‘The Holdovers’: How Dirty Socks, Preparation H and Books Provide Insight into Paul Giamatti’s Grumpy Professor
variety.comJazz Tangcay Artisans Editor “The Holdovers” production designer Ryan Warren Smith pieced together five school locations for Alexander Payne’s latest.
In the retro movie, set in the early 1970s at the fictional prep school Barton Academy, Paul Giamatti’s grumpy teacher Paul Hunham is left to look after students who have no place to go over the Christmas break.
Smith studied Hal Ashby’s “The Landlord” and “The Last Detail,” both released around that period, while creating the production design for “The Holdovers.” He observed everything in those films were stripped down, at least when it came to production design.
The same rang true when location scouting. “Everything was brown and made of wood,” Smith says. “We built off of that, and what goes with that and what doesn’t.” His challenge: finding a cohesive way to stitch together elements from the five Massachusetts locations (Groton, Northfield Mount Hermon, Deerfield Academy, St.
Read more on variety.com