much like any Aaron Sorkin film, the film creates a well-constructed story using fast paced dialogue, but The Trial of the Chicago 7 is masterful in the way it includes multiple spaces, flashbacks and historical information throughout the film. From a Production Design standpoint, how were you and your team able to successfully create an accurate depiction of architectural spaces?

SV: Period accuracy is always achieved through research. Photographic research is at our disposal and readily available through many different means; the Library of Congress, state libraries, personal collections and more. Because of what was happening at that time and what was at people’s disposal -- commercial photography cameras, motion picture cameras, there was lots of footage to dissect. It’s particularly important for the first 20 minutes of the film -- you just smash into who these people are and what spaces they occupy. It was very important for us to rely heavily on graphic representation -- posters, fliers, buttons, as it was an essential way of communication during that time. We used those symbolic gestures to ground people in the spaces that identified the different groups, the SDS office, the Black Panther office, Yippie gathering, and Dave Dellenger’s MOBE group.

INT: Finally, since the film is biographical, were there any challenges with re-creating any of the spaces or locations depicted in the film? 

SV: Absolutely - the challenge, as is always the case with period films, is that because so much time has passed, a lot of the spaces we shot in Chicago had been modernized since the actual events. You have to strip away the modernization and add any of those elements that could get us into that time period and do it in a sensitive way so it doesn’t look stylized. Trying to strip Michigan Avenue, when the group is protesting heading down the Avenue towards the police district to release Tom Hayden, was challenging. How much can you show of a street that has been significantly transformed over the years? A combination of visual effects and work from the art department helped change the world into something you can believe is 1968.

People are so sensitive to Aaron’s way of looking at the world -- it was our job to translate that into a visual language. He offered us a tremendous amount of freedom and respect. He’s a true collaborator. It really shows in the end when those things come together to achieve a remarkable result.

Shane Valentino is a Production Designer and has worked on various Films, Television Shows, Commercials and Music Videos.