Although you won’t see a Roland wide-format printer sharing the big screen with stars Melissa McCarthy, Kristin Wiig, Kate McKinnon and Leslie Jonesin the new “Ghostbusters” film, the machine nevertheless played a key role in the movie.
The producers of the film called on graphic designer Martin Charles, founder of Santa Monica, California-based SagaBoy Productions, to design and create the sets for the film, including everything from faux building walls and surface textures to the street signs, labels and bottles in the Ghostbusters’ lab.
Charles is a Hollywood veteran, having helped design and create realistic sets for more than 50 feature films and television productions, including movies such as “42,” “Public Enemies,” “Love and Other Drugs,” “Charlie Wilson’s War,” and the HBO hit series “The Newsroom.”
For the slimy CGI-created ghosts and ghouls to appear realistic, it was imperative that the sets they were staged in—from mid-town hotels to Times Square to haunted mansions—looked real as well, and for that Charles relied on a wide-format printer made by Irvine, California-based Roland DG.
“Rebooting this legendary movie franchise was a great opportunity and an intriguing challenge,” Charles says. “We needed to preserve all the familiar graphic elements while bringing in a few modern twists.”
Charles worked closely with production designer Jefferson Sage to create all of the different settings needed for the film. Recreating the bustling New York City streets required designing and producing commercial signage, wall wraps, street signs and posters, as well as the wraps needed to transform ordinary vehicles into NYC taxi cabs, NYPD cruisers and EMS emergency vehicles. For the film’s interior shots, Charles produced posters, signs, labels, wallpaper and wraps that simulated marble and other surfaces.
“It all translated into an incredible amount of work,” says Charles, “Fortunately, my Roland inkjets allowed me to print just about anything you can imagine on the set quickly and easily. That was crucial in meeting the tight deadlines dictated by the Ghostbusters shooting schedule. I also relied on the help of two additional graphic experts—Stephanie Charbonneau and Kelly Hemenway—to get the job done.”
Charles used a 64-inch Roland SOLJET Pro 4 XR-640 large-format color printer/cutter, along with Roland Eco-Sol MAX 2 inks.
“Having a product like the Roland, which can handle all of our graphics needs, is a huge plus,” he says. “In addition to providing stellar quality production, the XR-640 has built-in printing and contour cutting capability, so with one machine, we can do it all. The Eco-Sol MAX 2 inks helped ensure outstanding results as well, allowing us to hit the color mark every time and achieve fine close-up details, which were often required for Ghostbusters.”
For scenes that included a re-created Times Square and simulated rock concert, Charles produced photo images, backlit signage and images, billboard banners, and a variety of smaller signs. This output was printed on a range of materials, including artist canvas, varying weights of vinyl media, photo paper, poster paper and adhesive fabric. To set the backdrop for one interior scene, Charles even needed to produce more than 3,000 square feet of printed wallpaper graphics.
In total, Charles worked for close to eight months on Ghostbusters, including a four-month shoot. When designing each set, Charles worked backwards from the shoot date, allotting time for the appropriate approvals from the designer and director.
“I wouldn’t do any movie without my Roland,” Charles says. “Getting a ‘thank you’ from the director and a personal e-mail from the producer saying ‘See you on my next movie,’ is proof of satisfaction. Everyone was quite happy, and I think the viewers will be too!”