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SKIN JOB 66
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PostPosted: Sat Apr 16, 2011 6:57 pm    Post subject: DANTE 01 Reply with quote



A thread devoted to DANTE 01, Marc Caro's (The City of Lost Children) 2008 solo film debut. I'll share here never seen before behind the scenes material related to this film.

So, welcome aboard the ill-fated DANTE 01 space station, hope you'll enjoy the ride !

Fred
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andy
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PostPosted: Sun Apr 17, 2011 12:07 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I very much want to see this movie. Looks very cool.

Andy
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joberg
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PostPosted: Sun Apr 17, 2011 6:36 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Thanks for sharing Fred...eager to see some more
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SKIN JOB 66
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PostPosted: Sun Apr 17, 2011 7:51 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Thanks a lot guys for your interest in this film !



It's far from being perfect (the end actually is... Hu... ), mainly because they had some pressure from the producers in the editing room, but the first 30min are imho stunning !

Because sci-fi films are rather rare in french cinema industry, the Art Dept gave its best to make it visually brilliant, despite the tight budget allowed to the film... To give you an idea, it was made with roughly the same envelope Duncan Jones had to do MOON.

OK, back to browse my archives, I'll post something in a few days... Stay tuned !

Fred
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Space Jockey
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PostPosted: Mon Apr 18, 2011 3:53 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Cannot say I've heard of this but it sounds good. Will look out for it.
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SKIN JOB 66
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PostPosted: Tue Apr 19, 2011 7:19 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

OK, let's start at the beginning, with the shuttle seen in the opening scenes.

Marc Caro took his main visual inspiration in Soviet space-age esthetic for this film, mainly because he wanted to see something different from the usual NASA inspired stuff... but also because he loves the rather roughly made, bulky, low-tech aspect of all soviet hardware of that era.

The shuttle was supposed to be a modular ship, a kind of space train made of various parts : cockpit & cargo section + wings & atmospheric boosters for landing on planets + void boosters for space travel. Extra cargo containers were also envisioned at a certain point during pre-prod.

The other idea was to make it rather ugly, to underscore its 100% functional purpose... it's definitely not Star Wars here !



I've added a layout of the ship with some of its Soviet inspired markings, otherwise you'll never have a chance to spot them, considering the low light used in all of the space scenes.

Fred


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joberg
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PostPosted: Tue Apr 19, 2011 10:57 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Interesting design...don't know if I like the overall "look" of it (specially the end wing of the ship), but that's just me Wink
Eager to see more of course Fred.
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SKIN JOB 66
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PostPosted: Tue Apr 19, 2011 4:55 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Yep, I agree with you JB, this shuttle is rather ugly (had a problem with the wings too first time I saw it) but, again, that was the idea !



The same design process was applied to the space station but with a better result imo... Below you'll find 2 screencaps from the opening sequence, the original pre-prod painting (it's amazing to see how the end result was so close to it) and also a view of the 3D model delivered by BUF Company.

Fred


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joberg
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PostPosted: Wed Apr 20, 2011 6:53 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Good stuff Fred, the space station is very "now" tech...probably not too far into the future on that one Wink
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SKIN JOB 66
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PostPosted: Fri Apr 22, 2011 10:45 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

joberg wrote:
Good stuff Fred, the space station is very "now" tech...probably not too far into the future on that one Wink


I thought it was too weird the first time I saw it... but I agree, it looks rather realistic in terms of space aeronautics esthetic.

OK, next thing I wanted to show here is the cryo unit they unload from the shuttle. I saw the real prop in person, it looked rather cheap, very simple (detailing, painting). It reminded me of a freezer... a cheap freezer...

Well, I was surprised to see it looked really good in the film, once properly lit and filmed... that's what they call "Movie magic" I guess !



Fred

PS : The head you can see through the cryo unit window in the 3rd screencap is a silicone cast, not the real actress that was supposed to be inside... I still don't understand why they made a very realistic fake head for ONE shot, they could have saved money for other effects if they had used the actress !


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andy
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PostPosted: Fri Apr 22, 2011 12:14 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

It does look a lot like the water heater and furnace we have Very Happy I bet the real thing looks pretty close though too.

Andy
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SKIN JOB 66
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PostPosted: Fri Apr 22, 2011 3:01 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

andy wrote:
It does look a lot like the water heater and furnace we have Very Happy I bet the real thing looks pretty close though too.

