Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/1124104
Three seasons, thirteen books and twenty-five episodes later, I can honestly say the experience of designing (and directing five episodes of) A Series of Unfortunate Events was, for me, breathtaking, both literally, and figuratively. It was an Art Direction thrill ride for which I will be eternally grateful. Unlike many serialized forms of entertainment, this story takes place in thirteen radically different environments, each containing a multitude of sets, both interiors and exteriors, each stylized to suit the unique tone of the material. Fun! In order to shoot an episode every eleven-to-twelve days, and because the material screamed to be stylized to underscore the unique and very specific point of view of the three Baudelaire orphans, the production built, over the course of three seasons, two hundred forty sets on stage (four sets on location season one, but only because we ran out of stages). After producer/showrunner/director Barry Sonnenfeld and I presented a lovely array of concept art—and Rose Lam, the extraordinary producer, assured everyone that this was entirely doable—the excellent team at Netflix agreed to let us avoid the dreary slog of scouting vans, and the subsequent sighs of artistic compromise. I now had the opportunity to realize a design arc over the course of twenty-five episodes. A Series of Unfortunate Events is really a series of unfortunate environments to express the increasingly dire predicaments in which the orphans find themselves, punctuated by infrequent and brief moments of hope. Of course, I'm skipping over the part of numerous conversations with Barry, with whom I've done a ton of work and therefore have that shorthand vision thing. We concocted our own rule book to achieve a timeless, non-specific period look that eschewed any modern technologies and served to honor the writing, the language and the love of books that infuse the source material written by Daniel Handler. I'm also skipping over the part where Rose Lam and Don MacAulay, the super Supervising Art Director, assembled a team and a facility that removed all excuses for not achieving the best possible result. And, yes, I'm skipping over the research and reference work, my rough sketches, collaborating with brilliant concept artists whom I will name shortly, and, of course, moments of blank-page panic, to figure out what this world wants to look like through the eyes of Violet, Klaus and Sunny Baudelaire. Yes, all that was done at warp speed in about a month, because construction had to start in another month. Whew! Book one done. Just three more books to go for season one. What happened, thank God, was a tremendously talented group of craftspeople/artists rose to the occasion and, inspired by the material and the opportunity to do something different and fun, cranked out beautiful sets. The machine was up and running fast. On any given day multiple sets were being shot, while others were being struck, while others were being built, while others were being drawn. Post production kept pace, with rough cuts completed just a day after shooting ended on each episode. And so it went for season one. Would the series continue after season one? It "dropped," as they say, and lo and behold, after a brief respite, the crew was back at it. Meanwhile, the Baudelaire orphans were growing at an alarming rate: Violet and Klaus outgrew their costumes, Klaus' voice dropped an octave, and Sunny was on her feet, having graduated from infant to toddler. A. HOTEL DENOUEMENT EXTERIOR. SET SKETCH BY BO WELCH. B. HOTEL DENOUEMENT EXTERIOR. SET PHOTO. C. THE BAUDELAIRE CHILDREN OUTSIDE THE HOTEL DENOUEMENT. SET PHOTO. D. HOTEL DENOUEMENT LOBBY. ELEVATION SKETCH BY BO WELCH. E. HOTEL DENOUEMENT LOBBY. SET ILLUSTRATION BY KASRA FARAHANI. F. HOTEL DENOUEMENT LOBBY. SET PHOTO. G. HOTEL DENOUEMENT LOBBY. PRODUCTION STILL. A B