BACKGROUND

What is your background and role on V?

Sebastian: I'm German, was born in Hanover, studied in Switzerland, have worked in Milan, in Boston, in Osaka in Japan, and then for the last five years in Berlin. I'm one of the two art directors on this movie and am basically in charge of, I think, 45 sets. We have split it up into two, so it's a total of 80 art sets (getting more and more every day) split between Sarah [Horton] and I, so each of us is in charge of certain sets.

How did you find yourself in film?

Sebastian: I'm an industrial designer, and studied in an art center for which the mother college is in Pasadena, they had an affiliate in Switzerland. I did my bachelor in product design ­ bachelor of science, it's called ­ 12 years ago. After that, I worked in Italy as a product designer doing VCRs and washing machines and a lot of leisure equipment, as well as skiing equipment, ski boots, the first carving skis for Atomic, carving boots for Atomic, hiking boots for Atomic and Koflach. I also designed skis for Head and for other companies, doing some other skiing boots and also some car interiors for BMW and bowling alleys for AMF.

I was working for this company in Milan, and working at the same time for the office in Boston, so I was all the time traveling back and forth, trying to join the two offices together. Basically after 6 years I said I would like to design something that's bigger than would fit in a trunk of a car. So I got in contact with the studio boss of Babelsberg at that time, and had an interview with him because I wanted to find out how it is to work in the movies; what it needs to become a production designer, or an art director… whatever you dream of when you think of big movies. All my colleagues at that time thought I would never have the creativity to do that, because you've got to be wild and tough, and quite innovative to do something like that. But when somebody tells me that you can't do something, that's the biggest challenge they could give me.

I was lucky enough to get a job as an intern for a couple of weeks and quite enjoyed it. Since then I've been doing movies. Basically, after the first little TV show that I didn't like too much, I went to the production designer every day and said, "I'm bored. Give me more." After that show, the head of the studio gave me another job and it went pretty well, so after a while I was lucky enough to become ­ even though I wasn't from the film industry ­ an art director, and I've worked as an art director ever since… so maybe I'm not doing it wrong!!

I don't want to say everybody can do it, but you can if you're passionate enough to do it, and you don't mind the hours, and you don't mind the effort, and you have a little bit of skill of course: drawing, colors, finishes, textures. It's a lot of teamwork as well; it's about speaking to the people. On every movie I'm working with some other production designer, so there are a lot of politics as well. It's how you get along with them, how you like them, or not like them, and still get the job done; how you can read their minds or can read their needs, and then how you can basically give that or tell that to all the construction workers, to the painters, to all the different departments, and have to then create what the production designer wants. That's the skill of it of really, working with a huge amount of people together.

How similar a process is it to industrial design?

Sebastian: It's pretty similar in the way that you also have a briefing, or you have a problem and you solve it. There are also different levels: you have the first level where you get the briefing, and you make a rough sketch, then you do a finer drawing, then you maybe do a model or you do a rendering, and then after that, you start building it. After that you have the fine tuning, which in product design is the same ­ then you have your product, or have your model, and you do the colors, the textures, and it's the same here with the set.

Did you also make the prototype in industrial design?

Sebastian: The prototype I wouldn't make myself, no, but I would do the models, same as we do the models that we do here… very quickly done, sometimes with a little bit of color in it, but normally you don't get the textures to it. That's why I sometimes do little renderings to get colors and textures. Part of the fun is to work together with the painters and with the sculptors to get these surfaces and the textures right.

Does industrial design help in designing a set as far as looking at individual objects?

Sebastian: I think any education helps that way and in the way that you deal with creative processes. Whether you're coming from the artistic side - you're a painter or a sculptor or an architect or a designer ­ in the end it's the same because it matters what you create out of it. I mean, you could be a good designer but never got a job, so in the end I don't think it influences too much.

