GERMS

I had an idea for a new film the other day. This set and its dark atmosphere no doubt inspired it. I left today’s picture in colour to give you a sense of what I’m looking at when I’m working. FILTH started life as a completely different film, a simple concept that scratched and clawed its way to life. The original idea is totally unrecognizable in the final film but that idea started it all and is responsible for what FILTH has become. I’m not so close to the end that I should be looking to my next film but that’s how these things go. Ideas come when they come. I don’t need to actively work on it now … but it will quietly fester in the back of my mind until I’m ready to let it out.

THE MORGUE

I’ve been spending a lot of time going over the storyboards, trying to get my head around the logistics of the coming scene. There’s a lot that goes on in the finale to FILTH and I expect it to be right crazy over the top nuts. Close to half the shots in the entire film take place in this one scene which will run only 5 minutes. That’s a lot of shots crammed into a very small space but hey … you need a big finish.

WORKING MAN

This is a big set, easily the largest of the film. Not just in scale, some of the exterior city streets were about the same size but they didn’t require this level of detail. My guys are going to move through this entire room which means every corner, every angle, every prop needs to be completely finished. The addition of the ceiling with its practical lights will have a huge impact on its final appearance. It’s quite startling how one element can push something over the edge.

MAKING MINIATURES

Not every set in FILTH is built from scratch. Many of the pieces have been redressed and used twice, three, even four times. Cover up a door, turn the thing upside down, change some window trim, repaint and you’ve got yourself a new piece. This is by no means revolutionary. It was standard operating procedure in the days before CGI took a bite out of the need for making models. Some the best work ever done was in the 1980’s (Bladerunner being a high water mark for me) I learned just about everything I know about making models from that era. With all of the linking scenes for FILTH completed I am now a couple of weeks away from finishing the last set.