![]() “He would come in and say, ‘That would have been there or here.’ And it would have been very organized because he is very organized and structured, so it would have been very symmetrical. For example, about the bedroom he shared with his brother in their childhood home, Dre provided Valentino with a more accurate layout. When Dre visited the set, he would also offer Valentino a few pointers. Because he is incredibly musically literate, we wanted to make sure that in the very beginning scene where he is sitting surrounded by albums that those were all groups or musicians that he admired and incorporated later in his music when he was sampling.” ![]() So when we were using particular soundboards, we made sure they were there when he was recording those albums. With Dre the insistence, whether it was conscious or unconscious, was the equipment. In addition to period research, Valentino says that each production head of the department “was able to meet with Dre and Ice Cube and pick their brains about what they remembered specifically about that time period-architecture, colors, furniture, anything that would sort of put us on the path. “We just sort of went over-the-top to exaggerate the importance he put on the color red because he was a Blood.” “ real space didn't look like that,” Valentino explains. According to Valentino, the colors were “subtle suggestions about the power shifts during those times,” and some liberty was taken with the palette. The third and final section of the film is based in reds-with red bandannas, curtains, wall paneling, and cherry-colored classic cars-denoting Death Row and Suge Knight’s growing influence in the hip-hop culture. The final result was so striking that Laurel Canyon Boulevard passersby surrounded the scene in awe. And in addition to looting extras and gun-toting shop owners, real-life firefighters manned fire trucks circulating the set and put out controlled fires created by the special-effects department. Says Valentino, “When we got the script, the page count was not that high but visually it was so important, not only to Los Angeles history, but because it was important to N.W.A.’s music and was of the tension between the African American communities and the police.” Overturned cars were placed throughout the set. The production team designed period-appropriate storefronts that were burned out and featured broken glass doors and windows, period-appropriate graphics and color, and other looting-related wear and tear. Valentino says he only had four or five days to transform a run-down strip mall in North Hollywood, encompassing four city blocks, into the backdrop for the L.A. and the message of their music that when it came time to make Straight Outta Compton, a biopic about the seminal hip-hop group, it was crucial that production designer Shane Valentino ( Beginners, Somewhere) illustrate the simmering tension in the community. The urban crisis of 1980s Compton was so integral in the formation of N.W.A.
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