• last year
This featurette showcases the epic scale intricate design of the world within the “Poor Things” movie with insights from crew members and the cast. Check it out.
Transcript
00:00 The production design is an incredibly important part of the story and what the production design leads have created is something unlike anything that's ever existed before that I've seen.
00:20 I think the script is quite pure and funny. That felt quite a free place to start and it felt there was a place for beauty, humour, art.
00:31 It felt sort of timeless which is something that really appeals to me. Your mind just starts racing of where it could go. London, Lisbon, Paris. We've built a composite set, epic in scale. You obviously wanted a 1930s film but with today's technology.
00:47 I always envisioned it like this. I always thought that we should build a world according to Bella and her understanding and perception of it.
00:56 You have this idea of the Grand Tour, this 19th century idea that you left the place you were born and you had to tour the world and see the world in order to come of age and we see through her eyes how amazing the world is and how messed up it is.
01:10 I do think that there's a spiritual connection that happens in these practical sets and you can feel it.
01:16 With Shona and James I thought that maybe if I put two people that have very different minds together and if it worked out and if they got along it would become something very interesting.
01:27 They worked very closely in tandem and I remember seeing the early look books of what they were working on because they have two very different sensibilities that seem to have met up so beautifully.
01:38 I met Shona in a studio so I wanted to see her in a natural inhabitants hat so I was worried she might be mental.
01:45 My experience on film is zero so this wouldn't be standing if it wasn't for James and the whole process of building something so enormous so beautifully.
01:55 We're in Budapest in Hungary shooting on many sound stages. Our world has been built.
02:02 This house is fantastic in every sense of the word. It is a thing unto itself. It shapes how you act, it shapes how you feel.
02:12 Dressing and the detail is quite extraordinary.
02:15 There's so much originality. There are fish on Bella's ceiling and there's seaweed and a mirror that has ears and these padded silk walls with cityscapes sewn in and I want to copy it. I want to live in that bedroom.
02:29 Bella's an adult but she needed sort of soft corners and things that she couldn't hurt herself on so her room is incredibly soft and very beautiful and there's a secret door.
02:39 I got scared for a second. I thought we were trapped in here.
02:44 They did a lot of work in coming up with references and then you would pick and choose.
02:50 We also tapped into some old school techniques like miniatures, painted backdrops.
02:57 I think it was an interesting combination of techniques.
03:00 The functioning shops, the doors lead to actual rooms. It's incredible.
03:05 You don't have to make anything up. Everything's there. Everything that you need is there and then there's more. It feels like something of the era but also it has so many nods to the future.
03:17 It's a fine line between feeling real and fantasy. We've created lots of different little alleyways. You can walk into the hotel and walk up the hotel stairs and come out and stand on the balcony.
03:28 This is my favourite place, the vodka bar.
03:31 It was quite tricky. There were crews working 24 hours, there were night clustering teams, painters to come in the next day to paint.
03:38 The ship had to feel like an enormous moving Victorian garden. An impractical boat designed to make it practical. So we had quite a lot of fun with the boat.
03:49 This is Paris, the main square in Paris. You can come in off the street into the interiors.
03:55 When I first met Shona and we started talking about this project, Shona had already said there should be red trees in Paris, which was just a brilliant idea.
04:04 We've tried to take the classic Paris vibe, Art Nouveau vibe and give it a twist.
04:09 I mean you can see they've created a world. It's Victorian, it's a dream, it's gorgeous and it really does serve the vision.
04:20 It really defines the story we're telling. It's got a refined aesthetic but it's also got a sense of humour.
04:27 I've never seen anything like it and it is as big as it looks, even in a 4mm lens, which is the widest possible angle. It's bigger than that.
04:36 The designing and the building, it makes the scale and the logistics of the film a huge undertaking and it just takes so long.
04:46 It was a great collaboration between the two.
04:48 [Music]
05:06 The production design is an incredibly important part of the story and what the production design leads have created is something unlike anything that's ever existed before that I've seen.
