Coraline Set Visit Report & Exclusive Pic!
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By George 'El Guapo' Roush on
September 17, 2008
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A few months ago, Focus Features requested the handsomest, most studly journalists they could find to fly out to Portland, Oregon and visit the set of the upcoming animated fantasy Coraline. Since such journalists don't exist, we got to go instead. What I saw blew my mind away. I had no idea features like Nightmare Before Christmas and James & The Giant Peach were such tedious and enormous productions.
Before I get into the set visit, let's read up on what Coraline is about:
From Henry Selick, visionary director of THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS, and based on Neil Gaiman’s international best-selling book, comes a spectacular stop-motion animated adventure – the first to be originally filmed in 3D!
Coraline Jones (Dakota Fanning) is bored in her new home until she finds a secret door and discovers an alternate version of her life on the other side. On the surface, this parallel reality is eerily similar to her real life and the people in it – only much better. But when this seemingly perfect world turns dangerous, and her other parents (including her Other Mother voiced by Teri Hatcher) try to trap her forever, Coraline must count on her resourcefulness, determination and bravery to escape this increasingly perilous world – and save her family.
Walking into the giant building that's being used just for this production, we first met Henry Selick and the other artists working on the film. I feel awful that their names escape me right now, but my desktop crashed and most of my Coraline stuff went with it into that great hard drive cemetery in the sky.
We saw some of the models that were being used in Coraline. Figures that stood up to 12" in height. Coraline, Mother, Father, Other Mother and Other Father, Mr. Bobo the circus performer and retired actresses Miss Spink and Miss Forcible. There was also a new character. Someone being introduced into the world of Coraline and wasn't in the book. His name is Wybie and is Coraline's friend in the story. The puppets looked amazing and anyone who has an action figure or statue collection would have drooled over these guys because they were such original creations of art.
We then visited the costuming dept where we saw hundreds of different costume pieces used on the puppets. The fabric detail was incredible and the seamstresses had tons of plastic baggies with everything marked so they knew what was to be used on what character and for what scene. The next area had all of the different pieces used on the puppets. They even used real hair so they could get the look just right. (An industry first if my memory serves correctly for stop motion animation.) There were a lot of different mouth pieces used, arms, heads and a lot of painters to get everyone's look just right.
 Character painter Angela Kiely paints the placement faces for the character of Other Mother in one of the workshops.We then met the set construction supervisor. A veteran of the field named Bo Henry. All of the props, buildings and sets are done by Bo and his team. The sets are enormous and each one has holes built on the bottom of them so the puppeteers can get undderneath and operate and move them frame by frame throughout the scene. It's actually kind of mind boggling how big and detailed the sets actually were. looking at the picture below you can see how long it would take to paint such detailed work for a scene, and that's only one small section.  Behind the scenes with Art Director Matt Sanderson the hand crafted creation
of just one of the dozens of elaborate sets made for Coraline.
Continuing on in the tour we got to see a lot of the sets being used for shooting. It takes about a week just to get 5 seconds of animation because they have to set the puppets, go the camera, shoot it, then reset and do it all over again. Assistant cameraman Tim Taylor (left), animator Chris Tootell (center), lighting and cameraman Chris Peterson (far back) and electrician James Wilder Hancock (right) on one of the many Coraline sets.
It takes over 120 shots just to get that 5 seconds. It's a crazy process and only the animators who love, and I mean LOVE their craft could handle such exhausting work. But even though most of them seemed a bit tired, they were all still very energetic about what they were doing. Exclusive Pic!
Animator Gabe Sprenger hand paints part of the garden that Coraline is admiring.
One set was the theater set piece. This is a big scene in the book (Yes, I read it) and perhaps one of the most complicated to do. The animator has to place all of the dogs in the audience (just read the book already!), Coraline, the actresses, and the background effects. He would do this by setting up the front part of the stage, then walk behind it, climb a ladder into the back, adjust those pieces, climb back down, then take his shot. Then do it all over again. But the set was just amazing and I really wish they would have let us take our own pictures besides the ones here because I would have liked to have shown you what I'm talking about. Another set was a beautiful looking forest with a ton of trees and painted popcorn for leaves. It was actually really impressive because the animator had to set each branch and tree. The scene was bright and colorful and probably my favorite out of all the sets I got to see.  Animator Chris Tootell readies Coraline to cross a snowy forest.Another set was all white backgrounds. This is the scene in the book where Coraline and her talking cat companion walk outside the boundaries of the other world. Past the trees until she felt like she was walking into nothingness, like a blank sheet of paper. Not much to the set besides complicated camera placements, but shooting in an all white environment must be hard on the eyes. I was going to be stupid and leave a blank space below and say that was a picture of it, but it's late and I'm tired. Another set we saw was the house Coraline lived in. It was a very impressive structure and looked just like a real house. A fallen tree off the side was there. The house was bright and colorful.  Assistant cameraman Mike Gerzevitz between takes with new character Wybie and Coraline.We also saw an enormous garden area, and an interior scene with Coraline and Other Mother that had bugs for furniture. It was set in the other world and was a very creepy set piece with really cool lighting.  Coraline goes exploring in the Other World. After touring the sets we got to watch about 20 minutes of Coraline footage in 3-D. Scenes included Coraline first meeting Mr. Bobo and the theater scene I described earlier. The film looked great and I really think fans of the book will be overjoyed with what Henry and his team of artists have done with the vision of the book. I'm a skeptic when it comes to 3-D stuff but this wasn't distracting at all and it especially brought the Other World to life. After the footage we got to sit down and interview the man himself, Henry Selick. Look for that interview later in the week. I want to personally thank everyone at Focus Features for the wonderful set visit. It was a real treat to get to see how the process of stop motion animation was done and how hard and laborous it is for everyone involved. But they should know, that fans of the art like myself, thank them for the great job they're doing. And I'm sure I'm not the only one who can't wait for Coraline to come into our real world next February. Stay with Latinoreview and look for the Henry Selick interview to be posted soon! Comment below or e-mail: george@latinoreview.com
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Tags: Coraline, News |
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Ew
Commented By: Ding'ling on 2008-09-17 23:49:13
So much hard wok and to think it can actually turn out a bad movie. It would suck if that happens.
Im going to see it any how
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More Set pics please!!!
Commented By: Chris Tay on 2008-09-18 01:22:33
Cheers to the dedicated and passionate people involved!!!!
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Love the book!!!!1
Commented By: Monica on 2008-10-01 00:11:24
I read the book "Caroline".( I'm in sixth grade and i already finished it ) That book was scary (because the other mom was creepy( and she ate roaches) and how the dad turned in a monster ) stressed and worried ( because Caroline played a "game" with her other mother that if she wins she can be free and take her parents and those children back home with her but if the other mom wins she would have all Coraline's love and pin the buttons on her eyes. )and i was shaky( because when she trying to find those souls of the kids its in the dark of the other place and then there this slim guy she has to put her hand in there and take out the soul :( ) Happy because she wins the bet and escapes because the other mom wouldn't let her go.and i could give you more detail but then this comment would be too long . ( talking is faster )
I could give you the whole story in a summary if we talked. I really like the cat in the other world.he's helpful.
If you want more info about the wonderful book I'm always here.
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lavidjio
Commented By: lavidjio on 2009-01-21 19:48:27
lavidjio
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