Tor Books

endersgameblog:

As we’ve now reached the end of principal photography on ENDER’S GAME, it seems fitting to take a step back and acknowledge the two people responsible for giving such vivid life to the imaginary world in which we’ve spent the past many months immersed.

And when we say immersed, we truly mean it.

Ben Procter and Sean Haworth — our amazing Production Designer duo — were tasked with bringing a difficult piece of Science Fiction to life… and they were more than up to the challenge.  

Together, they created a unique blend of technology and humanity that made the ENDER’S GAME sets eventually seem like home.

As a duo, they played to their strengths, mixing a strong Illustration and Visual Effects Art Direction background (Ben), with the application of a physical set build and Art Directing (Sean).  It turned into a symbiotic “divide and conquer”, and the results speak volumes.

We recently got them to reflect on the process of creating this world.

As Ben described it, the most fun was creating the two contrasting cultures of Human and Formic technology and architecture.

“We tried to imbue the spaces and vehicles with a gritty, engineered realism that would help sell the seriousness of the training our hero kids are going through. The visual style of the Formics, on the other hand, needed to be both exotic and beautiful to represent a society not deserving of extinction.”

Ask them to describe the Formic world and you’ll get excited tales, imagining a Formic method of manufacture that was distinctly inhuman — a kind of biological 3D printer, with the drones building living spaces and spacecraft layer by layer.

Even in a short conversation, their excitement for the project is tangible.  And it certainly helps that they were already fans of the novel.

For Ben, he read the founding short-story at age twelve, and has been a fan ever since. “Fans of the book will hopefully recognize what they’ve been imagining for years, but also be impressed with the level of detail.  And as a fan, you have an actual emotional reaction finally seeing the Zero-G action you’ve always visualized.”

As for Sean, having read the book in his twenties, vividly remembers not only the science and technology, but the terrifying human elements behind it all.

“ I was torn between wanting to be Ender but never having to be faced with that kind of a future,” he said.

But the most amazing thing about talking to them, without question, is their eagerness to share the credit and sing the praises of the whole crew that brought ENDER’S GAME to life.  Whether it be admiration for the beauty of Gavin’s adaptation, the “coolest art department ever assembled”, the ingenuity of construction coordinator Anthony Syracuse and Supervising Art Director Todd Holland, or even the fact that Orson Scott Card himself came to give their design and vision his seal of approval, this was a great crew in every sense.  

…Oh, and filming on stages inside a rocket assembly facility — seeing real rocket parts that were destined for space flight — that certainly didn’t hurt ingenuity.

Farewell… for now.

endersgameblog:

You think your job is tough? Try having to dress an entire imaginary, future-world.  

That responsibility fell to Christine Bieselin-Clark, our wonderful costume designer.  She was tasked with making the future look — and even feel — real and tangible.

With science fiction, there’s a danger in creating a look that seems so foreign it becomes alienating.  For ENDER’S GAME, we wanted to make a future that looked both functional and logical.  We wanted it to be a future where you can picture yourself in their shoes.

But of course, it is the future.  For the uniforms, all synthetic materials were used, meaning no loud silk florals.   And for the flash suits… well, we actually had to create them out of thin air.

Christine built the flash suits from virtually non-existent fabrics designed by our incredible production team.  The idea was to take cues from “extreme sports” to inspire our design, using real world practicality as opposed to the heightened reality of superhero spandex and a cape.

And the best part?  They look pretty darn cool.

And then there’s having to make a uniform for Nonso Anozie, who plays Sergeant Dap.

Normally, a bolt comes with nine yards of material, and can make 2-3 suits.  Or, in Nonso’s case, one suit became a living example of the expression “the whole nine yards”.

But hey, it’s the future… so maybe we’ve switched to metric.

endersgameblog:

Valentine asks:

As fans of the book, what is your favorite scene from the book? Do you have a different favorite scene from the movie?

I always loved the scenes within the Mind Game that Ender believes he plays for recreation in the orbiting battle school.  Part video game, part psychological test, and if you know the book, part something extraordinary that shouldn’t be given away for those who have not read the book.  As for my favorite scene from the movie, we are still filming it so I haven’t seen it yet!  

Reuben asks:

Question to Mr. Orci — How has this production differed from past (and other current) projects? I’m especially interested to know how you feel about the cast’s interactions and your feelings about the script, now that you see it ‘in action’.

Let’s see.  Well first, though I have had some experience with bringing beloved stories to the screen that had intelligent and rabid fan bases like MISSION IMPOSSIBLE 3, TRANSFORMERS, and STAR TREK, this is the first movie with a pre-existing fan base I have worked on that I didn’t write.  This means I that got the chance to evaluate the material merely as a fan.  Gavin’s script made me jealous, but it was also a relief that he had satisfied what I would want as a fan from a difficult adaptation.  Also, I have never worked with so many talented young actors who became friends so fast under such amazing circumstances.  Seeing Asa, who plays Ender, and Hailee, who plays Petra, floating high above the set and getting the giggles was amazing and frightening all at once.  They laughed for like twenty minutes, which as a producer on a clock eager to finish your shooting day can give you a heart attack.  But soon we all had the giggles, and the joy of it overcame the panic.  

Chris Neumann asks:

What are the visual influences for the movie? Syd Mead or Star Trek? 2001 or Armageddon? Jon Berkey or Michael Bay?

Visual influences?  One thing I can tell you is that Gavin Hood is a gigantic Stanley Kubrick fan, and it shows.  And yet, in some of the Zero G battles, things are going on that Kubrick never had a chance to tackle.  The technology and advancements in film making available to us allowed us to realize a vision that is totally unique and modern while also being, as Harrison Ford calls it, one of the most emotional science fiction movies he has ever seen.

William Harley asks:

How much time is going to be spent on developing Graff’s relationship with Ender? To me, those insights into the command level of the school really brought out the meaning of leadership and how to tackle the challenges that come up.

The relationship between Colonel Graff (Harrison Ford) and Ender (Asa Butterfield) is key to the movie’s success.  Graff would love nothing more than to be Ender’s friend, yet Graff can’t always show it because he has to make it clear to Ender that in the event of another alien invasion, there will be no one available to help him.  Their relationship is simultenously heartbreaking and fun.

Paul2012 asks:

Is it a movie for adults, about kids, or a kids movie? I hope for the former.

Like the book, the movie Ender’s Game is about young protagonists dealing with one of the most adult situations known to man: WAR.  We don’t soft peddle it, yet we don’t shy away from the fun of being in space and learning amazing new skills that we would all want to learn at any age.