PHOTOS COURTESY DREAMWORKS II DISTRIBUTION CO., LLC.
Building a
Time Machine
As production
designer for a movie
that’s getting a lot of
Oscar buzz, The Help,
and the Internet to
evoke the Jackson,
Miss., of 1960 to ’ 63.
They began accumulating pieces that might
work in the movie and
slowly items found their
places in various scenes.
Ricker designed
numerous sets, including
the homes of each of the
four main white characters, as well as the homes
of two of the help, the black maids. He said as
he and the staff got to know the characters, they
selected pieces that suited the differing personalities. “You come to know that a certain vase
you’ve found in an antiques store belongs on a
shelf in a certain character’s home,” he said.
Mark Ricker ’ 90 had to find all the pieces needed to make The Help
actresses look right at home in their surroundings depicting early
1960s Mississippi.
The movie, based on the best-selling book of
the same title, looks at life in those times from
the perspective of the African-American maids
and the hardships they endured daily while
serving the white families.
Ricker said shooting The Help on location in
Greenwood, Miss., made his job easier. “The
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