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WHO FELL TO THE EARTH
Behind the making of the new
family fantasy adventure Stardust, through the eyes of DP Ben Davis BSC
F rom a freezing beach in Iceland and the rugged land-
scapes of the Isle of Skye and mainland Scotland to some elaborate sets at Pinewood Studios, Matthew Vaughn’s Stardust has proved a spec-
tacular visual journey.
Filmed over 12 weeks, Stardust is
set in the worlds of Wall and Stormhold. It’s the tale of a fallen star who crashes into a magical kingdom – and turns out to be no ordinary meteorite at all, but a beautiful, imperilled woman chased after by an incredible array of seekers who want or need her secret powers.
Starring Charlie Cox, Sienna Miller, Peter O’Toole, Claire Danes, Michelle Pfeiffer, Robert De Niro and Ricky Gervais, the inspiration for Stardust began with bestselling author Neil Gaiman, whose MirrorMask came to the screen last year.
In 1997, Gaiman published Stardust, a fireside-style fairy story that unfolded in a four-book DC Comics miniseries, featuring illustrations from Charles Vess. When it was released a year later in book form, Stardust hit the bestseller lists and was named as one of the best novels of the year.
From its first publication, there was talk of what an epic cinematic experi- ence the tale could become in an era of high-tech movie-making and special effects. In fact, it was indie British director, Matthew Vaughn, best known for his skill with the visceral and the gritty who was determined to make this fantastic world come to life on screen with all its simple storybook charm intact.
Vaughn, the producer of films like Lock, Stock And Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch, made his directorial debut with the gangster thriller, Layer Cake.
Although the far sweeter, fairy tale territory of Stardust was a complete change of gear for Vaughn, he had been quickly hooked by the story.
“I thought it was one of the most wonderful, original stories I’d ever read,” he recalls. “As a director, I’m mainly interested in telling stories,
which seems like a forgotten art in mod- ern movies. This was clearly a story that was meant to be made as a film.”
For just his second feature as direc- tor, Vaughn linked up again with DP Ben Davis BSC who also shot Layer Cake.
Says Davis: “It was the largest scale thing I’d taken on. But we only had a 12-week shoot which with hindsight could have done with being a bit longer. The budget was, I think, official- ly listed as $70m. Although that seems like a lot of money, the below-the-line wasn’t huge. Yes, it was hard bloody work, and we shot in some pretty inhospitable places.
“In Iceland, we did a couple of days shooting. It was breathtaking but at the time of the year we shot, in March, incredibly cold. We were shooting on a beach and huge lumps of ice that had broken off the glacier were literally washing up on the beach from the sea.
“I can’t imagine what the wind chill factor was and I felt really sorry for the cast who were wearing flimsy costumes while the entire crew was dressed in full North Face type outfits.
“Scotland is beautiful but condi- tions were also harsh, particularly in Skye. We were up high and weather would change from one minute to the next – one moment glorious sunshine, the next hailstones. Mind you, the effort was worth it because the scenery is amazing.
“As for the look, Matthew was very keen that the film would look as natural as possible. Just because it was a sci-fi, he didn’t necessarily want to go into the realms of total fantasy with the imagery; he wanted it to be based in reality.
“For example, we had to build a Witch’s Lair but we didn’t want it to look like some graphite black cavern. We wanted it to look like a real build- ing, so we ended up building virtually a black version of the Palace of Versailles albeit in a very decrepit state.
“In the film, there are two worlds. First, there’s the Victorian world of Wall – for which we used a lot of the REALA 500D. It had a slightly lower contrast look but a very natural feel,
and I particularly liked the way it ren- ders colour. Basically, Wall is meant to be a small village in the English coun- tryside and it wanted to feel as real as possible, very true to the age.
“Then you crossed over Wall and you go into the fantasy world that is Stormhold. That was where the look becomes far more dramatic, with satu- rated colour and increased contrast. But we still didn’t want it to be some pure fantasy land; it should still feel like a real place.
“As far as effects were concerned, the basic rule for the film was to do as much in camera as possible, and we tried to keep the real element larger than the visual effect element. We did a lot of topping-up of the sets with visual effects.”
Davis, who has recently completed Sharon Maguire’s contemporary thriller,
Incendiary, and will collaborate with Vaughn again next year on Thor, a film of the Marvel Comics creation, says Stardust: “The film has, I think, a time- less quality. It doesn’t particularly look like a modern piece of work.
“In fact, a lot of people are com- paring it with films like The Princess Bride. I’m not that interested in stuff which just goes into the comic book realm. I prefer things more grounded in reality.” ■ QUENTIN FALK
Stardust, which opens in the UK on October 19, was partly originated on 35mm Fujicolor ETERNA 250D 8563 and REALA 500D
Photo main: Claire Danes, Robert De Niro and Charlie Cox in Stardust;
left and inset: various scenes from Stardust; near left: Director Matthew Vaughn with viewfinder and DP Ben Davis BSC on location
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