You know the marble of Gringotts? Entirely made of paper. Seriously.
More on the secrets of the final Potter’s art direction—nominated for an Oscar—here.
Trailer for Beauty Is Embarrassing
a documentary about artist and Pee Wee’s Playhouse set designer and voice actor Wayne White, the man whom Matt Groening describes as “a little Zach Galifianakis, a little Snuffy Smith, a little Unabomber.” The film is premiering at SXSW in March, but let’s all hope that it comes out for a much wider audience soon after, because it looks like a great inspiration for anyone trying to be creative.
via Splitsider
I need to see this immediately.
Production designer Laurence Bennett: “We had this weird dichotomy where we had the ‘real world’ and films within the film,” he says. “We decided that, to whatever extent possible, the sets that were seen in the studio or seen entirely within film would be rendered in black and white, and the ‘real world’ scenes were done in naturalistic color.” By way of example, he cites the restaurant where George and Peppy dance together for the first time. “That set was done entirely in black and white—the wood grain, the paneling in the set, is entirely faux, and it was all done in black and white and gray,” he says. “It literally photographed differently. Secondly, that’s also for the cast and crew—I think that helped them get more into the period.” (Vanity Fair)
R.I.P. EIKO ISHIOKA
Production/Costume Designer on Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters (1985); Closet Land (1991); Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992); The Cell (2000); Cirque du Soleil’s Varekai (2002-present); The Fall (2006); Theresa: The Body of Christ (2007); Immortals (2011); Broadway’s Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark (2011) and the upcoming Mirror, Mirror (2012).
July 9th
13:34
13:34
EXT. Hogwarts Castle Concept Illustration by Andrew Williamson
Ten years ago, all the Harry Potter drawings were done in pencil. I would take my roughs and plans and sections and give them to a professional architectural illustrator, who would create concept art using pencil and colour wash on watercolour paper. Nowadays that same illustrator builds digital models.
For the first six Harry Potter movies big exterior shots of Hogwarts Castle sitting in its landscape were actually shots of a miniature made by craftsmen; a huge miniature that occupied a big sound stage. For the seventh and eighth films, it was decided that we would be better off embracing the latest technology. So the set was scanned, and the scan was used to construct a new digital model. When the model was rendered with different textures, it was extraordinary. The detail was astounding, and made it possible to move much, closer to the digital model than to the physical one. To my great surprise, I must say, as I’d have thought it would be the other way round.
Alterations are much quicker. It’s fantastic to be able to change things with just the click of a button – and things do change all the time. Sets have a lot of repetitive detail, and now it is so easy to repeat something 50 times. It’s incredibly fast.
The architectural illustrator’s digital work is so real it looks like still shots from the film rather than concept art. The photo-real quality is there, but it’s done so elegantly. The artist hasn’t just fallen in love with the technology and sold out. He has managed to retain artistic integrity.
But the digital revolution comes at a cost, in terms of human skills. The carpenters, plasterers (mould makers), set painters, sculptors and others are asked to build fewer and smaller physical sets. The virtual film sets are still designed by artists, but they are are built by technicians rather than craftsmen with coordinated hand and eye. It’s a trade-off. On the whole, the gains outnumber the losses. The public certainly haven’t lost out. - Stuart Craig, production designer.
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Deathly Hallows still, part 2. The filming of the Battle of Hogwarts.
What was it like designing the destruction of Hogwarts in the last film? Obviously, you know, that’s a very iconic piece, and it’s symbolizing the finality of the film and the end of the series. Did you have any emotional ties to it?
Production Designer Stuart Craig:As you do in films, for reasons I cannot explain, you do things in the wrong order always. So it isn’t as final as you may believe it is. In other words, you don’t build a nice, pristine set, shoot it in good condition, and then ruin it and it’s gone forever. It’s not like that. For some reason, in movie schedules, you always end up building it ruined first because it’s harder, and then you make it good again.
And that’s exactly what we’ve done, in fact. We are building it ruined, and then making it good, and then making it ruined again, and it’s all to do with actors’ availability. And the buildings have expanded so much that we’ve filled the stages here, going to Pinewood, renting stages at Pinewood. Then once you’ve rented them and built on them, you can’t just leave them sitting there forever and ever as you do here. You have to shoot them out and finish with them. So, not as devastating as you may think. But I walked past a set here the other day that I was particularly fond of, I suppose. [I was] pleased with Malfoy Manor—the interior, two large sets—and I guess two thirds of them are gone. I’ve seen hundreds of sets built and pulled down, but I was a little disturbed by that. (via)](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_levhvqOmNB1qfvra2o1_1280.jpg)
Deathly Hallows still, part 2. The filming of the Battle of Hogwarts.
