It began as a Holiday: Modelmaking for The French Dispatch
It began as a Holiday: Modelmaking for The French Dispatch
- Date
- Feb 13th 2022
- With
- Adam Stockhausen, Simon Weisse, Alex Friedrich, Cindy Schnitter, Gerold Bublak, Susanna Jerger, Robert Wiesner moderated by Andrew Amondson
The quaint little town of Ennui-sur-Blasé is yet another whimsical invention of Wes Anderson’s. Yet the fictional town of The French Dispatch owes much of its life also to the models and miniatures that populate the scenes and mimic the story’s Russian-doll structure, all courtesy of Anderson’s long-standing collaborators, production designer Adam Stockhausen and model maker Simon Weisse. Joined by Simon's team, they draw us into the atelier to share the tools and secrets of a unique trade: sketches, photographs and animatics all play a crucial part in the daily labour of a model maker and are here unveiled to help us understand how a film of monumental ambition relies on the minute assemblage of pieces of plywood. After all, in film, a house can be the size of a hand, and the life of fictitious French village depends on a well-prepared workbench.
Adam Stockhausen
Adam Stockhausen is an American production designer and art director, who has worked on films by Wes Anderson including “Darjeeling Limited,” “Moonrise Kingdom,” and "The French Dispatch." He has been Oscar nominated numerous times: for his work on “12 Years a Slave,” “Bridge of Spies” and recently, “West Side Story.” In 2015, he won the Oscar for his work on “The Grand Budapest Hotel” together with Anna Pinnock.
© Peter Himsel
Simon Weisse
The prop maker, production designer and model builder Simon Weisse represents an increasingly rare profession in the world of film production – the craft of miniature stage construction.
© Studio Babelsberg
Alex Friedrich
Film model maker since 1995.
Cindy Schnitter
Plasterer, architect. Prop & model maker since 2005.
Gerold Bublak
Carpenter, architect. Prop & model maker since 1997.
Susanna Jerger
Painter & model maker with specialisation on stop motion animation.
Robert Wiesner
Prop & model maker since 2008.
Andrew Amondson
Andrew Amondson is an artist and filmmaker whose work includes Emmy award-winning nonfiction series and documentary films for Netflix Originals and Criterion Collection. As an artist, Andrew creates large-scale living installations, exploring nature connectedness and collective creativity. He was the recipient of the Inspiring Future Generations Award in London, 2022. His current project, Walks in the Garden, is based on a creative ideation practice he uses while walking with Berlinale Talents, Netflix Germany and Studio Olafur Eliasson.
© Guido Castagnoli