Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1542693
Concepting the house played a hugely important role in our preparation, allowing us to pre- visualize everything to help save time and resources. "What made it truly special was the instant collaboration. Working in Blender 3D with the Production Designer or any HOD allowed us to orbit the set together—rotating views, tweaking lights and colors, and landing on better ideas as we went. I can't stress enough how powerful it is to get feedback in the moment: one minute we're debating the angle of a doorway, the next we're swapping wall finishes in real time." (Antonio Niculae, Concept Artist) We settled eventually on somewhere in Henley- on-Thames, a piece of land that would let us dig as well as build. "We installed four 8-foot by 20-foot-long containers, and two 8-foot by 10-foot containers with precut holes for windows and entrances that had to align to our prebuilt basement walls. The containers made up the structure of the basement, the research room, an entrance and storage space for the crew. On top of the containers, we installed a metal structure for all the rooms above ground. The walls and windows of the house were prebuilt in a studio and brought onto the location to assemble before finishes were added." (Lili Lea Abraham, Art Director) Yorgos likes 360-degree clearance to film, so the set and its surroundings all had to be completely clear. We built outhouses and sheds to hide all the on-set crew, monitors and equipment, as well as planted vegetation around the house and installed telephone poles. We also made sure all the appliances in the house worked practically to elevate the immersion of the set. The work of Todd Hido and Joel Sternfeld captured the unnerving loneliness we wanted for the house, and we tried to replicate this. "One of the earliest decisions we made was that Teddy's house would be stuck in the '90s—the era when his life effectively paused. The furniture, appliances and objects needed to feel like they hadn't moved forward with the rest of the world. An echo chamber where grief and obsession have calcified into décor." (Prue Howard, Set Decorator) Conspiracy theorists often possess a deep need to make sense of a chaotic world. Teddy's house may seem chaotic and messy, but everything is dressed up with intention, suggesting a person who's constantly searching, decoding and documenting. A. TEDDY'S HOUSE, KITCHEN. 3D MODEL CONCEPT ART CREATED BY ANTONIO NICULAE USING BLENDER. B. TEDDY'S HOUSE, DINING ROOM.3D MODEL CONCEPT ART CREATED BY ANTONIO NICULAE USING BLENDER. C. TEDDY'S HOUSE. BEGINNING OF SET BUILD WITH BASEMENT EXCAVATION AND PLACEMENT OF SHIPPING CONTAINERS. SET PHOTO. A B C