Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1474575
The second idea was that the palace should be an eighteenthcentury interpretation of a contemporary apartment block of fl ats, so big that one would often not know their own neighbors. There would be an essential structure and architecture common to the various rooms, making up a gilded apartment block, but people would decorate their spaces to their liking, through heavily diff ering dcor that would refl ect each character's personality. This character driven approach resulted in an overall eclectic look mixing diff erent decorative styles. Finding the contemporary parallels for each character and their spaces was an important aspect to guide the design choices so that the story could resonate with a modern audience. The idea of public versus private spaces also became an important part of our design decisions. The palace needed to have a series of public areas, salons, hallways—many scenes are distinguished by long dialogues fi lmed as a walkandtalk' between characters, so the series needed long corridors for those to take place in. E. LONG HALLWAY/ STATE ROOM SET. TECHNICAL DRAWING BY MATTHEW FRASER. Ninety percent of the interior scenes in the show are shot on the sets built on sound stages. Preproduction time was very short for the overall builds, and it all felt very much like a design marathon. One of the biggest challenges the rt Department faced right at the beginning was how to fi t the many sets we needed within the four stages at Three Mills Studios in London. ith that in mind, most sets were conceived to be transformed into diff erent spaces by incorporating a modular structure of panels, which we could swap, paint and wallpaper. In some cases, however, the turning around of sets involved complicated engineering solutions. One of the most complex builds was a long corridor that emulates a location used in the pilot. One half of which is transformed into the stateroom set. This specifi c turnaround requires a heavily gilded ceiling to be raised from its original position, revealing a second tier of windows. portion of the side walls are removed, and the huge fi replace turned to its new position within the room. E