‘Ghostbusters’ reboot recreates New York

Who you gonna call? If you’re Martin Charles, the graphic designer hired to design and create realistic sets for the remake of the 1984 supernatural hit “Ghostbusters,” you call on Roland DGA Corp., Irvine, Calif., experts in wide-format inkjet printers. Charles, founder of Santa Monica-based SagaBoy Productions, worked with designer Jefferson Sage to bring to life midtown New York hotels, Times Square and haunted mansions with creepy creatures. In Charles’ eight-month stint on the film, he produced commercial signage, wall wraps, street signs and posters, wallpaper and wraps for taxis, police cruisers and emergency vehicles.

Charles used a 64-inch Roland SOLJET^® Pro 4 XR-640 large-format color printer/cutter and Roland Eco-Sol MAX^® 2 inks. “The XR-640 has built-in printing and contour cutting capability, so with one machine, we can do it all,” says Charles. The output was printed on a range of materials, including artist canvas, varying weights of vinyl media, photo paper, poster paper and adhesive fabric. To set the backdrop for an interior scene, Charles needed to produce more than 3,000 square feet of printed wallpaper graphics.

The movie premiered in July, and the “Ghostbusters” all-female team (Melissa McCarthy, Kristin Wiig, Kate McKinnon and Leslie Jones) and gooey-goblin-blasting special effects probably got most of the attention. Quieter recognition seems fine to Charles: “Getting a ‘thank you’ from the director and a personal e-mail from the producer saying ‘See you on my next movie,’ is proof of satisfaction,” he says. 

Graphic designer Martin Charles has helped develop realistic sets for more than 50 feature films and television productions, but the “Ghostbusters” remake posted particular