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Why Dune Production Designers Built a ‘Visual Bible’ Before Day One of Shoot

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Why Dune Production Designers Built a 'Visual Bible' Before Day One of Shoot

This story concerning the making of Denis Villeneuve’s “Dune” first appeared within the Under-the-Line difficulty of TheWrap’s awards journal.

Earlier than any set on “Dune” was constructed, earlier than anybody started VFX designs or the cinematographer started mapping out lighting, Denis Villeneuve labored with manufacturing designer Patrice Vermette on crafting a “visible bible” for a way each little bit of the movie would look. 

Villeneuve had come to Vermette with some tough “scribbles” based mostly on concepts the director had had in his thoughts for “Dune” since he was a youngster. Vermette then took these concepts and went to work for seven months of soppy prep, creating the complete visible language of the film. That meant reference factors for each prop, fundamental concepts for costumes, areas and even the visible language and really feel for each planet within the “Dune” universe, all of it crafted nicely earlier than day one in all pre-production.

“You are taking all these cues from the e book, and also you begin creating,” Vermette mentioned. “That visible bible, you present that to each division, and so they get the place we’re going. It turns into a straightforward dialog after that.” 

Vermette is a two-time Oscar nominee who has labored with Villeneuve on “Arrival,” “Prisoners” and “Sicario,” and he mentioned you’d be stunned simply how a lot of the visual-effects-heavy world was truly constructed in Hungary and Jordan and seen in lens. One set the place troopers descend from the sky was a round dome constructed 20 ft excessive and draped in cloth to create the phantasm of shadows forged in a spoke sample on the bottom. The room’s ground was even lined in sand that wanted to be agriculturally managed—and regardless of the big challenges of such an area, Vermette knew it was a design that was “loopy sufficient to work.” 

He and Villeneuve consider strongly in immersing actors on the earth they’re inhabiting quite than having them play to an empty area. And rooting even a fantasy like “Dune” in the actual world goes a good distance in creating a long-lasting influence. As an example, whereas the grandiose, coastal views on the Atreides dwelling world of Caladan have the gravitas of the shores of Norway, Vermette says there was one thing in their very own dwelling of Canada—the nostalgic feeling of the autumn as one thing seems to come back to an finish—that wanted to be conveyed within the movie’s landscapes. 

“For Denis and I, the significance after we create a narrative is to anchor it in some kind of actuality, even when it’s subliminal,” he mentioned. “Afterward, they are going to consider within the extraordinary side of the story as a result of it’s grounded. Denis approaches his motion pictures as in the event that they had been documentaries. It encourages us to dig in and create worlds that make sense.”

Dune - Denis Villeneuve and collaborators
Left to proper: sound editor Theo Inexperienced, cinematographer Greig Fraser, editor Joe Walker, sound editor Mark Mangini, visible results supervisor Paul Lambert, composer Hans Zimmer, director Denis Villeneuve, costume designer Jacqueline West, manufacturing designer Patrice Vermette, costume designer Bob Morgan

Learn extra from TheWrap’s “Dune” package deal right here:

Making ‘Dune’ – Right here’s How Denis Villeneuve and His Group Pulled Off Sci-Fi Epic (Video)

‘Dune’ Costume Designers Have been Impressed by Every thing From Balenciaga to Tarot Playing cards to Bugs

‘Dune’ Cinematographer Nonetheless Finds Sand in His Baggage 2 Years After the Shoot

The Sound of ‘Dune’: The Large Worm Was Exhausting, however the Magical Voice Was Tougher

Why ‘Dune’ Editor Traveled to Budapest However Wouldn’t Go on the Set

Why ‘Dune’s’ Largest Visible Results Problem Wasn’t the Worms However the Sand

‘Dune’ Composer Hans Zimmer Reveals the Word That ‘Tore the Enamel Off My Tooth’

Learn extra from the Under-the-Line Concern right here.

Wrap Below-the-Line issue - Dune