Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/916056
A combination of old school Hollywood techniques and approaches were used, and combined with the most advanced technology to create the characters and the Beast. All the sets were practical with digital extensions to top them off. If the sets and props, as well as the characters were CGI, what would have made it a live-action film? I worked with outstanding visual effects supervisors in Kyle McCulloch and Glen Pratt from Framestore, and Kelly Port from Digital Domain, along with the best sculptors, plasterers, Scenic Artists, painters, prop modellers, drapers and graphics artists. Swarovski made the crystal bell jar, etched by an artisan who also happened to be an extra from Downton Abbey! It was just such a brilliant creative team at the top of its game. And incredibly, six out of the seven key department heads were women. We were: Sarah Greenwood, Production Designer; Katie Spencer, set decorator; Jacqueline Durran, costume designer; Jenny Shircore, makeup; Lucy Beven, casting; and Virginia Katz, editor. (Director of photography Tobias Schliessler was the man!) The film was such fun to work on, every day was like going into a treasure trove. Then it was done. Like a dream, it was over! So nice to get back to director Joe Wright and into the relatively real world of 1940s London and Darkest Hour, on a twelve-week prep, where the overall budget of the film is the size of the Beauty and the Beast Art Department's budget...That's reality! ADG Sarah Greenwood, Production Designer Niall Moroney, Supervising Art Director James Foster, Nick Gottschalk, Senior Art Directors Elaine Kusmishko, Mike Stallion, Mark Swain, Emma MacDevitt (Standby), Art Directors William Couborough, Oliver Goodier, Rhys Ifan, Patricia Johnson, Matt Robinson, Assistant Art Directors Joanna Bush, Karl Simon Gustafsson, Eva Kuntz, Illustrators Daniel May, Ivan Weightman, Stephen Wong, Concept Artists Andrea Borland, Danny Clark, Teri Fairhurst, Sarah Finlay, Sarah Ginn, Bethan Jones, Martha Parker, Quinn Robinson, Sarah Stuart, Charles Szczech, Ketan Waikar, Luke Whitelock, Catherine Whiting, Ashley Winter, Draughtspersons Tim Dutton, Isona Rigau, Alexandra Toomey, Junior Draughtspersons Katie Spencer, Set Decorator D