Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/1061165
great vulnerability, yet there is a desire to connect somehow. Also of note is that the images are contemporary. In fact, most of my references adorning the Art Department walls were contemporary. They seemed more relevant to the story and their modernity, I hope, is now reflected in the finished film's Production Design. As further example of this modern take, our costume designer, Alex Byrne, chose to work with denim—black for Elizabeth's court, blue for Mary's. I took equal license and embraced this palette head on. I had huge tapestries made and painted to create Mary's court. These were painted on raw hessian—an equally utilitarian and everyday fabric as denim. Alex and I worked closely together—it was vital for me to create a series of harmonious backdrops to the characters' clothes, with complementing tones and textures. Our first location scout was to Blackness Castle, just north of Edinburgh. As Josie and I walked in through the castle gate, and were surrounded by these extraordinary battlements hewn out of D F the rock, I immediately knew we had found our Holyrood. The very fact that the walls seem to morph out of the natural rock formation gave me the prompt to take these ideas back to Pinewood Studios and design the interior, which we built on R Stage . I was inspired by the idea that Mary's world was of nature—organic and visceral. The walls in the set build are growing out from the rock ( of course, plaster rock in our case!). The painting of the set was to give the impression that the walls were alive— still breathing. The palette was of natural lichens— damp, wet and dark . A place not fit for a Queen. D. FABRIC PALETTES. E. INT. HOLYROOD COUNCIL CHAMBER, ILLUSTRATION BY CHRIS BAKER. F. HOLYROOD TAPESTRY, DESIGNED BY KELLIE WAUGH. D E