Being an art director is exactly what I dreamt of. It's dependent on the movie, and that's the nice thing about it, it's not really a process that lasts… a movie lasts from, say, three months to a year almost, so every year you have a new project. You could have a new field. We've had a lot of war movies here so after a while you might say “OK, I'm the master of gravel and rubble and destroyed areas, but now it could be nice to maybe do a sci fi movie,” and what did I do on this movie?!, I did Larkhill, which is also a destroyed prison. It's a little bit like what we did on Enemy at the Gates, or what I did on The Pianist where we created big, destroyed ruins. That is fun because it's a little bit like a ballet. You're standing in the middle and you direct your big cranes and your people with shovels so it can be quite, quite entertaining.

Is there still an excitement for you when you walk on a finished set?

Sebastian: Oh yes, big time, but you get very disillusioned or very frustrated as soon as a crew walks onto it, because it's like your baby and they're spoiling it, and you're doing all the right finishes everywhere and getting really excited about the little details that most probably never see. It's always like that; the camera goes in somewhere where you never expect it, and the crew put their bags everywhere, and hang their coats, and then the whole set is filled with coffee mugs. You're very fortunate when you're able to walk away then! So the nice thing is to actually create a set and then as soon as the crew comes you walk off and you're not part of it, it is then the stand-by art director's job. It's better if you're the stand-by in a set that you haven't worked on. Although, sometimes it's nice to sometimes be part of that because otherwise you don't really get the feeling that you're working on a movie because you don't see the crew actually creating something, and that's also when you're able to take the nicest pictures of the sets, when they're finally lit.

Which films did you work on before V For Vendetta?

Sebastian: The film before this was Flightplan, which was a movie with Jodie Foster, they'd done the biggest chunk in LA and here they did the establishing sequence because it's about a plane that leaves from Berlin to LA. Before that I did The Bourne Supremacy with Matt Damon. I also worked on Around the World in 80 Days with Jackie Chan. Before that I did The Pianist with Roman Polanski. That was, I think, the most exciting movie to work on, because I was scouting all the locations as well, and driving around with Roman in the car together with Allan Starski, the designer who won an Oscar® for Schindler's List. It is really challenging if you are together with these kinds of people and discuss the movie, so you're really involved in what's happening in the story, and that was very exciting. The film was his childhood, so it meant a lot to him, and I think he found a crew that was very willing and very eager to give him the best we could. I think he appreciated that a lot. Then before that I did Enemy at the Gates, then Gangster No. 1, with Paul Bettany. Before that I did Return to the Secret Garden and some other little TV stories, and when I'm not doing movies, I do commercials, which helps to pay the rent.

V FOR VENDETTA

How did you get involved in the V For Vendetta production?

Sebastian: Basically I met Owen [Paterson, Production Designer], had an interview, and got interested. Obviously he got interested as well!

Had you heard of the V For Vendetta graphic novel?

Sebastian: No, and to be honest I just read the script, and had a look at the comic book. I thought the story was quite fascinating, it kind of drew me in, and that I liked.

Do you read the script while also imagining the sets?

Sebastian: When I'm reading a script I'll make little notes and directly think of what could be a set and what could be a location, but most of the time then that's really the job of the Supervising Art Director [Kevin Phipps on V], together with the production designer and the producer. So you tend to not put too much effort in that because it will change and you will be disillusioned.

How did it break down which sets you got, and which sets Sarah was given?

Sebastian: Kevin did that. It was very random, and some sets made more sense to be together, so we split it up again and decided that if Sarah had a particular set, it made sense for her to have that as well. It also made sense because we have so many revamps on this show. A lot of her sets I took over, and versa visa. For instance, I started with a set and then it became another set that was originally her set, but it made sense that I did it then, because I had the original drawing on my desk.

What were some of the key sets that you worked on and are currently working on?

Sebastian: The biggest set I did with Marco [Bittner-Rosser, assistant art director/standby art director]… he drew and made the model of Larkhill, and as he then went on to do the standby art director, I took over and did Larkhill, the big prison camp that was quite amazing for its size. Other than that, I did numerous small studio sets that became many other sets. Almost every set became two or three other sets… the original set was just revamped and the walls turned around, again and again.

