Design for Film: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Part 2

Having visited the Wallace Collection and the John Soane Museum I had a good idea of the style of architecture and features I wanted to create within the house. However, to begin with I started by roughly constructing each room of thee house, to get an idea for their size and how they would be laid out together. Having researched Victorian society I was much clearer on the etiquette of a middle class working household and this gave me a clearer idea of how each room would interact with the attaching one, for example I wanted a long corridor to give a good depth to shots but the practical function of this was that it also opened up the space and made it easier to move around the house, from kitchen to dining room and so forth. By adding archways and pillars I broke up the space to give it a more maze -like feel which would work really well when lit only in selected areas, channeling the light.

Main Hall section of rough model.

Rough layout of walls and room sizes.

I knew for the dining room and hallway I wanted to create a sense of grandeur which, while present through-out the house, was highlighted in these two areas. Giving a greater sense of cold, emptiness in these two specific areas as Jekyll has come to neglect the house as he becomes more obsessed with his experiments. As he has spent the majority of his time in the laboratory and operating theatre the house has grown quiet and merely acts to keep up appearances and social expectations. I liked the idea that it is still richly decorated, and at one point would have appeared very impressive with a varying works of art dotted around, but now has become neglected, like a forgotten museum. Almost in the same manner as pharaoh would be buried with all his treasures for countless years, Jekyll has spent his life collecting unusual objects and pieces which now seem irrelevant to him. Visiting prop houses and even looking at the pieces on exhibit at the operating theatre gave me a good idea of what kind of objects and pieces I wanted to have placed around the house and the cabinet.

Searching at the prop house.

I particularly focused on neglected period pieces that looked like they had a fair bit of wear and tear.

 

 

Victorian medical props

Jekyll is a man trying to divide the two opposing sides of his personality and soul. Ironically it is in an attempt to control his sinful side and create a purity in himself that leads him to create a potion which unleashes his darker thoughts and manifest itself separately from his more rational, good self. This concept of original sin and man trying to control his nature was something I really wanted to present itself in the art work and literature he had collected over his life. I like the idea of his work surface being covered in beakers and experiments boiling away but also the odd book or scrap of paper referring to something he had been inspired by, whether in say the Bible or a psychological journal. In terms of art work I wanted to source paintings that were grand and covered large spaces of wall, as well as smaller more easily missed pieces that would be just as interesting and offer an insight into Jekyll's psyche. While I did scour the internet and kept an eye open at prop houses I honestly struggled to find exactly what I was looking for and in the end had to abandon this idea in order to finish the design as a whole.

To fill the gap between the house and the operating theare/cabinet I stuck to the book and had a simple yard connecting the two, I also included a simple but ornate garden next to it that would show the cabinet from the dining room and vice versa. The yard and garden sections were divided by a row of arches and pillars which, while not in the book, I felt would add a little extra to the otherwise open space, obscuring the sky but also providing a good line of depth to shoot through and create a more dynamic shot on screen.

Above view showing the yard and garden connecting the cabinet to the rest of the house.

View of dining room windows and archway dividing the yard and garden spaces.

Completed scale model.

Above shows the completed scale model showing the house on the right and cabinet, operating theatre and street exit on left hand side. The white square the model sits on roughly show the entirety of the studio the set was designed for in our brief; Pinewood stage D. I then began experimenting with different lighting effects and shots from a variety of angles, trying to get in as close to the model as possible.

Shot from first floor staircase.

Lit shot of main hall staircase.

Lit shot of main hall looking down corridor.

Ultimately the project taught me a great deal about the process of developing a set from start to finish, trying to achieve an accurate but original style to not only the text but the Victorian period in general. Looking back I am glad I took the time to really immerse myself in the setting of the story, looking at architecture, interior design, fashion and the society of the era in general was really worth taking a solid block of time to do, which isn't easy when you have six weeks to develop a project from scratch through to its final design. Often I wanted to storm ahead with the design, conscious of the small window of time, but to have rushed the process of getting to grips with the setting of the story would have been a disaster. Of course looking back there are pieces I would tweak and want to play around with for longer but working alone on what was an  intense project I was pleased with the final design and presentation of my set, satisfied with the most fundamental elements of the set I wanted to create for an adaption of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.