C.S. Lewis began Prince Caspian with the following passage:
Once there were four children whose names were Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy,
and it has been told in another book called The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
how they had a remarkable adventure.
The second remarkable journey for Adamson and his team of artisans and actors (which
numbered about 2,000 by the time filming ended) began while the first project was still in
post-production. While screenwriters Markus and McFeely toiled on the script, pre-visualization artist Rpin Suwannath coordinated a staff of 12 artists and started visualizing the movie in a
computer.
"Pre-visualization is the process of creating computer-generated animatics that serve as a creative, technical and useful tool for budgeting the movie and let Andrew visualize his scenes months before he shoots them," explains Suwannath, who oversaw the same responsibilities on the first movie.
The process was vital to Adamson’s ability to mount a film of this magnitude. "It helps you
see pieces of the puzzle that aren’t there on the day you direct these huge scenes," the director
says. "I can’t imagine not using pre-vis for a movie like this."
While Suwannath and his team began to visualize the world of Narnia inside their
computers, the filmmakers began their lengthy, global search to find locations that would
evoke a vastly different realm than the winter landscape depicted in "The Lion, the Witch and
the Wardrobe."
"Narnia doesn’t exist," says Mark Johnson. "Except in C.S. Lewis’ imagination. And in
Andrew Adamson’s vision. In putting together this physical Narnia, we had location scouts all
over the world for almost a year before filming began, trying to find places we could use to
portray Narnia."
James Crowley, who served as location manager on the first film, along with a team of
regional scouts, went to 20 countries, spanning six continents.
"There was a predetermined feeling about New Zealand," Crowley says. "Europe was also
discussed, but not where specifically. Part of this was due to the seasons. For this story, we
needed an endless summer, so the seasons and the hemisphere played a huge factor in
determining the final locations for the movie."
The filmmakers ultimately chose to shoot in the Czech Republic (including Prague, Usti
and the Brdo region near Dobris), Poland (Stolowe National Park near Kudowa-Zdrój; the
Kamiencyka Gorge in Szklarska Poreba), Slovenia (the River Soca in Bovec near the country’s
only national park, Triglavski Narodni Park) and New Zealand.
"The thing that New Zealand offers that a lot of places don’t is a proliferation of old-growth
forests," Adamson says, explaining what drew him back to his native country. "There’s not an
area of Europe that hasn’t been felled and regrown at some point, so finding an old-growth
forest is very difficult. In New Zealand, the whole west coast of the South Island is covered
with ancient forests."
Shooting began at two breathtaking sites on the Coromandel Peninsula’s Mercury Bay,
which served as the settings for scenes in which the Pevensie children take their first steps
back into Narnia: Cathedral Cove, a spectacular beach on the eastern shore of the peninsula,
and a majestic bluff rising several hundred feet above the ocean where the siblings discover
the ruins of Cair Paravel.
The company then departed for the country’s South Island, a magical place offering some
of the planet’s most glorious scenery. Three sites were chosen for the two-week trip south. The
first two, spectacular rivers in the country’s South Westland area have been given aliases to
prevent them from being overrun by tourists—the "Westland River," a scenic site which
dramatically empties out to the Tasman Sea, and "Glasswater River."
This second locale is defined by a dramatic river chasm bookended by cascading waterfalls
that plunge 200 feet into the glassy waters. The water shimmered so clearly, actress Popplewell
says, "Audiences won’t believe it’s real water because it appears to be an optical illusion
created by VFX in post-production."
The third South Island site chosen for filming was Paradise, a privately owned horse ranch
about an hour’s drive from Queenstown. "There were a couple of locations that were perfect
for this movie that only New Zealand could offer," says Johnson. "In many ways, it is a
fairytale country with the kind of locations that make your jaw drop. New Zealand gave us the
magic of Narnia."
After a ten-day break in production to relocate scores of crew members and the film
equipment literally halfway around the world, PRINCE CASPIAN resumed filming in Prague,
also known as "the City of 100 Spires" because of the plethora of church and castle towers
that dot its skyline.
"Prague is a popular place for film shoots," says Johnson, "for a number of reasons. They have very good film crews; all the necessary equipment and soundstages are available here; and it’s a
relatively inexpensive place to shoot, which is a real factor these days."
The location was also an advantage for the cast. "It was really difficult on the children and their families to spend six orseven months in New Zealand on the last film," he says. "From central Europe, they could beback home in England in a couple of hours. That was really important for them."
The capital of the Czech Republic doubled for World War II England with the collective
help of the art department, costumes and transportation. The road in front of the Praha
Rudolfinum, one of the city’s grand concert halls, was transformed into Trafalgar Square circa 1941, with a bit of help from VFX supervisor Wright, who rotoscoped in footage from that era.