What was it like designing the destruction of Hogwarts in the last film? Obviously, you know, that’s a very iconic piece, and it’s symbolizing the finality of the film and the end of the series. Did you have any emotional ties to it? Production Designer Stuart Craig:As you do in films, for reasons I cannot explain, you do things in the wrong order always. So it isn’t as final as you may believe it is. In other words, you don’t build a nice, pristine set, shoot it in good condition, and then ruin it and it’s gone forever. It’s not like that. For some reason, in movie schedules, you always end up building it ruined first because it’s harder, and then you make it good again. And that’s exactly what we’ve done, in fact. We are building it ruined, and then making it good, and then making it ruined again, and it’s all to do with actors’ availability. And the buildings have expanded so much that we’ve filled the stages here, going to Pinewood, renting stages at Pinewood. Then once you’ve rented them and built on them, you can’t just leave them sitting there forever and ever as you do here. You have to shoot them out and finish with them. So, not as devastating as you may think. But I walked past a set here the other day that I was particularly fond of, I suppose. [I was] pleased with Malfoy Manor—the interior, two large sets—and I guess two thirds of them are gone. I’ve seen hundreds of sets built and pulled down, but I was a little disturbed by that. (via)
![The complex set piece was done in two four-day shoots – a “pre-crash,” where the kids can be seen making their own film, and a “post-crash,” after [production designer Martin] Whist re-dressed the set. Production captured many shots, both during and after the crash; for the actual impact, a total of nine cameras were used: four manned, and the remainder unmanned crash cams, such as Eyemos, placed in harm’s way (though all survived undamaged).
The sequence was planned out with Visual Effects Producer Chantal Feghali and Industrial Light Magic Visual Effects Supervisor Kim Libreri (with effects produced under direction of ILM effects legend Dennis Muren). ILM Animation Supervisor Paul Kavanagh created a simple animatic previsualization.
“It was mainly to block out basic action beats,” Libreri explains. “But J.J. had this great idea, given that it was such a large scale environment. Instead of pre-determining everything, he knew what the basic beats were, which he had drawn on little mini-boards. That was our beat sheet, to ensure we were shooting everything in the right order.”
Whist also built a 6-foot by 3-foot model, which enabled the team to envision where things such as cranes, crash cams and explosion events would be set.
“That was where we discussed the best angles for the camera, and where the kids could run,” Libreri recalls. Abrams still added cameras/moves on the actual day, insisting he didn’t want to bleed the scene of its reality through previz and storyboards. And Muren concurs, noting that a lot more was discovered on the day than VFX had anticipated. “You really want to leave directors and cameramen open to what they feel on the set,” Muren says. “Because the movie’s better that way.”
The crash, filmed on the “post-crash”-dressed set, involved capturing the “locomotive” (a green screen vehicle with a headlight, like that of the CG vehicle that would replace it) acting as a ram and smashing through the depot set. The ram was pulled through at a fairly fast clip (about 40 mph) by a cable attached to a crane.
Stationary cameras, of course, were not a part of the equation. In fact, Carr-Forster, shooting from the 50-foot Technocrane on the Maverick, was able to keep the scene’s focus on the kids, despite all the wild mayhem.
“So many other directors would use the explosion as the primary object,” Anderson says. “But J.J. is the kind of storyteller who uses the people as the primary object, and the explosion is almost secondary to the scene.” Anderson’s B-camera was on Steadicam on a dolly track, following both the train ram and the kids, and being pulled by grips moving at the ram’s speed. Libreri says it was like “a Ben Hur chariot Colin was on, to get some high speed motion, following the kids.”
(via Mystery Train : ICG Magazine / Showcasing the members of the International Cinematographers Guild)](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ln1r8zOFD91qztqsao1_1280.jpg)
The complex set piece was done in two four-day shoots – a “pre-crash,” where the kids can be seen making their own film, and a “post-crash,” after [production designer Martin] Whist re-dressed the set. Production captured many shots, both during and after the crash; for the actual impact, a total of nine cameras were used: four manned, and the remainder unmanned crash cams, such as Eyemos, placed in harm’s way (though all survived undamaged).
