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Interiors: The Orphanage


Allthough it's full of broken surfaces, the Orphanage interior, supposedly situated in the attic, can maybe provide the feel of weariness, but some distinct crookedness would be hardly noticeable. And no matter how simple it looked, I've been continuously forced to do adaptations and expansions to the basic set. The fact that I didn't predict all that trouble with later alterations turned out to be a huge omission that caused big delays. In effect, it was almost as if I had to produce and decorate a new set for every change of camera angle, for almost every shot.

Sctrictly speaking, this is an exterior, but we do get to catch the inside of the sleeping quarters crammed with weary beds, behind the little girl - and she supposed to be standing on her bed, to be able to reach the window at all.
The background above connects (separated by a wall, though) to a "TV-saloon" (top), partly visible on the image above. That piece of background is covered on the picture by most part with the roof section, here on it's side. That roof / window element was placed on paper hinghes, in oder for me to be able to access the interior. I had to open the roof section for every frame, and that was in 25 fps, and to set it back again, precisely. The shot totalled over 500 frames.

Preparations for the shot(s): there were two similar shots through the window - in the first one, the camera is moving forward, closing on the window detail, and it was almost fully prepared on the image above right. The image above it shows the next, action - paced shot, it's static camera in position and finished, weather - weary appearance of the roofing panels.

And while I've covered the outer appearance of this shot in the exterior section, here is what happened inside. It's hard to detect from the pictures, but I had to fake the girl's position in relation to the window - a false window and the little girl puppet leaned on window's (also false) inner ledge were placed some ten centimetres (4 inches) behind the actual window. That setting is better visible on pictures below.

The purpose of this shot was to introduce the little girl as quick as possible. The shot was planned in the animatic, and one addition comared to the storyboard, was "windowglass-finger" drawing of a family, something that little girl in the orphanage wishes the most (before we introduce her other, comforting interest). I had the drawing planned in advance, and matched it as close as I could to the rest of the action and pace that were determined in the animatic. It should be a slow shot from the beginning, but I needed it to feel melancholic and as fast as possible in the same time. So I've experimented with different drawings, simplyfing them as I progressed. The resulting one was simplified to the bone, yet I think it manages to show the emotion. Here are some examples on drawings below - the concept sketch of the "rig" for the false window and it's ledge, also some studies for the "glass-finger" drawing, with the early version from the animatic.



Below: I used "family" drawing first time in early animatic (Better visible in rollover image on the left)

Having said that, it might look simple (at least I though so at the time) to check the drawing and where to place the girl's finger. But the empirical truth was quite different: as camera progressed forward, small diggressions in trajectory proved huge in blow-up (and I needed it digitally zoomed to the maximum at the end), so her finer and the drawing itself (together with the false window, but it remained unnoticeable) appeared as floating, threatening the matching of her finger and the drawing in the post-production. It requested constant adjusting and attention, sometimes discarding a whole day's work. Also, on such huge blow-up, moving the window front up and down in every frame became visible, shaky, so when stabilised digitally, the background started shaking. It's not that bad though, otherwise we could produce digital compositing of smooth forplanes and background that I also shot separately at the same time. It was to be a backup sollution, so I intentionally shot every of more than 600 frames in 10 or 11 different versions.

1- basic lighting, only background (for backup composite)	2- more light on the face

3- TV light, supposedly from the "TV room"	4- separating the little girl with greenscreen

5- "foggy glass" on	6- "foggy glass" and TV light on; foreground in the shot, lights

7- "foggy glass" replaced with empty "glass" panel	8- masked window for separating composite backup

9- reddish hue on ideal shot w. "foggy glass"	10- no red hue

11- shadow on the window bars	12- no "foggy glass"
Above: this group of 12 images are all taken for just one frame of film. Some were used just as they are here, but most of others were backup variants for composite shots, some for inside lighting changes (on the face, TV flickering, shadows etc.). For some frames I didn't need all of those variations, but for some I needed even more. I'd be terribly confusing to change rules for every shot, so that examplary group above was the guideline for majority of frames. The shot took, without preparations, two full months of everydays work to shoot, instead of predicted one or two days. This was also early in the production, so my hopes for speeding up the pace and meet the deadlines decreased every day. I was trapped, and there was no one to blame, but me.




This group of images above is evidence of development - development of many things: different lighting, positioning, "glass" tests, drawing template swing rig, etc. On the rollover image at bottom right can be visible how much thin sheet of plexiglass shifts visually everything behind it. That hardly visible on this size, but when zoomed in and in HD, it makes a noteable difference.


Early animatics had different order of shots, so in some cuts it'd be more logical to face the kids and their TV in the opposite direction. Also, I made them one weary sofa, which didn't appear weary enough, moreover the whole setting looked too cosy. I even planned to place one self-standing lamp beside the sofa, the one that I've later used in Santa's office, but that one especially gave the room too warm and pleasent appearance. I have rather opted for "cold", bluish in tone, also flickering, TV light.

Surrounding images are record of tests with that abandoned attic orientation. This is how I initially planned the set, but rotating everything for 180 degrees was harder to imagine than to execute.



U turn


The final "TV-saloon" perhaps remained too cosy for it's own good, despite my efforts to avoid that. (below)

Final attic layout, as studied on the blueprint above right. Doodle in the red pen on the right has nothing to do with the perspective view where it's superimposed, but instead relates with top view on the left and marks the supposed staircase to the lower floors. The staircase wall is the lighted part on the left, behind the TV (image below left). In earlier, differently orientated setting, Santa was to enter the room from that side, but it's the Agent who climbs the staircase and enters that door, now.


In spite that the Orphanage was set into the park surrounded by pine trees, our girls have the saddest looking Christmass tree possible. It's also poorly decorated, only with clothespins...