Empire Australasia - 04.2020

Chris Corbould (special effects supervisor): We built the building we actually blew up in Pinewood Studios. Obviously, we were matching a building in Mexico. The collapsing rig was complicated because he came down through the whole building and out the bottom. The CGI guys took over the bit where he is running across the roof and it collapses.

THE PARADE Emerging from the rubble, Bond gives chase to Sciarra through the throng of Day Of The Dead celebrations. Giant marionettes, 1,500 extras, musicians, dancers and acrobats form the backdrop to a thrilling foot-pursuit.

Temime:It was a party. I don’t know if it could happen anywhere other than Mexico. Begg:I think we had three or four blocks filled out with all these extras. They had the music playing live as well so the extras would get into the rhythm. Me and the guys working with me just looked at each other and went, “FUCK!” It really felt like what I imagined movie-making would feel like when I was a kid. Gassner:It was such a big job to shut down the centre of the city. I don’t know if it had happened before. Temime:Just before the shooting, I had Alfonso Cuarón on the telephone. He said, “You realise all the centre of the town is blocked?” And I said, “Yes, we are having the best Day Of The Dead you will ever imagine.” He said, “You better do!” Gassner:The Day Of The Dead is more than a party — it’s a respectful celebration to honour

the dead. There is a heightened quality to it, so metaphorically there was a surreal aspect. Naomi Donne (make-up supervisor): I pulled a huge amount of reference from real celebrations in Mexico to fashion Day Of The Dead make-ups that people had done themselves in the streets. I wanted to use artists, street artists, people from all walks of life that weren’t necessarily make-up artists. Temime:People are poor in Mexico but they still want to express their creativity and imagination, so they made these incredible paper costumes with lace napkins and paper plates. I showed that to Sam and he loved it. Smith:I remember the shock of all the footage coming in. At one point, they had 17 cameras rolling. Never in my career had I had [material from] that many cameras coming in. Temime:We had 1,500 masks to do. We built 300 and for the rest we had a team of art students from the Mexican Academy. It was fantastic. They are so enthusiastic, so creative, so crazy, and have an artistic background that is completely different from ours. Begg:When you have loads of extras in these big scenes, you always get two or three or more people staring at the camera. We were lucky with the Day Of The Dead costumes, because we would just stick CGI masks on them. Donne:We had 150 make-up artists and 150 hairdressers. We made up 1,500 people in two hours. Pulling that off was one of the great moments of my life. It’s a feeling of everyone working together and the excitement of creating something different. It was incredible.

THE HELICOPTER Sciarra and Bond board a helicopter and a chaotic punch-up begins high above a packed Zócalo Square.

Begg:The actual approach to the helicopter and Bond getting on board was done on location. They did do a couple of shots where they got it to dive-bomb the square but there was no-one there. We ended up putting people in afterwards. Health and safety and all that. Smith:Every frame of that is live and real, even when it does the vertical stall and backflips. It’s a purpose-built helicopter. You can’t do that in a regular helicopter. Begg:The aerial stuff was over an airfield some 150 miles south of Mexico City. And then we added a CG Mexico City underneath. Sam was really anal about not wanting any CG ’copters. He was like, “I can always spot them.” We didn’t have any miniatures. This was the first Bond I’d worked on with no miniatures whatsoever. Corbould:For the fight, we mounted a helicopter on what we called a spit-roast rig so we could do a complete 360-degree barrel roll with Daniel against green screen. It’s a pretty savage fight. Daniel’s great at those fights. Smith:There wasn’t a Day Of The Dead celebration in Mexico City, only in smaller towns. There is now, and that’s down toSpectre. Mendes:If I look back atSpectre, the thing I am proudest of is the first ten minutes. Not just the one shot, which is six or seven minutes long, but everything else. I think, “Yeah, that was what I meant.”

Right, top to bottom:Bond and assassin Marco Sciarra come to blows high above Zócalo Square in Mexico City; The helicopter shots were primarily filmed over an airfield 150 miles south of Mexico City.

Empire Australasia - 04.2020

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