mike davis - Libcom

SCRIPTING LAS VEGAS 25
immigrant, the son of chefs who settled in Las Vegas earlier in the century.
It gradually builds a fantasy version of his place of birth; he even
starts collecting impressionist art. The Hotel Bellagio is imagined as
eighty years old; it simulates the prehistory of a Las Vegas that never
was. This scenario requires panoramas on a lavish scale—including
$300 million in trophy art—and expensive wood paneling, as if one had
been given a special pass to a private club. It needs “immersive” effects,
not unlike the lighting and spectacle from Disney Imagineering or Industrial
Light and Magic. “Immersion” is a term commonly used in the
digital industry to refer to any ambient design that is audience-centered;
it places the guest inside the themed fantasy (which may include dressing
up the streets as well, which are then monitored often by casino companies).
To be immersed in the lights and props of a Las Vegas casino feels
more like film production and less like the movie premiere. In the original
Flamingo Hotel (1946), Bugsy Siegel recreated the spirit of a Hollywood
nightclub. Today at the MGM Grand, at Caesars Palace, and
particularly at all of Steve Wynn’s hotels, the guest is transported directly
into movie set design. Through devices in scale and overhead gimmickry,
the foreground tends to expand outward, to absorb the guest like a
friendly dragon.
Visually, this expanded foreground is a rather complicated shift in
the way scripted spaces operate, away from the dioramic (viewer set
outside the frame) and increasingly toward the panoramic (wraparound
effect). To englobe the space, ceilings may be interrupted like film cuts
by parabolic shapes: curved hanging objects; animatronic trickery;
shadow boxes of pirate treasure; overhanging faux shrubbery.
At the same time, there is casino business as usual. Gaming tables,
slot machines, sports gaming, and the hotel and food area have to be
designed for maximum profit, yet match the overall theme. There is an
ongoing debate as to how theme and gambling should be merged or
isolated for proletarian and upscale clients respectively. For example,
does the main room need to feature the blackjack tables or diminish
them?
The movie set and the profit motive must be married in some way.
As I mentioned earlier, there are quick edits every twenty feet or so.
Mini-sets sharpen each area to maximize profits. (By mini-sets, I mean
the fixed-point breaks in the decor indoors, as well as in the eye candy
outdoors.) To enhance these mini-sets, the design often relies on fixedpoint
perspectives, moments to stop: flashes of trompe l’oeil (copies in