The sequence was planned out with Visual Effects Producer Chantal Feghali and Industrial Light Magic Visual Effects Supervisor Kim Libreri (with effects produced under direction of ILM effects legend Dennis Muren). ILM Animation Supervisor Paul Kavanagh created a simple animatic previsualization.
“It was mainly to block out basic action beats,” Libreri explains. “But J.J. had this great idea, given that it was such a large scale environment. Instead of pre-determining everything, he knew what the basic beats were, which he had drawn on little mini-boards. That was our beat sheet, to ensure we were shooting everything in the right order.”
Whist also built a 6-foot by 3-foot model, which enabled the team to envision where things such as cranes, crash cams and explosion events would be set.
“That was where we discussed the best angles for the camera, and where the kids could run,” Libreri recalls. Abrams still added cameras/moves on the actual day, insisting he didn’t want to bleed the scene of its reality through previz and storyboards. And Muren concurs, noting that a lot more was discovered on the day than VFX had anticipated. “You really want to leave directors and cameramen open to what they feel on the set,” Muren says. “Because the movie’s better that way.”
The crash, filmed on the “post-crash”-dressed set, involved capturing the “locomotive” (a green screen vehicle with a headlight, like that of the CG vehicle that would replace it) acting as a ram and smashing through the depot set. The ram was pulled through at a fairly fast clip (about 40 mph) by a cable attached to a crane.
Stationary cameras, of course, were not a part of the equation. In fact, Carr-Forster, shooting from the 50-foot Technocrane on the Maverick, was able to keep the scene’s focus on the kids, despite all the wild mayhem.
“So many other directors would use the explosion as the primary object,” Anderson says. “But J.J. is the kind of storyteller who uses the people as the primary object, and the explosion is almost secondary to the scene.” Anderson’s B-camera was on Steadicam on a dolly track, following both the train ram and the kids, and being pulled by grips moving at the ram’s speed. Libreri says it was like “a Ben Hur chariot Colin was on, to get some high speed motion, following the kids.”
(via Mystery Train : ICG Magazine / Showcasing the members of the International Cinematographers Guild)
December 27th
09:22
09:22
What did you look at apart from the books in terms of reference material and inspiration?
Stuart Craig (production designer): The first and biggest thing was how old is Hogwarts? Well, it could be a thousand years old, a timeless institution and there are very few examples of architecture in existence that are that old. There are the great European Gothic cathedrals, Oxford and Cambridge universities so that is where we went. How do you create a world that is that old? So we went to those places and in the beginning we used them literally and ever since we’ve been emulating that architectural style.
Because they have magic they don’t need technology so everything has a vaguely 1950s look about it and I can’t claim that was a conscious decision in the beginning but it’s implicit in the books. The Hogwarts Express is a steam train and steam trains finished in this country in the early 60s so that sets the feeling of where it is in terms of technology. But it’s the most wonderful mix in that they wear jeans and T shirts, use 50s technology, live in 13th, 14th, 15th century surroundings and we are deliberately exploiting those different influences and letting periods clash together in an energetic dynamic way. (via)
December 17th
19:12
19:12
Production designer Jack Fisk on working and why it's important to take care of sets.
Once you realize that you’re not only designing a film but you’re designing the way it can be shot, the collaboration with the cinematographer becomes more important. If you give them something they can’t shoot, it’s like you’re cutting off your own foot. On Terry’s films, working with Chivo [Emmanuel Lubezki] - that’s really fun - because we’re trying to do it without lights. A lot of times I’ll be cutting extra holes in buildings to create more windows: Holes in the ceiling and stuff like that, so he can shoot. I never wanted to just design sets in an office and accept whatever is built. I keep working on a set until the crew arrives - until it’s shot. I keep working until the actors push me out of the way. Because it’s permanent. You have to take care of them and love them and not ignore them - be there every minute you can, while they’re being built and shot. Because that is their life and they will be on film forever.
"We moved a 60,000-pound tree down the main street of town to get to a house that we were shooting. And every wire, every Internet cable and every TV cable had to be cut to get the tree down the street,” says Fisk. “It took two days to move it five miles."
— a frequent collaborator with Terrence Malick and David Lynch, production designer Jack Fisk describes his biggest challenge filming The Tree of Life.
