How ‘The Studio’ Created Authentic L.A. Looks From the Golden Globes Ceremony to the Smokehouse Restaurant

The DNA of Hollywood is so embedded in Seth Rogen‘s “The Studio” that it was essential to shoot on location at familiar landmarks and, of course, at an actual movie studio.

The Apple TV+ series is a fond and frenetic snapshot of what it’s like to work in the industry — that is, the old-school version of Hollywood that revolves around studio lots, not Atlanta or London.

Walking onto the Warner Bros. lot in Burbank, one of the first things you see is a row of golf carts marked “Continental Studios.” The prop carts are just a few of the many items that remain on the lot as “The Studio” gets ready to shoot its second season in the fall.

Also at the ready is the Continental Studios set, now in storage, as well as dozens of lighting fixtures and other items from the offices of studio head Matt Remick, aka Rogen. All these props are carefully catalogued at Warner Bros.’ impressive prop warehouse on the lot, which holds four stories of furniture and pieces from every conceivable era and style of decor.

Some of the most notable locations in the series were three historic houses by famed L.A. architect John Lautner, including “The Oner” episode shot at Silvertop in Silver Lake, which been covered extensively.

Here, Variety takes viewers behind the scenes on the Warner Bros. lot and tours the show’s other quintessentially Hollywood locations with production designer Julie Berghoff and set decorator Claire Kaufman, who were nominated for an Emmy for production design for “The Note” episode along with art director Brian Grego.

The Warner Brothers lot: Continental Studios

With a short window to build out an entire studio concept, the Frank Lloyd Wright-inspired facade was erected in front of Warners’ modern Steinberg building, where only the steps remain the same once the flat front goes up. The second story of the studio was created with visual effects.

The Mayan revival design was chosen, Berghoff says, because “a lot of the architecture was already taken. You have art deco at Sony, Paramount is Spanish. So we wanted it to be an original concept,” she says.

The interior of the studio, constructed on Warners’ stage 23, needed to incorporate numerous design flourishes that would look authentic to a studio that was built in the 1920s and evolved up to the present. But it’s not that simple to find 100-year-old Frank Lloyd Wright furniture to use onscreen.

“I knew pretty early, on with only six weeks of prep, that we were going to have to manufacture a lot of the furniture, because I just wasn’t going to find Frank Lloyd Wright-style furniture in multiples,” says Kaufman. “So I sat down with a set designer, Adam Mull, and we hand-drew coffee tables, side tables, the conference table, Matt’s 10-foot desk, the chairs in his office and got that stuff into production almost immediately. And then it was really about textures and finishes and fabrics and drapery. Julie wanted to do big cabinets full of Emmys and Academy Awards.”

Rogen’s character Matt Remick is full of nervous energy — he’s very into coffee, so his office has a coffee bar instead of a wet bar. “He said to us, ‘I need to be busy and have things that can be busy.’ If you look at him, he’s always drinking coffee or running around or putting his hands in his hair. He wanted the whole thing to be frenetic. So we tried to create spaces in the office that he could move around and touch and do things with,” says Berghoff.

The Jungle – The opening scene movie set

It’s winter, and actor Paul Dano staggers through the snow after getting shot in front of a woodsy cabin in the forest. The first episode of “The Studio” opens in the middle of an action movie shoot where production executive Rogen shows up to meddle before he becomes head of Continental. But this is no mountain community — The Jungle on the Warner Brothers lot is a wooded area that features a nondescript wooden building that was turned into a cabin and a hole in the ground that can become a pond. “We kind of based it on Charles Bronson, 1970s,” says Berghoff, “It was a really great way for Seth to be introduced into Hollywood behind the scenes.”

The Jungle’s bamboo foliage was camouflaged to read more like a forest. “We actually pulled a lot of it back and then put evergreens in front of it and then snowed the heck out of it,” Berghoff says. The pond water got tinted, and logs were added. “I would do little videos, send them to Seth and Evan, and they would be like, ‘More snow! More logs!,’” Berghoff recalls. All of this transformation work resulted in just two minutes onscreen.

Chinatown – Warner Bros. New York Street

In “The Missing Reel” episode, a portion of the movie Olivia Wilde is shooting vanishes after Rogen’s character insists on shooting on celluloid. For the kinetically-shot scene, in which the camera rotates around Warner Bros.’ New York street set, Berghoff and company had to bring all the decorative elements of a typical Chinatown to the nondescript street.

