IndieWire Panel Details the Craft of Film Illusion — SkimNews
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- IndieWire presented its “Behind Their Lens” panel as part of SCAD Savannah Film Festival, where Ruth de Jong, Amy Roth and Sarah Broshar spoke to students and guests about production design, costume design and editing.
- Ruth de Jong built several proportionally scaled Trojan Horses for “The Odyssey” to fit the actors, cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema and an IMAX camera, then built a separate horse body, lowered it into a tank and filmed the scene on a set near Troy.
- Ruth de Jong mounted the horse on a massive trench plate and brought in a dredger for tests a couple of days before filming; the horse was put into waves, took a beating, fell and required an overnight rebuild before shooting the next day.
- Amy Roth layered clothing onto Anthony for “I Play Rocky” so he could not bulk up, embedding visual hints of the future Sly in early scenes; for “Paper Tiger,” she dressed the mother to stand out against a beige house and later blend into its walls.
- Sarah Broshar evaluated cuts by watching her own tension or distraction and shaped “Disclosure Day’s” train chase through sound timing, asking assistants for three more days after they had already spent three.
- Ruth de Jong said she considers production design successful when sets recede behind the actors and the audience becomes immersed rather than conscious of the construction.
Why it matters: De Jong’s overnight rebuild after the Trojan Horse fell and Broshar’s request for three more sound-work days after three show the labor behind apparent spontaneity. The result for audiences is scenes that feel weathered and tense rather than visibly engineered, fulfilling de Jong’s goal of immersing them in the world.
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