Dive deeper into this episode with exclusive sketches, production designs, and fun facts delivered directly from the Outlander crew.
The Boston Home
“The Boston Streets were filmed on location in Glasgow. The brown stone of these properties was a great color match for Boston and the steps at the front of the houses added to the look. Combined with American period cars and signage, the location worked really well.” -Hugh Gourlay, Supervising Location Manager
The Boston Home
“For the exterior of Claire and Frank’s home in Boston, the production used a street in Glasgow. It had a similar red stone and architectural style to what it was felt one might find in Boston. As well as feeling like Boston, we needed to see this street go through cosmetic changes over multiple episodes as the story progressed through 20 years.
As well as the obvious changes in period automobiles used on the street, an amount of the immediate vicinity could be very effectively dressed by the Art Department for the various periods we needed to cover. For wider establisher shots, visual effects were needed to make changes deeper in the distance and higher into the air, for example adding telegraph poles to replace modern streetlights. Initially there was a great deal of discussion as to what exactly tells a view that the cityscape is Boston and we gradually moved towards echoing the characteristic look of red buildings with white detailing and many church spires, without consciously putting in specific recognizable landmarks.
By limiting the amount of camera movement (and parallax this would introduce) we were able to efficiently build a majority of what we added as 2D elements, created from extensive photographic reference, that we could then place in 3D space for a convincing illusion.”
Richard Briscoe, VFX Supervisor
Matthew B. Roberts
“We were scouting for just the right place to play Harvard (in Scotland). There are many beautiful buildings in the country but we look for something that will visually jump out at us—and the cloisters at Glasgow University did. Now we know real Harvard doesn’t have cloisters—but this isn’t the real Harvard now is it?” -Matthew B. Roberts, Executive Producer
Caitriona Balfe Insight: Costumes
“Working with Terry, we had racks of clothes, and I felt like I was in the best vintage store ever, which was really fun…The sixties is one of my favorite eras. What I love about Claire is that, you know, she’s a professional woman. She’s stylish without being a victim to the fashion of the time. She’s within the period, but it feels very real and it feels very lived in. It’s not a magazine versions of the sixties. Terry loves finding very practical character based looks.
We have some beautiful pieces. There’s a beautiful coat dress that echoes some of my more equestrian-style outfits from Paris. It’s kind of nice that there’s always shades of who Claire is in any century, throughout her wardrobe.”
-Caitriona Balfe (Claire Randall Fraser)
David Brown Insight: 1968 Apartment
“As apartment goes from 1958 to 1968, you have to make choices. When did they buy a new refrigerator? When did they repaint the hall? When did they change the sofa? It’s a domestic home, so, you’re going see everything in there that you would see in a domestic home in 1968. The differences are, of course, is it a black and white TV? Or is it color TV? We make a choice. We said actually, by now, even though there was a moon landing that was broadcast in black and white, this time color, had come in.
The research is always fascinating for us and it’s always something that the departments go into with great depth and with great tenacity to make those choices. So, they’ll be everything you’d expect in a domestic home. But it’s the quality of them and what period of time we are. What new technologies have come about? Was there a new refrigerator that’d come in, which didn’t have a big lump of vibrating steel on the top of it, but it was more integrated and maybe had an ice box? Our wonderful departments really give us the crisp delineation of the period and are evocative for the audience.”
–David Brown, Producer