Originally we were an art department of something like twenty people, and now we have maybe seven left because there are only three weeks left of filming [in Berlin]. Then suddenly you have to coordinate three or four sets, and at the same time draw something, and meet the different construction people, that's challenging.

Do you go from the plans to overseeing the actual builds?

Sebastian: Yes, pretty much. Owen usually gives me little thumbnails and I would draw them up, and probably draw them three or four times until he sees what he imagined. Then we do a little model, either myself or with the help of Katja [Fischer, art department assistant], Maren [Hollje, art department assistant], or Patrick [Herzberg, art department PA], and after that issue the drawings with all the details, then build it and change it on the building. Color it, change the colors until we have all the textures, and then Peter Walpole [Set Decorator] takes over and set dresses it.

Do you use a computer?

Sebastian: I have one here, but I mainly use a computer for location photos. When we survey locations I take pictures and then discuss it here with the construction manager, as well as with the painters, to give them references for the textures, for the colors, or pictures of details that we need to reproduce, or little elements that we have to build into something. I'm a bit old fashioned, but that's also my education ­ I'd rather do the renderings by hand than the computer.

Do you have a preference for sets on location or at the studio?

Sebastian: Big location builds, because I like to be outside and I like to build big. The studio is pretty restricted to the size of set you can create. You're often sitting in the studio, drawing and discussing and speaking to different people, so it's nice to get out of here.

LARKHILL

What was the brief of the look that you had to create for Larkhill?

Sebastian: I have to say that the whole set was designed by Marco Bittner-Rosser, who was in charge of the creative part of it, I took over the art directing to oversee the construction side, adding on to what had been designed and making it work. It is always the case that you draw something and do sketching and you make models, but on site you find a lot of problems that aren't there on paper. We first called it the concentration camp - for the story that we have it is a little bit like it - but the look of it was really more like Guantanamo Bay, more like an American prison camp. There was a lot of razor wire and wire fencing.

Concentration camps as we see them in the images that we see on television or photographs, is far more ancient due to construction materials, more wood being used, and more rusty barbed wire, everything is also more personal. Whereas in this Larkhill it's far less personal, there's more wire, and something like a death zone between the two layers of fences. Basically the nice thing was that everything there was green, there was a lot of grass, and we covered all that grass with wood chips so it almost looks like a devastated area. We abandoned every green bit there was.

It was all gray, concrete, steel, and barbed wire, with a lot of lights. We had remote controlled moving lights in there, which look amazing onscreen with these amazing rain rigs that they put up there ­ 60 meter long rain rigs. I would be amazed if you see much of the set, actually, because it was raining and it was dark, and the camera was constantly hit by lights ­ either the moving lights or the torch lights, or the lights of the truck that comes in. The rain and the light and the darkness created a nice silhouette of this dangerous, scary entity.

When you design a set like that, do you try and make part of the lighting the crew needs for filming exist in the set?

Sebastian: That can work; we speak to the lighting department, and discuss it, and obviously the bulbs that are in there are the right color temperature and things like that, so that's deliberately to light the set. It's done especially when you design a night scene, and on a set like that the lighting was designed to be part of it. Larkhill was deliberately designed to be lit by practicals.

What has been your most challenging set, to date?

Sebastian: The biggest challenge due to size was Larkhill. It was the biggest set and probably the most exciting, due to working outside in the sun. Other than that, I quite enjoyed actually Deitrich's wine cellar, due to the hidden door. Hopefully in the camera it will look as it was designed, seeing the ready set was a bit frustrating because it's so small, and you're missing half of it, which we decided to not build due to cost efficiency. To open the secret door there's actually a little wheel below it, so it opens quite easily. The idea was actually that one of the wine bottles turned, and that releases it - kind of like one wine bottle is the door knob, and that opens the lock, and then you can swing the wine rack open.

The other set I really liked was Deitrich's office, because I really liked the color choice of Owen's ­ the golden wallpaper and the carpet in there, and the maple … the birdseye maple wood finish on the bookshelf, and the little yard with the pebbles and a fountain.

Thanks Sebastian.