Prague is also the home of legendary Barrandov Studios, which has attracted plenty of large-scale productions over the last decade, of which this film is reportedly the biggest. Since its beginnings in 1931, Barrandov has launched the careers of cinema giants including Milos Forman, Jirí Menzel and the late Ján Kadár. In recent years, Hollywood has brought in productions including "Casino Royale," "The Brothers Grimm" and "The Bourne Identity," as well as "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.
The studios are large enough to house a small forest. In fact, Barrandov’s brand-new "Max"
Stage 8 became C.S. Lewis’ Dancing Lawn, an indoor forest complete with a sophisticated
sprinkling system to feed the living set. "Dancing Lawn is a place so deep in the forest that
the Telmarines have never found it," production designer Roger Ford explains. "In the book,
it’s a place where the fauns and other Narnian creatures go to dance in the night. In the film,
it’s the place the Narnians gather to plan their campaign with Caspian."
The designer used Lewis’ scant descriptive phrases as the inspiration for his vivid
interpretations of the film’s settings. He did not take his obligations lightly, understanding that
his interpretations would be closely scrutinized by fans.
Ford’s signature set piece was the mammoth castle courtyard built on the studio’s backlot.
The set, which he calls a character in the story, began with Lewis’ simple phrase: "Caspian
lived in a great castle…" Six stories high, the castle shoots some 200 feet into the sky,
courtesy of VFX augmentation, and contains more than 20,000 square feet of interior space.
The magnificent design took 200 carpenters, painters, sculptors and other craftspeople 15
weeks to build.
Two symbols were chosen to emphasize that the Telmarines "are warlike, and not a very
nice bunch of chaps," according to Ford. Much of the Telmarine world is adorned with the
head of an eagle, which embellishes not only the castle courtyard on the backlot and the
crossbows used by the Telmarines, but the arms of the various thrones scattered throughout
Miraz’s Great Hall.
In addition, Ford was inspired by the Telmarines’ origins as a pirate culture to use the
compass on the soldiers’ shields in the architecture of the Great Hall and in the banners
fabricated for each of the 21 lords under Miraz’s rule.
Equally impressive in scope and detail are the ruins of the Stone Table in the How, where
Aslan the Lion was sacrificed in the first story. The crypt-like, circular structure was carved
out of plaster and polystyrene, with pillars reaching dozens of feet towards the stage’s towering
ceiling. It contains a series of detailed plaster carvings that depict the history of the Narnians
over the past 1,300 years.
"The How was such an important storytelling piece because of the Stone Table," explains
supervising art director Frank Walsh. "We had to develop and tell the story of what happened
during those missing hundreds of years. These carved stone panels are all very important
images."
Adamson came up with the idea of "a channel or trough around the How directly beneath
the wall carvings," Ford says. "It is a well of oil that Caspian lights with a torch. The flames
encircle the room, lighting up the panels."
"We couldn’t use real oil or burning liquid because it’s hard to control," explains
mechanical effects supervisor and designer Gerd Feuchter. "We had to create a special
propane burner which we then placed underneath a level of colored water." The grid of
propane valves sat underwater in the circular trough, which baffled set visitors, who had no
idea that propane could burn underwater.
Ford’s crew spent over two months in the Bovec region of Slovenia erecting a massive
bridge over the River Soca and its tributary Gljun for the setting of what may be the most
memorable moment in the film, the River God sequence.
"In the book, the Bridge at Beruna is built by the Telmarines hundreds of years earlier," says
the designer. "When the Narnians are finally victorious, Aslan calls on the River God to
destroy the bridge and free the river."
Industrial engineers were called in to reroute the river’s flow to accommodate Ford’s set
designs for the scene. The film’s bridge was constructed out of oversized pine logs lashed
together with massive ropes. It had to be a practical bridge that could hold 200 soldiers (and
dozens of crew members and heavy equipment) charging across it. "It was really quite
extraordinary," Ford says, referring to the engineering and the machinery involved.
"It required a real piece of civil engineering," adds supervising art director Frank Walsh.
"We were introduced to the biggest bridge builder in Slovenia, the Primorje Group, and they
didn’t even bat an eye. They adapted their operation and approach to what we wanted, came
on board and were fantastic."
One of Ford’s more whimsical designs for the film is Trufflehunter’s Den, an octagonal
structure built on wheels so that pieces of the set could be dismantled to allow intricate camera
angles. Director Adamson mounted a still-photo camera on a pole and used it to photograph
an actual badger’s den inside the hollow of an oak tree. Those photos inspired Ford’s set design
and Kerrie Brown’s set dressing, which added a touch of verisimilitude to Lewis’ imaginary
world.
