Dan and Mae Hitchcock

   Theatre & Film Sets

For information call Dan and Mae Hitchcock 541-487-4231

Email—Hitchcockmastercode@gmail.com

      Film and television productions often require the rental of people, studio space, and equipment. The entire business is under a lot of pressure to perform quickly, making it a high stress situation with a lot on the line, and for all the ’hurry up and wait’ the end results are mostly here today and gone tomorrow.  Many of the 20’ x 80’ cyclorama we painted in one day were filmed the next day and painted white the next.  We referred to the business as a bottomless pit, but the money and fun are good, and the lack of appreciation and permanency of our work pushed us towards murals.

    In Texas we frequently worked for Spindletop Productions and The Studios at Los Colinas. They produced movies, commercials, and music videos.  Once Spindletop called us with a Coca Cola emergency.  One hundred years after Asa Chandler sold the bottling rights to Coca Cola, they created a 100th anniversary inner-corporate video.  A production company had reserved a huge 18’ x 40’ painting of a turn of the century Atlanta skyline from Twenty First Century Fox Rentals.  At the last moment it became unavailable, and they called us to help. They had a tiny photo in a catalogue and hired us to paint this monster of a painting in two days.  We worked round the clock and it was there on time, even if it was still partially wet.

   Later when we began painting in Seattle, there were no major soundstages there and we did not do as much film work. Our focus was more on murals, faux finishes, and our personal art.  That career shift has really paid off because people love murals and get to appreciate them every day.

  In Eugene we have painted a lot of murals and Dan won the Eugene Weekly’s first ‘Best Fine Artist” Peoples Choice Award in 2003. The Eugene Opera heard of Dan and called him to finish painting the set of the “H.M.S. Pinafore” with Michael Lane, the head painter at that time. Then he painted the “My Fair Lady” set for the Oregon Festival of American Music”. This began a three year relationship with building and painting 20 shows that went in the Hult Center for Eugene Ballet, Eugene Opera, Oregon Festival of American Music, Willamette Repertory Theatre, Eugene Concert Choir, and Dance Theater of Oregon.

 

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We can help you with all phases of your set design, building and painting, specializing in deconstruction for semi truck transport and reconstruction on stage.  Major motion picture, community and school projects are within our range and we love to offer some free time to help the right causes.

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