Detroit Rock City - The Kiss Movie
1978: Bell-bottoms, day-glo. lava lamps and rock-n-roll define a generation. What's a high school rock band from Cleveland got on their mind? Getting out and hitting the road to "Detroit Rock City". Four teens head out to pay their respects to the kings of rock, KISS. Part road trip, part coming-of-age comedy, part crazy ride through the 70's, this movie rocks and rolls all the way through.
Set in 1978 Cleveland and Detroit, the film was actually shot in Toronto (budget benefits) although the city doubled well as Detroit, particularly with its scale and the tram tracks etc. Some 2nd unit work was shot in Detroit to establish some of the historical landmarks of the town. Not the most aesthetically pleasing period in our history, and not that long ago, but still demands the peculiarities of doing any period film. A lot of 60's and 70's cars for the streets, and a lot of product research and clearances! Much of the Kiss memorabilia came from Gene Simmons personal collection, as well as e-bay, and fans.
Set in 1978 Cleveland and Detroit, the film was actually shot in Toronto (budget benefits) although the city doubled well as Detroit, particularly with its scale and the tram tracks etc. Some 2nd unit work was shot in Detroit to establish some of the historical landmarks of the town. Not the most aesthetically pleasing period in our history, and not that long ago, but still demands the peculiarities of doing any period film. A lot of 60's and 70's cars for the streets, and a lot of product research and clearances! Much of the Kiss memorabilia came from Gene Simmons personal collection, as well as e-bay, and fans.
I made these tickets early on while I had a little more time on my hands......they were after all a key item in the film?
Jam's room, another studio set. Designed to be a bedroom that hadn't changed too much from when Jam was a child, part of the character of how his mother still sees him. To test different wallpaper designs for the room, I scanned samples and pasted them into the illustration for Director approval.
Sketch of the boys' basement hangout, a studio set stuffed with KISS stuff. All of the sets were built and dressed for the beginning of principal photography as cover for bad weather. They stood idle for the whole time we were on location as we never had bad weather.
The scene inside the girls bathroom required the use of a set, as all the stalls had to collapse, and water spray everywhere. The dividers were built as lightweight versions of their real counterparts, and hinged in a very specific way.
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In this photo of the built set, it also shows how the room was set up to visually accommodate the stunt work. While we ended up changing the wallpaper to a different design, you can still see an element of the original idea on the wall behind the bed-head.
Set Photo.
The final set shows its adherence to the original concept, and the true testimony of a well built and finished set on a sound stage could not be better vindicated than to have someone "take a dump" in it......and they did! What a compliment.
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A foreground miniature billboard pictured against a car for scale. This was used at the side of the road as their car passed by and a whip pan up to this sign photographed from the right low angle, gives the illusion of it being a full size billboard.
Original sketch of WURP radio station
Photo of built set. Because of the period we had to build and dress as low tech studios are now defunct. Shot with Widelux camera.
Another angle on set. The only detail we wanted but couldn't get were a certain look of acoustic tile. Unlike above Widelux shot, this is the pasting of three stills together without any photoshop blending. Kinda 1978.
Photo of built gates at location based on design at right.
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Concept illustration for school gates, painted on acetate overlay above location still.
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Gate gargoyle detail, sculpted in foam.
[I think Adam now has one at his home?]
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The elevator set for the radio station
was built as a circular space with an
inlaid carpet in the form of a record.
The practical doors and roof section
were made to fly apart for camera
crane access ending with an overhead
shot spinning around.
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Another overlaid illustration on a location photo to show the possibility of converting an empty storefront into a burger bar.
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Here is the completed set.
Note the womans head in the Blumps Burgers sign, which is a reccuring
icon in all of Adam Rifkins movies, and denotes the "Blumps" empire. Another example is on the "Graphics" page.
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This stage and concert set was originally going to be supplied by Kiss, but circumstances in their Psycho Circus tour prevented them from being able to produce it for us. This information coming late in our production schedule, meant having to figure out, design and build it in a very short time. In addition we had to fit into their tour schedule and have the set established where they were going to be. Conveniently, we were able to prepare the set in Copps Coliseum. As this was an add-on at the end of production I had the time to take most of it on myself, from design to draughting and eventually lighting it as the "on-camera" lighting fell under set dressing responsibilities - not camera and lighting.