Boardwalk Empire

Production executives authorized an $18 million budget for the pilot episode, establishing the broadcast as the most expensive television pilot produced up to its September 2010 release date. Construction crews utilized $5 million of the allocated budget to fabricate a 300-foot-long functional replica of the 1920s Atlantic City boardwalk in Brooklyn, New York. Director Martin Scorsese executed the 30-day principal photography schedule in June 2009 using physical Kodak Vision3 film stock. Series creator Terence Winter structured the premiere script to introduce an ensemble cast led by Steve Buscemi, utilizing historical documentation to outline the municipal corruption of the Prohibition era. Visual effects artists at Brainstorm Digital supplemented the physical sets by integrating archival photographs, postcards, and architectural blueprints into high-definition digital extensions.

The Prohibition Eve party scene utilizes mass-produced, uniform black latex balloons during the midnight countdown. Michael Hanley invented the vulcanized rubber balloon in 1847, but commercial mass production of liquid latex balloons did not occur until the Tillotson Rubber Company established manufacturing infrastructure in 1931. Atlantic City venues in January 1920 relied exclusively on heavy, expensive pig bladder balloons or hand-cemented rubber bladders for decorative drops.