05:15 [Music]
05:26 I think the script is quite pure and funny. That felt quite a free place to start and it felt like there was a place for beauty, humour, art.
05:37 It felt sort of timeless, which is something that really appeals to me. Your mind just starts racing of where it could go.
05:43 London, Lisbon, Paris. We've built a composite set, epic in scale. You're obviously wanting a 1930s film but with today's technology.
05:52 I always envisioned it like this. I always thought that we should build a world according to Bella and her understanding and perception of it.
06:02 You have this idea of the Grand Tour, this 19th century idea that you left the place you were born and you had to tour the world and see the world in order to come of age.
06:12 And we see through her eyes how amazing the world is and how messed up it is.
06:16 I do think that there's a spiritual connection that happens in these practical sets and you can feel it.
06:22 With Shona and James, I thought that maybe if I put two people that have very different minds together and if it worked out and if they got along, it would become something very interesting.
06:33 They worked very closely in tandem and I remember seeing the early look books of what they were working on because they have two very different sensibilities that seem to have met up so beautifully.
06:43 I met Shona in a studio, so I wanted to see her in a natural inhabitant's hat. So I was worried she might be mental.
06:52 My experience on film is zero, so this wouldn't be standing if it wasn't for James and the whole process of building something so enormous, so beautifully.
07:02 We're in Budapest, Hungary, shooting on many sound stages. Our world has been built.
07:08 This house is fantastic in every sense of the word. It is a thing unto itself. It shapes how you act, it shapes how you feel.
07:17 Dressing in the detail is quite extraordinary.
07:20 There's so much originality. There are fish on Bella's ceiling and there's seaweed and a mirror that has ears and these padded silk walls with cityscapes sewn in.
07:31 I want to copy it. I want to live in that bedroom.
07:34 Bella's an adult, but she needed sort of soft corners and things that she couldn't hurt herself on.
07:39 So her room is incredibly soft and very beautiful. And there's a secret door.
07:44 I got scared for a second. I thought we were trapped in here.
07:49 They did a lot of work in coming up with references and then you would pick and choose.
07:55 We also tapped into some old school techniques like miniatures, painted backdrops.
08:02 I think it was an interesting combination of techniques.
08:05 The functioning shops, the doors lead to actual rooms. It's incredible.
08:11 You don't have to make anything up. Everything's there. Everything that you need is there.
08:16 And then there's more. It feels like something of the era, but also it has so many nods to the future.
08:22 It's a fine line between feeling real and fantasy. We've created lots of different little alleyways.
08:28 You can walk into the hotel and walk up the hotel stairs and come out and stand on the balcony.
08:34 This is my favourite place, the vodka bar.
08:37 It was quite tricky. There were crews working 24 hours.
08:40 There were night clustering teams, painters to come in the next day to paint.
08:43 The ship had to feel like an enormous moving Victorian garden.
08:48 An impractical boat designed to make it practical. So we had quite a lot of fun with the boat.
08:56 This is Paris, the main square in Paris. You can come in off the street into the interiors.
09:00 When I first met Shona and we started talking about this project,
09:04 Shona had already said there should be red trees in Paris, which was just a brilliant idea.
09:10 We tried to take the classic Paris vibe, Art Nouveau vibe, and give it a twist.
09:15 I mean, you could see they have created a world. It's Victorian. It's a dream.
09:20 It's gorgeous and it really does serve the vision.
09:26 It really defines the story we're telling. It's got a refined aesthetic, but it's also got a sense of humour.
09:32 I've never seen anything like it and it is as big as it looks, even in a 4mm lens,
09:37 which is the widest possible angle. It's bigger than that.
09:42 The designing and the building, it makes the scale and the logistics of the film a huge undertaking.
09:49 It just takes so long and it was a great collaboration between the two.
09:53 [Music]
09:57 [BLANK_AUDIO]