Rome - this
autumn on 91Èȱ¬ TWO
Production design
and set decoration
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The production design and set decoration of Rome bring
the ancient city to life as it's never been seen on film before.
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From the beginning, Rome's creators intended to portray
the ancient city in a way that's never been done before - to leave behind
the stereotypical 'Holly-Rome' visions of a pristine, white marble,
patrician city for the reality of a gritty, crowded, vibrant and cosmopolitan
metropolis of a million residents, from senators to slaves.
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Also setting Rome apart from its predecessors is the
fact that the series focusses on the lives of two soldiers from the
working-class Suburra, a rarely-portrayed world that is vastly different
from the upper-class villas.
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In September 2003, production designer Joseph
Bennett began with a blank slate and the first three scripts,
working with the producers to determine the main areas of focus - the
patrician villas, the Suburra and the Forum.
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He had six months to go from bare backlots to readiness
for the first day of shooting in March 2004.
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"The sense of the script, and the whole storyline, is
to make this as realistic as possible - a living, breathing place.
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"The buildings had colour, the streets were dirty,
there were masses of multi-racial people living in very close quarters,
and it's not what you're used to seeing," says Bennett.
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"We combined the academic research of what Rome was
like with inspirations from places like Calcutta, Delhi, Cairo or Mexico
City, where you have extreme wealth living alongside extreme poverty.
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"Rome was the centre of power and opportunity,
so people flocked to it from everywhere.
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"So you think, what would that have been like?
Well, it would be crowded, noisy, in a constant state of flux, with
buildings going up or coming down.
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"It's also a pre-Christian world we're dealing with.
There's polytheism, different gods and cults, and it's all mixed up
together in everyday life. It's not like the Western world today, where
people have church on Sunday, but Monday to Saturday is secular.
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"Modern-day India is one of the closest parallels
to ancient Rome, where the shrines are in peoples' homes and on the
streets, and painted brightly, and the spiritual is integrated into
daily life.
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"So we needed to take all of that into account
when we began the sketching."
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With the help of the executive producers and historical
consultant Jonathan Stamp, Bennett and his team set about designing
the Suburra, a part of Rome for which there is little surviving physical
reference.
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"Unless you were fabulously wealthy, you lived in an
apartment-type building, typically six stories tall, called an insula,"
says Stamp.
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"There's only one surviving in Rome today, and it's
from a later period than our story, but it gives an idea of how the
poorer half lived.
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"Aside from that, and ruins in Pompeii and Herculaneum,
throwaway references in literature are extremely important, as are tomb
inscriptions.
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"There's one that reads 'I like my new premises,
here in the grave, because they're quiet, private and free'.
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"So there's a snapshot into what you couldn't get for
love nor money in Rome, and it gives us an idea of what has to be integrated
into the production design."
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Because production was initially scheduled for at least
nine months, Bennett notes, "The sets had to be built to higher specifications
than a normal feature shoot, where you'd tear it down after two months.
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"So we used more inert materials - like fibreglass,
concrete, resins and plastics - than usual.
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"But as to the finishing, we've used techniques
and styles that are true to the times as far as decorative painting,
frescoes, fabrics and that sort of thing goes."
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An international crew of about 350 started work in
November 2003 on the five acres of backlot and six soundstages that
make up the Rome set at Cinecittà .
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It is the largest standing set in the world. The Forum
set is approximately 60 per cent of the size of the original Foro Romano,
and 25 per cent of it is invisible in the form of wiring, pipes
and gas to fuel its working braziers and torches.
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"The biggest headache has been just getting the thing
done on time," adds Bennett. "It's such an enormous amount of wall space
to build and paint and age.
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"And the ageing's the key, because what makes a
place look real is when things change over the years, like a doorway's
bricked up and the plaster doesn't quite match, or something's been
broken and repaired, or a torch leaves scorch marks on the wall, and
all that just takes time.
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"The tenements were always falling down so they
used to prop them back up again and nothing's plumb and square - that
has to be built in from the start.
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"We were literally still finishing the first coat
of paint in places as they began shooting.
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"The production hiatus after the first three episodes
was a blessing because it gave us weeks of extra time to finish things
properly, like encourage grass to grow between the cobblestones, age
the exteriors and allow birds to colonise the outdoor spaces.
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"It became a living thing over the months."
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Adding to the texture of the set is the production rule
that whatever drops is left where it falls - vegetation, wood scraps,
food, dirt and debris.
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Working closely with Bennett is set decorator Cristina
Onori, who transforms his structures into livable spaces.
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"To give life to this set, I think it's important to
focus on the tools as one way to tell the story and represent life at
that time," she says.
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"There was no industrial production, yet Roman society
was a consumer society, and there had to be tools to enable the way
of life.
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"Pieces ranging from woodwork to all consumer objects
- pottery, furniture, whatever you would have around a space that people
are living or working in.
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"I believe very much in objects,
in artefacts. The fabrics are simply to show the subsequent stratifications
of life.
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"Colour plays a large role in character identification.
For example, the wealthier people could afford brighter, more vibrant
colors in their fabrics, so their homes are filled with colour. The
Suburra has a much more limited palette.
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"And for each character there are key colours -
deep reds for Caesar, to highlight his masculine or warrior aspects,
water colors such as pale greens and blues for Servilia, because she
is elegant and refined, and her nature is cooler and more elusive than
Atia, who is brash and passionate. Atia's villa
is all in shades of red, black and gold.
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"Much of our fabrics come from Prato, Italy, but also
India, North Africa and Morocco, because they have similar looms to
the ancients and are still making materials in much the same way.
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"We've designed and built all of the furniture
ourselves - we have excellent carpenters in Rome, and sculptors and
painters."
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A Roman herself, Onori takes pride in working on a project
set in her hometown, and her research has opened her eyes to links to
the past that still exist but are easily overlooked.
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"Now, when I walk the streets, especially the small
ones, I notice something that I may have seen all my life but I now
realise it's actually from a long time ago.
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"It's almost like regaining a lost memory, a lost
connection, and makes living in this reality richer."
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Bennett agrees that Rome could not have been shot anywhere
else.
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"There's a great tradition in Italy of making huge
epics like Cleopatra here. If you need someone who can make a great
Corinthian capital, they'll be here," he says.
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"Rome has world-class painters and sculptors, with film
backgrounds. Most of my art department are Romans, and there's a real
sense of enthusiasm and pride among them for this project.
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"And living amongst it all, walking the neighbourhoods,
there's just such a wealth of information and inspiration that you couldn't
possibly get elsewhere."
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