Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1521244
space, with curved booths ringing the edges. The ceiling had to be left off for lighting and rigging, but I charged master Illustrator Fred Mpuuga with realizing a nautical painted ceiling for VFX to use in post. The Baratie dining room and kitchen give a great example of the extent of work, care and detail that went into each set. The brilliantly imaginative set decoration department under set decorator Tom Hannam cut a stash of worn-out Persian rugs into a collage of patterns for the flooring around the edge of the dining room, and collected a wide variety of lamps, crockery, cutlery and glasses for the dressing. Our story was that Zeff had created this place from troves of stolen items in his former career as a pirate. I researched myths, legends and places in the One Piece world that the owner Zeff would know to create paintings for the walls of the dining room, beautifully rendered by concept illustrator Andre Human. And the ever- imaginative Graphic Designer Emlyn Nield and his team created One Piece menus, drinks labels, and even diagrams of meat cuts from One Piece lore. All for two sets, out of a total of one hundred nineteen. Sets spilled over onto the backlot, some requiring old-school Art Department techniques. One of the shallow tanks had a beach, ringed by large fiberglass boulders, the perfect setting for Luffy's home, Windmill Village. I'm still a fan of old-fashioned models, and here the exquisite work of Model Maker Anton Koch proved invaluable in designing the layout for a complicated chase sequence, as well as all the fight sequences at Party's Bar. The set was such an organic structure, built largely from reclaimed timber, that it was drafted by hand, lending the essential character to the set that construction Foreman Andy Gouveia and his team imaginatively interpreted. Andy also solved one of our CGI problems, quietly arranging windmill sails with motors so we could film them all in camera, despite the notorious winds on the Western Cape. The biggest set on the lot was the exterior of the Baratie restaurant. Deviating from the depiction in F. WE WERE FORTUNATE ENOUGH TO HAVE THE SERVICES OF TALENTED ARCHITECTURAL MODEL- MAKER ANTON KOCH, WHO BUILT EXQUISITE MODELS OF ALL THE SHIPS AND BACKLOTS, LIKE THIS MODEL OF WINDMILL VILLAGE. G. EACH STRUCTURE IN THE WINDMILL VILLAGE SET WAS DRAWN, BUT THE FINAL DESIGNS WERE INTERPRETED IN CONSTRUCTION BY FOREMAN ANDY GOUVEIA AND HIS TEAM. SET PHOTO. H. THE ORGANIC DESIGN OF THE WINDMILLS DEMANDED THEY WERE HAND-DRAWN, TO GIVE THEM THEIR UNIQUE SILHOUETTES. ELEVATIONS BY JONATHON HEALY- HUTCHINSON. F G H