Andy


lol, you're right Andy, it looks more like a furnace than a freezer... How ironic for a cryo unit !



Fred
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andy
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PostPosted: Fri Apr 22, 2011 3:09 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Well in order to "Freeze" something, you need to remove all the heat from it. That heat also needs to be moved or dispersed somewhere. It may be used in another process in order to conserve energy. So it isn't far fetched at all.

Andy
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SKIN JOB 66
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PostPosted: Fri Apr 22, 2011 3:17 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Good point Andy !

BTW, we'll talk microwave oven in my next post... a fast way to reanimate freezed people in some cases !



Fred
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SKIN JOB 66
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PostPosted: Tue Apr 26, 2011 3:58 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

This is what the cryo unit was supposed to look like when the film was in its storyboard stage... Very reminiscent of the Discovery crew sarcophagus in 2001 : A Space Odyssey, but they simply didn't have enough money to build it this way in the end !

Fred


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joberg
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PostPosted: Wed Apr 27, 2011 6:59 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Yeah...as Andy said, remind me of my heat pump at home
As for the creation of the head...yes, that's puzzling (time, cost) don't know why they did it unless there was to be another scene in the movie where a live actor couldn't be used? Sometime they'll do that if the special effect are too "risky"; let's say that the lights inside the cryogenic pod were too hot, or maybe the effect lights on her eyes...who knows? Keep those great pics coming Fred, I'm enjoying it very much.
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SKIN JOB 66
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PostPosted: Thu May 12, 2011 11:09 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

OK JB, let's continue with this...

The shuttle also carries a prisoner. It's Saint-Georges, the main character of the film, portrayed by Lambert Wilson, aka the Merovingian in the Matrix trilogy.
The initial idea was to show him frozen in an uncomfortable position (to take as less room as possible on the overpacked shuttle), in a block of solid translucent material similar to amber.







Unfortunately, there was no budget to build a prop that impressive.
So they kept the idea of a frozen body, but wrapped in plastic like a huge piece of meat straight from a slaughterhouse.
Because of the limited budget they'd been allowed, I think the guys in charge of making this frozen body reused one of the corpses they had made for The Crimson Rivers and then stuck a Wilson head cast and hands on it...



The funny thing is that Marc Caro had already used this idea years ago in The Bunker of the last gunshots (1981), his film debut with Jean-Pierre Jeunet where you could see frozen soldiers waiting to be awakened in one of the ill-fated Bunker cold chambers !





A link to the opening sequence of The Bunker of the last gunshots on youtube (love the sound design, the atmosphere, etc) :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cb-Zt4T7Ygw&playnext=1&list=PLFAD8516F1F189796

Fred
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joberg
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PostPosted: Fri May 13, 2011 7:20 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Thanks Fred...Lord knows that the frozen body idea has been used to death in Sci-Fi (Demolition Man comes to mind also)...as for the head, it "might" look like L.Wilson with the movie lighting, but the head seems a little off in the other pics.
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SKIN JOB 66
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PostPosted: Fri May 13, 2011 4:28 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

joberg wrote:
...as for the head, it "might" look like L.Wilson with the movie lighting, but the head seems a little off in the other pics.


It didn't look that bad when I saw it in person and took these pics...

It's maybe that I'm a bad photographer ! (There was so much to see during the time we were allowed to visit the set, I did my best but most of the pics I took that day were not that good...)

Razz

Fred
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PostPosted: Fri May 13, 2011 7:14 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Great images from Dante 01 Fred, very creepy!.....this is one of those pictures that slipped under the radar onto dvd? a unique look to this film, love the overall design, especially the transort shuttle which has an early nostromo look to it? very clunky and modular, and the impressive cubist style Dante 01 space station.

The collaboration of Jeunet and Caro has produced some great films, Delicatessen so quirky and typically french in style and humour! then the "Gilliamesque" City of lost children, a stunning film and great cast (the less said about Alien IV the better)....

As for Caro's first solo effort this is still a impressive movie, though I'm not surprised it suddenly seems to loose it's train of thought towards the end! having your budget cut from €8,000 000 to just €4,000 000 will probably do that! although this still looks good for such a paltry budget. a credit to Caro as a director. Alien, Dark Star, Silent Running the recent Moon all had small budgets for a sci-fi film, look how they turned out! although he seems a bit miffed with the editing of his film?

Still rather watch this visual and cerebal story with its faults than many of the pieces of big budget "crap"! churned out by hollywood over the last year!
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