At New Zealand’s Henderson Studios outside of Auckland, Ford’s crew built the Treasure
Chamber, a decaying, two-story subterranean cavern. For inspiration in creating the massive
treasure collection, Brown visited several museums in London and Paris and took photographs
of lavish gifts that had been presented to the nobility of various countries. "We wanted the
room to show that Peter and Edmund and Susan and Lucy, when they were kings and queens
in Narnia, had been presented with treasures from people from different lands," she says.
Brown next scoured prop stores in Australia and New Zealand to rent chalices, urns, armor
and such, "but there wasn’t enough to fill up this huge room." She added over 2,000 props
designed, molded and sculpted by her prop department. That busy department, headed by
Roland Stevenson, kept a staff of 35 working around the clock to manufacture over 7,000 prop
pieces for the entire film.
Costume designer Isis Mussenden engineered the creation of hundreds of original
wardrobe designs to clothe the Telmarines. Supervising a staff of over 70 artisans in both
Prague and Auckland, Mussenden drew upon two sources for her vivid designs—folk dress of
Sardinia and the paintings of the Cretan artist and Byzantine Mannerist, El Greco. "There are
images in Pauline Baynes’ illustrations for the book that stay with one forever," Mussenden
recalls. "We never intended to ignore them. At the same time, I could not be bound by her
illustrations either, because we are designing three-dimensional costumes.
"I like to start with a color palette," she notes about the cool silver and gray shadings of the Telmarine army. "We already had the palette of the Narnians,but we needed to create one for the Telmarines. We didn’t want to use red and gold. Those are Narnian colors. I eventually chose several paintings of El Greco. They are gruesome images, acidic and cool, and were perfect for our needs."
The next piece of the puzzle was taken from a book about the Sardinian cultural dress she found on a shopping trip to Italy. "Sardinia is a notorious rough-and-tough island which sported the new look I was after," Mussenden says. "Skirts, vests, wide belts, garters and jackets…no capes! We went for the Mediterranean feel, which was a call by Andrew, to get ourselves in a different culture, a little different skintone, a little different flavor."
She also visited the curator of one of the world’s foremost armor collections, Stuart Pyhrr
of New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art. A private tour and an afternoon in the archives
provided the spark for what would become the Telmarines’ battle gear.
"The scope of this film for us in the wardrobe department was ten times bigger than the
first one," she exclaims. "Not only in the actual count of how many characters and extras for
whom we had to make costumes, but also the number of multiple costumes we had to make
to cover stunt doubles, photo doubles, actors’ growth and just wear and tear over six months
of shooting."
"I designed and manufactured an army, which I have never done before," Mussenden says.
"While it was fascinating and interesting, it was also more work than I could have ever
imagined." Mussenden and associate designer Kimberly Adams, her longtime colleague and
friend, estimate they built 262 cast outfits, 3,722 individual items for the Telmarine army
(including helmets, masks, brigandines, underbrigs, shirts, pants, boots, gloves and grieves),
1,003 Telmarine villager stock items and 2,184 metal rivets per brigandine (for a total of
almost 1,000,000 rivets).
Mussenden closely collaborated with Weta’s Richard Taylor in the design of the weapons
and armor for both Telmarines and Narnians. "We also had a wonderful team of armorists in
the Czech Republic who fabricated everything for the Telmarines’ soldiers and lords using
Richard’s prototypes for the helmets and etching motifs," she continues. "It was an interesting
contrast of old-world techniques and the high-tech new design world of Weta."
"Miraz and his lords needed special weaponry," Taylor says. "Weta created individual
swords, scabbards and sculpted faceplate helmets for the featured lords, including Glozelle,
who also has a beautiful dagger. Miraz himself has a special shield, sword, scabbard, full plate
armor and an ornate faceplate helmet."
"Miraz’s helmet and facial mask represent the manner in which he commands his forces,"
Taylor says about the unique designs. "The idea that it’s hidden behind these
masks, not showing their emotions or their faces, is captured in these very stylistic Italian
ceremonial masks they wear."
Taylor felt strongly that the sword defines the Telmarine culture. For Miraz and his fierce
army of soldiers, he chose rapiers and falchions. "The rapier is a sophisticated weapon with a
very long blade and a basketed hilt. It is used in a much more refined and subtle motion than
the hack-and-slash motion of some of the weapons in the first film," he says. "There’s a lot of
ceremony in these various pieces, as well as an ornamentation that illustrates the pomp and
ceremony of Miraz and his people."
Taylor’s team manufactured 200 polearms in two different styles, 200 rapiers of varying
design, over 100 falchions, 250 shields and 55 crossbows, including the handsome and deadly
weapon wielded by Miraz’s queen, Prunaprismia. The Telmarine cavalry was equipped with
soft shields and stunt gear, which included stunt-safe horse faceplates for the warhorses and
unusual, sculpted faceplate helmets for the soldiers.
