A new television show, "Veronica Mars," airing on UPN this fall, will have a touch of BYU because of a summer internship by set design student, Heidi Hathaway.

According to the "Veronica Mars" Web Site, the one-hour drama will air Tuesdays starting this fall.

It takes place in a wealthy seaside community known as Neptune. The rich and powerful control the city and in turn hide their many secrets. A 17-year-old girl, Veronica Mars, must deal with high school while solving the town's toughest mysteries.

The creators of the show shot the pilot episode using a real school as their set, but because of budget constraints, they needed to build a school set. As a result, they came knocking on BYU technical director, Douglas Ellis' door.

Ellis worked with Alfred Sole, "Veronica Mars'" production designer, on past projects. As a result, Sole asked Ellis to help on this new show.

Wanting students to gain experience in the work field, Ellis asked to bring along set design student Hathaway.

Hathaway and Ellis have worked on several projects together before this one. She assisted him on films such as "The RM," "The Home Teachers" and "Out of Step."

"I've lugged her around to several things," Ellis said. "They have given her good experiences."

The main project they were in charge of for "Veronica Mars" was building a model of the interior and the exterior of the school. Ellis said because it was a California school, they needed an outdoors quad.

"We talked them into the school exterior also," Ellis said. "Then they don't have to go to Ocean Side which is an hour a way for shooting all day. The reason they go indoors is for control over the elements."

Instead of drawing sketches, they built a model of the school set to pitch to Warner Brothers on how much money would be needed to build the set.

Hathaway said they all contributed on the building of the miniature school. As her main duties, she took photographs of schools and researched magazines for architectural elements.

"Many art directors end up technically coming up with most of the ideas," Hathaway said. "This production was more collaborative."

Her say in the design was not a whole lot, but Hathaway was able to do a little adjusting and designing.

"It's good for me to just be there," she said.

Ellis said being an intern is a great opportunity for art design students to see how the film or television industry works.

"They get the feel for what the business is like," Ellis said.

Even though it was not a paid internship, Hathaway enjoyed the opportunity. She learned there are ways to get into the business without being a member of the union. Since the project ran out of San Diego, it had minimal union commitment.

The project was a quick experience only taking them two weeks to complete. But included many all night sessions.

"Food was brought in because we were there for about 14-hours a day," Ellis said.

Hathaway enjoyed working for television, but her preference is still in film. She plans on graduating in one or two semesters.

Hathaway may not have had a large amount of say on this project, but is still excited to see the end result.

"I designed a desk for the show," Hathaway said. "It is something really small, but it will be satisfying to see how it turns out."



Copyright Brigham Young University 19 Jul 2004