The All-Encompassing Dr. Who Set Evaluation
This is a small evaluation of how I found the set design of the Dr. Who-set after extensive working experience in it.
After our filming marathon last week and last Monday, as well as many location recces and even two test shoots, I do almost know the set by heart, with all its benefits and - sadly - with all its issues.
But instead of the direct (read: brutal) German way of delivering bad news, I will this time try the traditional British way and start with the benefits first:
1. In terms of production and certainly in term of backlighting a scene, the background windows are awesome and have been designed with a lot of detail in mind. They have even been covered with gels that had a significant effect on the lighting outcome and created a nice atmosphere on set and on film. It would have been more awesome if the set designers had provided alternatively coloured skins or gels for these windows to allow for more creative play with them.
2. The right-hand side of the set was nicely and effectively decorated, giving an authentic feel of an astrologists living room/working space.
3. A lot of work must have gone into detail, for there were many items of decoration that had small, LED lights hidden and thus blinked slightly. Not so much that it would draw attention away from important parts of the finished product, but just enough to bring life to the set and create a living atmosphere. However, I think that this feature would have had even more effect if that set was part of a theatre stage.
4. The left hand side of the set offered many green screen opportunities to experiment with and to create a strong science fiction atmosphere along with it. If you wanted to use them entirely, you could definitely create the feeling that the astronomer was able to observe various parts of the universe.
5. The gothic elements of the set were executed exceptionally well and were highly authentic even to the naked eye. You had to get really close to be able to tell that the walls were not made of stone and they were even sturdy enough to hold a person leaning against it without any issues or fear for construction.
6. The props and set decoration in the right hand side of the set were easy to move about and could thus be tailored to our needs when accommodating cast, crew, and - ultimately - scenes within it.
Sadly now, I must come to the issues I have encountered with and within the set that have hampered the production and even impeded the quality of the work we could have done. I state this because I think that - in the future - I need to identify in advance how to discern a fully functional set from one that comes with caveats. Furthermore, I think that my evaluation could also pose as a good feedback for the set designers involved to improve upon their craft as well. Which is why I enumerate the following issues with love:
1) The set was - in part - built directly under a non-coverable, about 18m-high light sky that cast a lot of light onto the set from above. This rendered effective lighting, especially for gothic or science-fiction scenes (for which this set was effectively built), highly difficult to almost impossible.
In filmmaking, one of the very first lessons you learn is that you should not film during noon, as it creates hard light and harsh shadows that fall directly from above and generally create an unpleasant image (at least I have not yet seen a film in which this was effectively used towards the quality of a film - if you have, please feel free to enlighten me in the comment section!).
So this sky light effectively created a situation in which it was artificial noon the entire day as it funnelled the light from directly above the set and cast unfavourable shadows and highlights that were almost unable to wash out. This was slightly better when the sky was overcast, but even then you would get light splashes and highlights on the scene that could not be hidden with the technical knowledge that I currently possess.
2) The entire set unfortunately does not close to all sides. As the two parts of the set did not have a fourth wall, they unfortunately do not offer the possibility to close it off which would have been needed in our film productions. The walls that were standing did not cover enough room to allow to film in many directions. Both set parts only encompassed roughly about 180 to 210 degrees on a circle which made perspective changes for creative purposes impossible and even needed a lot of tweaking for simple reaction shots in dialogue or else you would quickly get the outside of the set in shot.
3) The sets were far to small for a fully operating film crew and their cast to fit in AND shoot nicely on top of it. Especially the right part of the set was much too small so that were only able to use the tripod at the front of the set but had to revert to monopod or handheld shots to fit everyone in and to capture lively or at least slightly moving shots within the set itself.
4) Unfortunately, the green screens on the left side were tightly bolted into the wall and could thus not be removed when not needed. This especially hampered Chloe's shoot since she was thus highly limited in her choice of reaction shots and perspectives to use, almost even more so than in the other parts of the set. It would have been helpful if these green screens were detachable or interchangeable so that we could tailor them to our needs much better.
5) Especially the left part of the set was a major health and safety issue as it was covered in strands of cabling. While this undeniably offered for an extremely scenic and science-fiction-y feeling, it impeded the production of 'Broken Planets' tremendously as it posed constant tripping hazards for cast and crew on top of the cabling that came with the standard employment of camera, sound, and lighting equipment. It was extremely difficult to navigate within the set and whenever someone moved, we had to remind them of the cables.
6) Regarding the props and set design of the left part, the seat in the middle was unable to be moved since it was bolted fast into the ground and could thus not be moved without destroying the set. This unfortunately took a lot of space away even though this set encompassed a bit more of a circle and not only impeded lighting but furthermore limited the choice of filming perspectives and crew positioning, leading to either crew or equipment being in shot or reflections of crew or equipment being visible in the background windows (and thus often on camera as well).
7) The set walls entirely were much to low height-wise and should have been at least half a meter higher, especially on the middle part. This meant that we had much less choices for extreme angles (or at least empowering ones) and needed to be careful in blocking the actors or setting up the equipment. It restricted us in many ways and limited our possibilities to film.
8) As this is now what we Germans call 'complaining on an extremely high level', the following should not really be considered as criticism but rather as an idea to possibly pursue. As we had a difficult hand-over film action to perform that recreated the effect of the camera going sideways through the wall, I repeatedly found myself thinking that a ramp from the right hand side of the set to the bridge would have been lovely for setting up this shot. But I am also well aware that this is a somewhat grand demand which could have been exchanged by the use of, e.g., a jib, so this was rather just a very persistent idea that got stuck in my head and might not even make any sense for a production or set designer.
Finally, and in contrast to all the criticism that I just now enumerated, I just want to say that I am still grateful for working on such an awesome set. It did not only create a stunning atmosphere, both in reality and on film, but it was also well crafted in many, many ways and extremely safe to work on. For us filmmakers, it was a good learning opportunity in regards to sets and their limitations and it made me go all the way and explore what knowledge I had stored in my mind in order to light and set up a shot efficiently.
The set had a tremendous effect on our filming, the quality of our footage, and, ultimately, the quality of our storytelling as well and I am looking forward to working with more creative sets from our production design department in the future as well.