"The Telmarines were a very exciting race of people to design," Taylor concludes. "They
are almost feudal. Their armor is resplendent and rich and beautiful, complemented by some
very fine weaponry. They are a very fierce fighting force, so quite an adversary for the
Narnian creatures."
The world of Narnia was magically enriched through the collective talents and efforts of
the production’s visual effects artists, once again headed by Oscar® nominee Dean Wright.
Wright and longtime Adamson ally Wendy Rogers collaborated with a whole new group of
computer wizards for PRINCE CASPIAN.
Wright and Rogers drafted three of the industry’s top VFX designers to bring the world of
Narnia to the screen in this new chapter. Two London firms, The Moving Picture Company and the Oscar®-winning Framestore-CFC, joined the Oscar® winners from Weta Digital in New Zealand to digitally enhance the world of Narnia and envision CGI creatures the River God, Jadis the White Witch, Trufflehunter the faithful badger, Aslan the Lion and the valiant, swashbuckling rodent, Reepicheep.
As in the first film, virtually every moment and scene in the film has been touched by a VFX shot of some sort.
"This is one of the biggest visual effects films ever made," claims Wright. "Andrew was bound
and determined to up the ante this time. We started off with at least twice the number of VFX
shots as ‘The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.’"
For the castle-raid sequence, the movie’s epic action set piece, Wright partnered with two
colleagues—The Moving Picture Company’s Greg Butler, whose team oversaw the action and
character effects created for this sequence, and Guy Williams from Weta Digital in New
Zealand, who created the environments for the scene.
A virtual glossary of VFX practices were used to bring together all the elements to
complete the film’s first big action scene. Wright estimates that at least 300 VFX shots have
been incorporated into this single scene.
Adamson also wanted to break the CGI barrier by merging real people realistically with the CG characters. Lucy hugging Aslan, Susan riding on the back of Glenstorm the centaur during their
escape from the castle raid and the Pevensies and Caspian being carried into the castle by gryphons all are prime examples of the intricacy of the film’sVFX work.
The decision to have gryphons carry the children, Caspian and Trumpkin into the castle meant months of technical design, research and development with the assistance of motion-control expert Ian Menzies. The VFX teams all over the world had to work in perfect synchronicity in order to pull off this eye-popping effect perfectly.
Animators at MPC in London plotted the path the children would fly and supervised the
intricate moves on-set in Prague. The digital files for the shots were sent to Weta Digital in
New Zealand, where "matchmakers" converted them for Alex Funke’s miniature crew to use
in a camera test on the 1/24th-scale castle model. Any changes required were then passed on
to the on-set animators, who incorporated the new camera moves into their animation before
finally sharing it with Menzies’ team. He took the information and fed it into the computercontrol
"gryphon rigs" connected to the motion-control cameras to shoot the blue-screen photography of the actors.
Months after the actual castle-raid sequence was completed on location in Prague, Wright
returned to New Zealand where he and Funke, one of the industry’s best miniature effects directors, shot footage on various miniature versions of the castle built at different scales.
"Andrew is a big fan of trying to put whatever is real in the frame," Wright says. "Miniature sets make it seem more organic within the frame and the story. When you have a well-lit miniature, you again fall into this world of believing everything you’re seeing, and that’s what we wanted to do."
"Having Andrew in the director’s chair is a godsend for us," Dean Wright says. "As visual effects professionals, we want to be pushed. I think all the innovation that comes from visual effects comes from a director pushing you farther than you ever thought you could go.
"Andrew wanted to make this film bigger than the last, which meant throwing more
complicated stuff at VFX," the effects supervisor continues. "When kudos go out for visual
effects, there should be an honorary place for the director. He’s the one that comes up with 95
percent of the vision of what you’re going to create. We’re there to help it and enhance it."
Adamson says his goal was to give the audience something they hadn’t seen before. "And
I think we’ve done that. There are a lot of things technique-wise that we developed and
experimented with that we can take advantage of in the future. How you do a centaur? How
do you do a minotaur? We’ve got a forest of trees that join the battles this time, and we’ve
generated trees that can move and wade through the earth. Now that we know how to do it, we
don’t have to spend that money again."
The biggest challenge for the film, according to Johnson, is living up to the standards
created by "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe." "People have seen the first movie and
enjoyed it throughout the world," he points out. "Their expectations are even higher. So we
cannot be as good as ‘The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.’We have to be even better."
Adamson says directing The Chronicles of Narnia films has been one of the most satisfying
projects of his career. "I have been given the opportunity to take a hugely important childhood
memory and show people something that had previously only existed in our collective
imaginings. I’ve approached these films by setting out to make movies inspired by my
memory of the books as an eight-year-old. You’re very lucky if that happens once in your
lifetime…but for me, it has happened again."
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