In preparation for On A Scary Scary Street, I made this sketch using references of old European villages found in books and on the Internet. Model makers then built cardboard mock-ups to test the scene in front of the camera.

Mike Galvin measures the sidewalk staircase. Using the sketch as a guide, the street and buildings had to be precisely arranged and assembled in order to achieve the desired illusion when viewed through the camera. Cardboard mock-ups were gradually replaced with finished models, while I made changes and the model makers added flourishes along the way.

Randy Gilman uses a rotary tool to carve stones into the high density polyurethane foam. This effective technique was used throughout the book in both the buildings' exteriors and interiors.

Emily Cappa measures and constructs a window for a scary street building. Custom windows and numerous other details were carefully crafted for each building. Such attention to detail gave each building its own unique character.

Mike Galvin (right) and I (left) make final adjustments on the Scary Street set.

Click through the slides to see lighting layers

I photographed the completed set in three separate lighting layers: One with "moon" light, a second with miniature interior lights, and a third with "ambient light" to highlight different areas of the scene. The sky is a digital painting I made.