What was the inspiration for the Grandmaster’s throne room?
The interior of his throne room was conceived as being the interior of a spaceship. His throne was basically the huge window of the spaceship that he’d look out over Sakaar or his realm as it were. And the walk back from the throne to the rest of the spaceship there were all his favorite events, various elements of art. All of the silver pillars were essentially hydraulic presses that could raise and lower the ceiling. A huge Cathedral effect or you could close the room down [and make it more private].
Can you talk about the design for Hulk’s private quarters on Sakaar?
Hulk’s apartment was essentially built for him by the Grandmaster to make him feel at home. One idea was the idea that Hulk would have described to the builders a rock pool on earth and they would have interpreted that in a Sakaarian way. So, the rock pool is made out of metal rocks and steaming water in it. That was part of the Hulk explaining himself. Also, we built it on a scale to fit Hulk, not anyone else. A lot was about trophies that Hulk had taken from the Gladiatorial field as it were. And then the sort of big red on white sort of angular stripes was all about Hulk’s green. Let’s really do something that pops him out in that environment.
You brought up the scale of Hulk’s apartment. It’s pretty common for most sets to have digital extensions these days. Were any of these sets as tall as they seemed on screen?
The Grandmaster’s went up to eight meters beyond the walls so there is an extension beyond the top. But the other thing we did was build in hundreds of thousands of LEDs into the light panels so cinematographer [Javier Aguirresarobe] was able to light the set without having to throw a whole lot of supplementary lighting. It gave them a freedom that you could light your actors with practicals and some supplementary but you didn’t have to wrestle where the light was coming from because it was already there. Certainly, in the Grandmaster’s throne room it was a three-sided set with a green screen at the end so we could do an extension that made it feel bigger than the studio.
Wait a second, you said “hundreds of thousands” of LED lights? How long did it take to build?
About 12 weeks on that set with a number of guys working on it.
I’ve been on Bond sets at Pinewood. I’ve seen these intricate setups, but I don’t ever remember them saying “12 weeks.” Isn’t that a long time even for a blockbuster of this scale?
Yeah, it is. It is indeed. The whole practical thing had been designed 12 weeks out.
Where did the idea come to put in so much lighting? Whose idea was it?
Because we could? The advances that have been made in LED technology and having RGB lighting on a panel that some guy sitting next to the cinematographer can be changing the light was something that is relatively new to film and was something as we saw as a great advantage. We did it across the board. We did it in the Asgardian throne room. We did it in the Sakaar streets. You’ll see light panels in curious shapes and also in Hulk’s apartment and Valkyrie’s apartment. It was something we used to help achieve the retro Jack Kirby feel. It was sort of an across the board agreement with the DP and, of course, he had a say in the placement and the color temperature and the intensity of all those lights.
In terms of Asgard was there anything new you wanted to do? Or did you need to stick to the first two film’s depiction as much as possible?
Asgard I felt was sort of locked in people’s minds. So, we had some sort of cannon we had to stay with but at the same time, we took that the throne room was demolished in the last movie so we had a bit of a free reign there. Certainly, Asgardian style had been established, but we took it into a little more detail. We were able to develop some back streets and then bring it up through the countryside and the stronghold into the hills. So, we got some opportunity to kind of take it to a different place.
What was your favorite part of working on a Marvel movie as opposed to anything else?
I think the sense of collaboration. The producers bringing in a creative impulse to everything. Obviously working with Taika who is a rare visionary and had the confidence of the Marvel producers. There was a collective sense of creativity from the beginning and that’s sort of rare.
Is there any other Marvel character or franchise that you’d like to put your hands on in terms of designing?
(Laughs). I started reading all those comics as a teenager and I loved all of them. There is nothing I wouldn’t love to do particularly with the Marvel team because I really found it a hugely enjoyable experience. I think “Thor” was a cool franchise to work on. I suppose “Doctor Strange” is particularly a fun thing? That’s pretty cool. “Black Panther.” The stuff coming out now is very, very cool. There is not one I could say. But “Thor” was a great opportunity.
“Thor: Rangarok” is now playing nationwide.