“We dressed almost everything on this street. There was a lot of moving parts to it,” says Kaufman. “We spent a lot of time talking about hanging lanterns and flags and how to bring the eyeline down. I spent a lot of time researching and went to Chinatown and pulled tons of images.”

“After I visited Chinatown, I came back to Julie, and I said, ‘We have to build the arch.’ Then we worked with our gaffer and he outlined it in all those lights and with a night shot, it worked wonderfully,” Kaufman says.

There was just one more problem: Abbot Elementary School was right across the street, and in “The Studio,” the camera is constantly roving around in every direction. That dilemma was solved by parking a big fish truck in front of the homebase of the familiar TV series.

The Smokehouse Restaurant

The popular restaurant, a favorite of Warner Bros.’ executives for more than 75 years, was used in three scenes, including a meeting between Barinholtz, Rogen and an agent.

“We’re always looking for ways for him to move,” says Berghoff. “So we have the car come in, he parks, he goes in, he sits down with the agent.”

Though the restaurant is already atmospheric, all the stars’ photos on the wall had to be swapped out for images that were cleared. The restaurant liked the small lamps that were added to the tables, so they’re still there.

The Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel

The Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel had the right historic vibes and color palette to complement the Continental Studios look, says Berghoff. The scenes where Rogen meets Martin Scorsese to talk about his pet project based on the Jonestown massacre were shot there, both in the penthouse suite and in the Spare Room bowling alley and lounge, where several types of lamps and lighting fixtures were added.

Layering in the right kind of fixtures has become a key part of production design, Berghoff explains. “We really are a big part of lighting the sets now, especially with the digital cameras that came into play. And so we’re always having big conversations” with the gaffer and DP, she says.

“When we get to the penthouse, I was a nervous wreck about what chair I was going to put Martin Scorsese in,” Berghoff recalls.

It was also the first time Rogen was meeting the noted director during the series’ shoot. “Seth was so nervous, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen him be nervous,” Berghoff remembers.

“You could see he moved around a lot on the scene, he also went and got coffee, he sits on the bed. He was nervous in real life, and nervous in the scene,” she says.

The Ebell Club

Hundreds of movies and TV shows, from “Mad Men” to “The Social Network,” have shot at the Ebell Club on Wilshire Boulevard, which features the large vintage-styled ballroom and exterior courtyard that Rogen attends for a pediatric cancer fundraiser with the doctor he’s dating.

“Both Claire and I have filmed here multiple times. It’s historic, it’s inviting. It has multiple uses with the theater and the interior. But it’s also challenging to make it different,” says Berghoff, who added a stage projecting into the room.

In “The Pediatric Oncologist” episode, Rogen stops to admire the names of films shot there on the fountain in the Ebell courtyard (“Gigli’s” on that motherfucker!,” Rogen exclaims), then makes a scene when he argues that filmmaking is just as important as curing cancer. After the heated discussion, Rogen crashes onto a banquet table, which necessitated multiple breakaway versions.

And if it looked like Ted Sarandos’ scene was shot at the Hilton during the Golden Globes, think again. It’s really the Ebell again.

“We had to cheat Ted Sarandos’ cameo for the Golden Globes,” says Berghoff. “The bathroom, the bar. We did a little table set up. We brought the curtains here and the table dressing and then we just shot it in a corner.”

The Golden Globes at the Beverly Hilton Hotel

The timing wasn’t right to film during the actual Golden Globes ceremony in January, which would likely have been a logistical nightmare. So “The Studio” crew recreated the splashy awards show in the Beverly Hilton ballroom, complete with a custom stage. Though the room normally holds about 1200 guests, around 500 background actors were enough to fill out the scene. Working with the themes of nostalgia and elegance in tones of rose and gold, Kaufman added drapery to the walls, palm trees and extra lighting.

“We did real cameras that were for variety shows. The DP would cut between the live cameras and the film cameras to tell the story. So it was really like studying, how does a variety show work?” Berghoff says.

Another important part of the Golden Globes episode? Reinforcing the table so Sal Saperstein could stand on it, Kaufman says. “Of course, if we win, we have to thank him,” she laughs, referencing the episode’s running joke.

As “The Studio” gears up for its next season, it’s probably safe to say viewers will get glimpses at a whole new set of L.A. landmarks next time around. The Oscars, anyone?