Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/765720
104 P E R S P E C T I V E | J A N UA RY / F E B R UA RY 2 0 1 7 We all wanted the Doctor's Sanctum Sanctorum to be faithful to the comics wherever possible, particularly the large round upper story window. The building was purposefully much larger on the inside than it should have been. I wanted it all to be a bit off kilter as it transformed and reshaped itself physically during the story. It had a life of its own. A great deal of the interiors of the house were built at both Shepperton and Longcross studios in London, basing the feeling of these sets on an odd mixture of late Victorian, and early art deco architecture. My aim was to create rich, waxy, historically detailed spaces that felt as though the building could have housed many a sorcerer over the past century. Luckily, I was supported by the most wonderful group of Art Directors, Set Designers, carpenters, plasterers and scenic painters who could achieve this. Set decorator John Bush and his team did a fantastic job, enriching the sets with his furnishings and hand props. And I must say, we all had a great time in doing this. I worked very closely with cinematographer Ben Davis on every detail of these sets, making sure that he would have all the lighting opportunities that he would need. He and I decided on a deep lacquered indigo blue for the main wall color, hoping that would complement Alex Byrne's costume design for the Doctor himself. Tonally, Scott wanted this world to feel both luminous and shadowy, spaces where strong compositions could be captured in camera. We worked a lot of this out using a variety of very developed 3D and white-card models well in advance of building the sets. Some of the internal corridors were built on gimbals, and others built vertically as well, to achieve the chase sequences. It was decided just as I joined the film that we would film the Kamar-Taj scenes on location in Kathmandu, Nepal. Tragically, after our second visit, Nepal was hit by a strong earthquake, damaging many parts of Kathmandu, particularly the more fragile historic sites. The producers, as well as Scott, never wavered from the plan and in fact, it made us more determined than ever to shoot there.