Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1521244
the manga, I wanted this set to tell the character Zeff's story. In my story, he used his own pirate ship for the main hull, added two captured galleons above for quarters and offices, with a giant fish-head sculpture he found at the pirate reclamation yard, all topped by a lighthouse. To conserve resources, I only built one side of the Baratie, and the two galleons above were added in post. The layout had to allow for all our mobile ship assets to be parked in and around the set, and move when needed. Most were so big they could only be parked around the edge of the tank, but we filled the space with every other ship and boat available. Although we had three tanks, the ships were constantly shuttling between them. Some were motorised and could drive, but giant cranes to lift the ships into the tanks were a regular sight on the backlot. Built in our paddock tank, close to the highway, the Baratie set became an attraction to passing motorists during its construction, and we had to put up a giant screen fence to block the view! Just as opportunity can be thrown up from locations, so too can the journey of set design, as when I realized the fish-head prow needn't be just decorative. Originally scripted as an interior set, the Dorsal Bar would have been costly, without much gain in storytelling. Placing the bar inside the fish head opened lots of new ways to shoot on the exterior, and proved one of the most original sets in the show. The film gods were smiling on us when I went scouting locations. My brief for the Arlong Park set to location manager Katy Fyfe, and location scout John Hoeks went like this: "I need to find a giant, kidney-shaped swimming pool, with no outbuildings, in the middle of a forest clearing." And then we all burst out laughing at the absurdity of it. But there was a gleam in John's eye that I came to know and trust. The next day, he took me to a farm out in wine country, we rounded a corner, and there was exactly the location I had described. After that, he was dubbed the Lionel Messi of locations—he shoots, he scores! On the same farm, John had a location that worked perfectly for Nami's home, Cocoyashi Village, a main location for episodes seven and eight: two large clearings in the woods ideal for laying out the village, and next to that a lake that could double as the coast of the island. Diverging from the manga, I based the village on Indonesian vernacular architecture, which made sense of an economy centered on tangerine harvesting, and the simplicity and relative poverty she grew up in. Beautifully realized by Art Director Ellie Rushworth, she used a combination of CAD for structure, and hand drawing for the organic elements. A B C A. BARATIE SET MODEL BY ANTON KOCH. B. BARATIE EXTERIOR. SET PHOTO. C. ARLONG'S COMPOUND WAS A STOLEN FUNFAIR, BUILT INSIDE AN ANCIENT TEMPLE COMPLEX. CONCEPT ILLUSTRATION BY JAKUB VYKOUKAL. D. THE GIANT TANGERINE TREE, THE CENTERPIECE OF COCOYASHI VILLAGE. CONCEPT ILLUTSTRATION BY MATTHIAS BEEGUER. E. COCOYASHI VILLAGE. SET PHOTO. F. KAYA'S MANSION FOYER BASED ON TROMPE L'OEIL FROM BURGHLEY HOUSE, DEON DELANGE CREATED THE ASTROLOGY SYMBOLS ON THE CEILING. G. KAYA'S MANSION. BOAT MURAL PANELS BY FRED MPUUGA. THE SHIPS IN THE MURALS WERE HUGE EASTER EGGS TO THE FANS, DEPICTING FAMOUS VESSELS BELONGING TO OTHER CHARACTERS IN THE ONE PIECE UNIVERSE.