For production designer Gavin
Bocquet, whose credits include Star
Wars: The Phantom Menace, the main
complications were to do with scale.
“The Gelfl ings are half our size,” he
explains. “It took us about 10 months
to get our heads around that, and
what it has meant is that every single
stage is raised by about four feet, with
the puppeteers put on these hexagonal
platforms beneath the stage, as the
shorter Gelfl ings are on lower rostrums
and the Skeksis on higher ones.”
Set and prop design were done
using 3D printing. “Ten years ago,
we’d do little cut-out card pieces but
today we print them,” says Bocquet.
“Our world is organic – there are hardly
any straight lines – so anything we can
sculpt and put on the printers we do.”
Epic craftmanship
Bocquet offers a look at the Skeksis
carriage, which uses four creatures
rolled up like woodlice for its wheels.
“That was a 2D concept,” he says.
“Then we digitally sculpted it in 3D,
and sent that same fi le to a fi ve-axis
cutter robot printer so it would come
back printed as a full-size piece.
“Of course, we could have made it
before 3D printers were available but
they give us an advantage creatively
and fi nancially – you can use the
model to look at different set-ups and
it gives us more variety to show to
director Louis Leterrier.”
Translate that sort of detail to the 65
separate sets that were built and The
Dark Crystal is fi rst and foremost an
awesome feat of craftsmanship.
“It’s been made like a giant special-
effects movie,” says Jason Isaacs, who
voices the Skeksis Emperor. “I saw the
original Jim Henson Company fi lm
many hundreds of times and this is an
amazingly bold and creative project.
The remarkable artistry in making the
creatures and the world around them
reminded me a lot of the stunning
detail in the Harry Potter series.”
Fond recollections of the original
movie have attracted a high-quality
voice cast. Taron Egerton plays Rian,
with Anya Taylor-Joy and Game Of
Thrones’ Nathalie Emmanuel making
up the three main Gelfl ings.
“People have realised something
has been missing from animation and
computer graphics, and that is character
and charm,” says Froud. “Hopefully,
we can bring some of that back.”
I’ve had experience producing
puppets all my life and I’ve had a
long association with The Jim Henson
Company, having been there on and
off since 1981. I produced the
Muppet*Vision 3D movie with
Jim Henson – the last work that
he did before he passed.
I joined this Dark Crystal project
when the Henson Company began to
pitch it to Netfl ix. Louis Leterrier was
already attached and writers Jeff
Addiss and Will Matthews really had a
wonderful
story to tell.
The pitch
laid out 10
episodes.
The question
was how we
were we
going to do it.
Nearly two
years ago,
Netfl ix put
some moneyPULLING THE STRINGS OF A PUPPET CLASSIC
RITAMARIE PERUGGI
Producerbroadcastnow.co.uk 23 August 2019 | Broadcast | 45
We could
have made
it before
3D printers were
available but
they give us an
advantage
creatively and
fi nancially
GAVIN BOCQUET
PRODUCTION DESIGNERBEHIND THE SCENES
THE DARK CRYSTAL: AGE OF RESISTANCE NETFLIX
episodes.
The question
was how we
were we
going to do it.years ago,
Netfl ix put
some moneybehind a test we’d created to fi gure out
the format methodology – the team
there really wanted to do live action.
At one point, it had been an animated
project but Netfl ix then decided we
should really do it with puppets.
Around January 2017, it was
confi rmed that was the route we’d
take but in addition we could employ
visual effects that could never have
been used in the past. However,
The Dark Crystal will always have a
puppet base.
Louis very much wanted to create
it in the UK. Henson has huge
history here and Britain also has an
acclaimed record of fantasy genre
fi lm-making. There’s a great art base
and a great puppeteer base here and,
as a result, we have an amazing crew.
We auditioned puppeteers from
around the UK and found an amazing
core of professionals with a really
great sense of drama. You have to
believe in the characters and the pup-
peteers have to bring them to life.
Our ultimate aim is to bring back
live-action puppetry, and we have
hugely expanded on the fi lm.Continued from page 43 Enemies: Gelfl ings (top) battle
the evil Skeksis (below)