Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/916056
the Czech Republic. This set is seen through four transformations, all of which had to be turned around overnight. The opulent "real" ball at the beginning, the frozen "dead" ballroom, Belle bringing it back to life with the famous Beauty and the Beast dance, where the ceiling of light from the chandeliers blends with the starlit sky, and of course, the end, with the celebration, where so many real (at head height) flowers were used, and a mountain of fake ones. Mike also oversaw the Escher-like entrance hall set that was made up of thirteen levels and six staircases. The ten glass chandeliers, each measuring fourteen feet by seven feet (the size of a London double-decker bus!), based on actual chandeliers from Versailles were amongst all the impressive pieces of furniture and props made by Pierre Bohanna and the in-house prop modelers under the supervision of the set decorating department. Belle's bedroom, like the ballroom, is located in the benevolently enchanted part of the castle and is designed to appeal to every little girl as the ideal fairy tale bedroom. This was one of the many sets supervised by Senior Art Director Nick Gottschalk (he also covered the terrace, the country inn, the library, the dining room, the prison tower and my favorite set, the kitchen). The bedroom was based on the Nymphenburg Palace in Munich, which has a golden vine rococo motif running wild. This set was the resting place for my favorite animated character "Guarderobe." She was a very hard prop to solve, but I really liked the way she worked in the end, and Audra McDonald playing her character is perfect. The West Wing, where the Beast retreats to his lair, is the epicenter of the enchantment, the dark heart that Bill spoke about, and is designed in an Italian baroque style, which is more sinister and dark in appearance. Here, under the careful guidance of Senior Art Director James Foster, the enormous structure that was the entrance hall was refashioned into the Beast's lair. This whole set covered two stages at Shepperton Studios, using the interconnecting stage doors so there was a real-time connection between the stairs, the lair, the rose room and the exterior turrets set. The castle's library, based on the design of a celebrated library in Portugal, is a key setting and relevant to an important theme in the story: the thirst for knowledge and the vital role books play in feeding the imagination. The enchanted forest that surrounds the Beast's castle was built on Stage H, the largest stage at Shepperton, measuring 30,000 square feet. The forest, which took fifteen weeks to complete, includes real trees, hedges, a frozen lake, a set of 29-foot- high ice gates, and approximately 20,000 icicles. All of this was overseen by greens Art Director Elaine Kusmishko and John Marston's brilliant greens team. Richard Van Den Burgh and the "Frosties" special effects team had the job of creating all the ice, snow, frost and icicles, from the minute frost around the rose to the massive swirling rococo ice shapes on the ballroom floor. Then, at the eleventh hour, production asked if the village of Villeneuve could be built on the backlot E F