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Houses and exteriors: from sketches to final sets: Above the street level


This one was, except for the Globe shot, the widest shot in the whole film. Personally, I liked the mock-up version better, but that one lacked the Orphanage in the far background, and some other, at the time not yet finished houses. At first, I intended to do the town set just as I did similar set(s) in "Soldat", by combining houses of different sizes. However, after the main change of the overall design, I had to do something about this set, too. Sanja proposed me an rough sketch, and that did fit the concept perfectly. I worked around that and created an 3D simulation of the shot. The simulation doesn't fit the finished shot completely, in one part because I haven't finish all the houses from the 3D model, and in another part because I had to arrange the scene with what I had, in the best way I could. The biggest part of the spiral street is right where it should've been, but the buildings in the front have covered it a bit.

As a set, this one was almost completely recycled out of houses survived from Soldat, except for that narrow house in the back (in the sidestreet). All in all, I've used all of them in this film, already, but the idea was - they shoudn't be instantly recognized because of the rather extreme camera angle. Acheiving that was a feat by itself, since the camera had to move in this shot (more about it on this link).
from sketches to fin


I've applied the same sort of philosophy in here, too. This is one rather explicit example of the so-called "forced perspective", executed almost literally in a way that linear perspective emerges from, well, not-that-distant point (it would be normal perspective, otherwise). The camera had to move in this shot, as well, but in a quite different fashion: I needed it to tilt up, in a simulation of a quick look "up" to the sky. The "sky" is in this case just an vertical backdrop on a stand (just as it is the case of all other shots in the "Arctic pirate"), a painting that can be slightly adjusted in height, but more extreme positioning has always been out of the question in this particular studio. Many years back, when I've been shooting "Soldat", it was in a somewhat bigger and certainly higher studio, with ceiling ready to hang the "sky" backplate on an actual position over the set. I didn't have that capabilities here, but it was quite possible to tilt the whole setting to appear as if the sky is above it. I had to sync the camera to the tilted set, and that did the trick.



I've followed the same formula for orientation against the sky in this shot, except the camera didn't have to move this time around. To be exact, this is hardly a shot, it's merely one frame, consisting of two things- the scaffold in the front layer, and the painted "sky" in the backdrop.