STORIES FROM THE SET: ATOMIC RANCH EDITION

The whole vibe of Atomic Ranch is very mid-century, an entire collection dedicated to styles and silhouettes of the ‘60s and ‘70s. So, to tell that story editorially, we needed to do a little time traveling.

Ok, we didn’t actually hop in our Delorean, but we did look towards Hollywood to help us set the scene.

We ended up shooting this catalog at Four Acres Movie Ranch in Palmdale, California, a beautiful property that was exquisitely decorated and specifically designed to be used as a set for movies and film and photography, and boy, did we get a little taste of what the industry is really like out there! We had to get all kinds of licenses to shoot there, and we had to not only pay a location fee to the property (which we’re used to), but we also had to pay FilmLA application and permit fees to operate. Oh, and we couldn’t shoot in the nearby desert at all, because even though parts of it are property of the location owner, it’s all environmentally protected.

“We had to have a safety and fire protocol, the works!” exclaimed Mitchell. “It was like we were a real-deal whole studio production. I mean, I know this is typical for larger productions – and pretty standard for working in LA/California, I guess – but usually as a smaller rag-tag crew, we’re able to fly under some of these requirements. It was pretty wild. But, in the end, totally worth it – you’ve seen the results!”

They really do have a gem of a place out there – the set decoration was insanely good, down to most minute details – and they sure know it. They have a location manager on the property 24 hours a day to monitor the activities and crews that are shooting on site; they trade off working in 12-hour shifts to ensure the property is never unattended. It’s serious business out there!

And while perfect for shooting and filming, the property didn’t have plumbing or electricity in the traditional sense. All the fixtures (plumbing and electrical) were for decoration and show. There was no running water; the models and crew had to use the RV or the location’s port-a-potty. If you did want to, say, flip on the lights for a scene, the electrical fixtures are wired to an elaborate system that you had to power each room individually by generators. We often joke that all of our photoshoots are a bit of smoke-and-mirrors in a sense, but this took it to the next level!

We got lucky with the weather for the most part, because, ya know, California – a bit chilly in the mornings and the evening, but pretty temperate overall, so we (especially the models) were grateful for that.

Perhaps the most surprising (and really, only inconvenient) thing was how remote the set was. Even though it is technically “in Palmdale”, it was still a 30 minute drive to lunch – and as you know, daytime hours are precious on a photoshoot. Speaking of meals, that led us to a comical situation one night surrounding dinner.

“The first night of the photoshoot, it was Sam, Bryson, Cheryl, Audrey, Hedy, and me, and we’re not familiar with Palmdale, so we’re trying to pick a place to eat,” Mitchell recalled. “No one wanted to commit to anything. I suggested Olive Garden. I was met with a hard no. Now, we’ve been fortunate to eat a lot of good Italian in our lives – even IN Italy – so I wasn’t suggesting we were about to have a meal to write home about. It’s not 5-star, but it’s pretty consistent, you know what it is and what you’re getting. They didn’t know where they wanted to go, but they knew did NOT want to go to Olive Garden. We tried one place: closed. Then we traversed to a burger joint that instantly gave us the heebie jeebies, so that was a no go. Went another place, and then another place, and then finally, everyone kind of said, ‘Why don’t we just go to Olive Garden?’ WHAT A NOVEL IDEA! (laughs) And we did, and it was fine. And we could’ve saved a solid hour-plus if they’d have just listened to Ol’ Mitchell in the first place.”

At the end of the day, we could not be more happy with our choice to trek out there and with how the catalog turned out – we might even go back!

“There was so much visual opportunity there that we could probably shoot another catalog one day,” said Mitchell.