Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Non-Fiction: Anna Karenina Production Design



When it was decided that the book “Anna Karenina” by Leo Tolstoy was going to be made into a movie, Joe Wright, the director, had a large and demanding task ahead of him.
He had to capture the expressive expeditions of the characters while transmitting the grand scope of the background. Wright now faced an alarming dilemma. Should he shoot the film in its Russian locations as told in the story? Should he expand the budget of the film to and unfriendly amount? Instead, Wright chose to set the movie in a rundown theater, to give it the feel of a decaying Russian society in the 19th century.
It is quite startling to think of the magnificent set of “Anna Karenina” being set in a derelict theater. There are so many different settings set outside and inside, with thousands of people or two, all done in one theater. The epicness of the movie itself, with its sloping ballrooms and dirty streets of Russia, is quite extraordinary by itself; but to think that it was all filmed inside a theater is amazing at the determination to create exactly what you want someone to see.
  Wright had incredible skill and willpower to transform a dilapidated theater into the streets and houses of Russia. Since he didn’t want to overspend the budget and travel to Russia itself, it only made his task harder. Instead of having the streets and ballrooms already built in front of him, he now had the task of creating this town. This, while being extremely difficult, would’ve helped Wright in a way. He now had the power to build exactly what he wanted to see, which helped immensely. 

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