“ We were in a very challenging space ,” he says euphemistically , before going on to explain just how challenging it was . “ We were in an old factory in Hamilton , and that autumn of 2019 was really poor weather . It got to be winter in like October and November ; it was horrible . So , the space we were in , I have video of it raining in one of the sets . Like , literally raining inside … I don ’ t mean a drop , I mean it was like being outside . The roof was horrible and our supervising producer , basically , her job for the first several weeks was plugging holes , literally and figuratively , in that space . You never knew what was going to come on , and it was freezing , which they never were able to solve no matter how many heaters they put in the room .”
And even if the weather was perfect , it still wouldn ’ t have alleviated one of the biggest issues with building the sets ; that being that the warehouse floors were incredibly uneven .
“ All the sets had to be built on to our own floors . To say the [ warehouse ] floor was uneven would be an understatement . There ’ d be eight inches difference over 40 feet . It was crazy , and it was all over the place . It ’ s not like the floor slopes towards that wall . No , it ’ s like a foot deeper here , and it ’ s 10 in . here or whatever . So , that was whole bunch of money that you never saw on camera . But basically , the Werk Room and the Challenge Space were the toughest ones . Where we put the Runway , it still needed help , but there was less of a build there . But , I mean , it was just crazy . We had to spend so much money just to be able to build the set .”
Given the challenge the building posed , and the production budget constraints it caused , it ’ s all the more impressive what Faragher and crew pulled off for the show . In fact , it was enough to earn Faragher a 2021 Canadian Screens Awards nomination for Best Production Design or Art Direction in a Non-Fiction Series .
To return to the set looks , we now come to the Runway space , which is the glitziest of the sets for obvious reasons . The runway itself is roughly 50 ft . long and 40 ft . wide at the top of the ‘ T .’ So , big enough that the dozen queens can all line up on it to start the season . In front of it is a desk for the four judges . In this space , the producers ’ directive for Sadler and Faragher was for the runway to exude big production value and concert looks that popped .
To get the looks they needed in the space , over the runway were three main trusses loaded with 20 MAC Quantum Profiles and another 20 MAC Auras from Martin , plus a half-dozen Proton 3K LED strobes from Elation Professional .
“ Then , at the entrance of the runway , we had a bead curtain in front of it . This beaded curtain entrance where all the queens come in is a very signature Drag Race set piece , and most of the other shows use an LED par . We went with a small moving head – the [ Elation ] ACL 360Is back there – which I thought was a nice touch to have a bit of movement behind that big curtain ,” says Sadler . “ We had a lot of Color Forces doing set lights and we had , I think , mostly Color Force 12s lighting up all of the set . Then there was a front-ofhouse truss , which was full of Encore Cold fixtures lighting up most of the runway . There were also some backlights for the judges and for that we used [ Elation ] ELAR Pars , and we had a hazer , of course . The [ Reel EFX ] DF-50 was our hazer last year .”
The lighting design for the Runway set is one part fashion show , one part concert . “ When they walked the runway one at a time , they had to be well lit and it was really all about the garments and about their makeup and wigs and hair line . It was really an overall look for the queens to be judged on ,” Sadler explains . “ Then we had to have enough production value in there that when they went to do a lip sync , it became a big concert and a really big event for the two queens that were lip synching .”
Because lip sync performances have long been a big part of drag culture , these performances also play a big role in Drag Race . For these performances , Sadler and board op Shawn Solomon got the
20 | Summer 2021