'September 5' production designer on building a studio within a studio

For Paramount Pictures’ September 5, production designer Julian R Wagner had to accurately recreate the 1972 ABC Sports Studio in Munich; a place that no longer exists.

This was the place where, during the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, Germany, an American sports broadcasting team adapted to live coverage as Israeli athletes were held hostage by a terrorist group.

The sports studio is no longer standing, but Wagner had access to the original complex blueprints that showed precisely how it had been built on the Olympic site, as well as archival photographs of the studio for reference. 

Simply following those blueprints wasn’t an option for Germany-based Wagner, who previously worked with September 5 writer, producer, and director Tim Fehlbaum on his award-winning feature Tides. 

Wagner and his team built the sports studio at the Bavaria Studios in Munich, where filming took place over 29 days. “Usually when you build on stage, you would build several mini sets because it's way easier to work,” Wagner explains.  

However, Fehlbaum wanted a seamless shoot. “We wanted a continuous set, where we can walk from one room to another.” Wagner also wanted to create a “time machine. I wanted the actors and the crew to enter the studio without ever seeing the technical aspects around the set,” such as lighting rigs, cameras, crew, mics, and the like – services provided variously by ARRI Rental, Panoptimo, and Rotor Film.  

What Wagner created was a studio within a studio. "Every door led to another room, and even the exit doors from the real studio were connected to the set.” 

This kind of build required excellent communication between Wagner and the German crew. Because everything had to fit together precisely, “All the crew had to be in the studio all the time, as well with the DP Markus Förderer and gaffer Uwe Greiner.” 

The build was only half of the equation. The other half was sourcing studio equipment from 1972, and making sure it worked; this task fell to production buyer Johannes Pfaller. 

Old machines were sourced from all over the world, borrowed from collectors, and found in storage rooms in television studios and museums. They were then made functioning, so the screens would display real material to which the actors could react. 

That wasn’t simple, either. "These machines are very precious and for some of them, there's only one machine left. You can't just go and re-wire everything. So you need to be in very close contact with the owners of all this equipment.” 

The other problem Wagner faced was noise. “Most of these machines are incredibly loud. The VTR machines are pure monsters, if you switched it on you couldn’t record any audio. But you needed it to be on for the light.” 

Wagner’s solution was rewiring it. "All the lights, buttons, and switches, and put them all on a control panel so we could silently target everything. We had four technicians and two prop makers sitting there for weeks in a hall full of technical devices which was really intense,” Wagner says.  

This was where Wagner took most creative license. Typically, VTR machines are kept in small soundproof rooms. “This would be realistic to build, but for me it was the most boring thing to do. You don't have any depth.” 

To convey the importance of these machines, Wagner designed a modern-style room in the centre of the studio set. It reinforced the idea that this “big machinery is very modern” for the time. “This is something very important in the design process - to understand what’s between the lines in the script,” he says. 

Creating an airport 

Serendipitously, Wagner found that he, Fehlbaum, and Förderer shared a passion for analogue techniques, which came in handy when recreating the military airport at Fürstenfeldbruck. 

"After the location scouting process, we realised it's not doable on the location,” Wagner says. “We had a quite short meeting, and it was Förderer who came up with an idea.” 

Wagner describes: "We made a big picture in Photoshop of the airport, kind of a collage. Then we printed it on cardboard, made a cut out of the cardboard - I'm not talking about a one-to-five model. I'm talking about three metres or five metres wide, and 120 high.” 

It was placed 300 feet from the fence to eliminate any reference of scale. with a light bar to light it. “The next thing I saw was [Förderer] running with the camera in between these actors and extras and vehicles. It just worked.” 

This analogue problem-solving wasn’t about eschewing VFX techniques, which could have also provided a solution. “If you go too quickly to other solutions that feel more safe, are also sometimes more expensive, I think you miss opportunities along the way.” 

September 5 is a BerghausWöbke Film and Projected Picture Works Production, in co-production with Constantin Film and ERF Edgar Reitz Filmproduktion. It was supported by Bavaria Film.