Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/1260764
G R E T E L & H A N S E L | P E R S P E C T I V E 8 7 mean that her house, a pointed and architecturally odd dwelling that seems larger on the inside than it looks on the out, isn't magical. It is defi nitely a structural anomaly, like so many elements should be in fantasy. ithout trying to sound precious, it was a combination of wanting to be vanguard or progressive or visionary, or whatever word sounds the least full of shit. Telling a story that has been told before is a tricky thing. Telling a story that has been told over and over for centuries is even trickier. The only way to get there is to acknowledge the source, and all the beautiful work that has been done before, that that this production is, in a sense, trying to build on. efore fl ying to Ireland on a pre-scout, I had already built up a world of references to show Oz, so we could sit together and start on sketching once we met up. e had strayed away from the idea of a gingerbread house for the witch, so I pulled my visual references uite freely from varied historical periods. Oz is a "less is more" kind of person, so I had honed my choices toward the less ornate periods of architecture, especially periods which had suff ered under a malevolent rule or famine caused by war, where a grim reality might have pervaded over their world. Outside the stage, most of the shooting would be in the woods, as this is where the exterior of the witch's house would be built, and where the village the children grew up also had to be erected. Osgood and I discussed the witch's character as being someone who has been abused and abandoned, and then has had to cope with that. So, we took a modernist, naturalistic, humanistic look at a deeply hurt person, and we tried to fi nd out where this woman is coming from and at the stage in her life we have met her. She has entered into a magical bargain that reuires her to kill A. WITCH'S HOUSE, DIGITAL ILLUSTRATION DONE IN PHOTOSHOP BY JONATHAN MCGONNELL. B. WITCH'S HOUSE SKETCHUP MODEL BY BRENDAN RANKIN. C. WITCH'S HOUSE. DOOR DETAIL DRAWN BY MARY PIKE. D. GRETEL OUTSIDE THE WITCH'S HOUSE. PRODUCTION STILL. B D C