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Sharp Objectswould be nothing without Wind Gap, Missouri.
Here, we were stepping into this very dark, somber story.
It was a whole different vibe because of the story we were telling.
The darkness made this one more difficult.
At first, Alpert looked for houses in the Los Angeles area and found one in Altadena.
Once I drove off the county road, the driveway itself is about a mile long, Alpert said.
Thats the Crellin estate!I just fell in love with it.
At the time, thehouse was yellowand producers wanted to give it a more traditional Victorian color.
The main gate and fence to enter the property were added, as well as some landscaping.
We were up against the clock and we didnt want to bring out giant cranes, Alpert said.
You had to put scaffolding precariously placed on some of the tiles.
By tracking down the original painter, it gave comfort to the homeowner.
The house, although nice, didnt have any of the grandeur that our set did, Alpert said.
We were never inside the house.
But Vallee didnt like it.
He thought it was too cutesy, Alpert recalled, laughing.
Then we stopped and had lunch in Senoia, where they shootThe Walking Dead.
What about this town?
Alpert told him he had scouted it, but didnt think it worked.
(John and I thought Barnesville was kind of cutesy.)
The director insisted on taking a quick drive through it anyway.
No, forget that.
Barnesville is the town, he told them.
John and I looked at each other and we said, So be it.
This is the town, Alpert recalled.
Next, Alpert met with Barnesville officials, who were supportive and enthusiastic about the project.
Local businesses were compensated for being inconvenienced.
Jean-Marc wanted it to be ghost town, Alpert said.
He didnt want to see anyone, no cars, nothing.
Throughout the series, there are a number of times no one is there.
But everyone was so great the local merchants, everybody.
Thats why Jean-Marc is the genius he is.
Production changed almost every storefront and all references to Barnesville became Wind Gap.
The exterior of the local bar was built in an abandoned building across the street from a Dairy Queen.
The exterior of the Nash family home and the Mini-Mart station were also located in Barnesville.
The alley window where Natalie is discovered borders the storefront that became the police station.
For the longest, we just didnt know, Alpert said.
At one point, we thought maybe wed put her under a rail car thats there.
Jean-Marc wanted to feel that the killer was very brazen and put the body on display.
The scene was filmed with actress Jessica Treska and a mannequin.
That woman did that sickening sound all day long, take after take.
It was just this horrific shrill.
It made the hairs on my arms stand up.
Typically, if you go to lake, or a pond, trees dont go close to the shore.
