31 oct. 2017 - Johnny Depp Behind the Scenes Murder on the Orient Express Set Design Featurette

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In the most timeless of whodunits, MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS follows renowned detective Hercule Poirot [Kenneth Branagh] as he attempts to solve what would become one of the most infamous crimes in history.
–Twentieth Century Fox

Here is fascinating information from Twentieth Century Fox, including kudos to Director Kenneth Branagh, Set Decorator Rebecca Alleway SDSA, Production Designer Jim Clay, Supervising Art Director Dominic Masters and their inimitable teams...

THE ORIENT EXPRESS
The Orient Express long-distance passenger train service was established in 1833 and connected Paris to Istanbul. It symbolized the glamour of travel and its undeniable elegance and prominence within the story makes it stand out as one of the main characters of the film.

To that end, it was essential to recreate an Orient Express with an impeccable attention to detail, which meant, following extensive research, the train was built not once, but twice, and more...

A fully moving train, dressed inside and out, and comprised of a locomotive, a tender and four complete carriages was built and able to move along the nearly one mile of track that was laid down at Longcross Studios in Surrey, England. The locomotive alone weighed about 22 tons, with each additional carriage weighing in at around 25 tons.
All of the interiors of the carriages, the dining, salon, storage, baggage and sleeper cars were also constructed a second time, with lavish interiors and floating walls to allow filming inside.

DETAILS...
A huge amount of research went into every detail of dressing the carriages including the
cutlery, crockery, glassware and the luggage. Poirot's luggage included a grooming kit for his legendary moustache, which was designed in order that Poirot could complete his precise grooming process anywhere in the world. Alleway recalls, “Kenneth Branagh, who plays Poirot, had a very particular idea of what his luggage should be and look like, so we had it all custom made. We sourced a special prop company, Anarchy, to make all these pieces. It took many months and many meetings to agree on what they should be. The interiors opened out like Aladdin's Cave and were very intricate, fitted to hold every unique piece."

In an attempt to keep the experience as real as possible for the cast, the filmmakers shot hours of footage of a train travelling across an expansive mountain-scape, which was then digitally stitched together and played on 2500 LED screens wrapped around each individual carriage to give the impression of a moving train. With the addition of hydraulics and air bellows beneath each of the carriages, the movement of the train along the track could also be simulated. Caught up in the moment, many of the cast really felt that they were on a moving train and sometimes wobbled when they came off set.

THE LOOK OF THE FILM
A devotee of the picture definition and unrivalled depth that shooting on 65mm can afford, Director Kenneth Branagh and team shot the film using the last four 65mm Panavision cameras in the world.

In addition to the carriage interiors, a number of sets were also constructed at Longcross, all of which had to hold up under the intense scrutiny of 65mm projection. The original source material story is an essentially sedentary one, but whilst the filmmakers wanted to demonstrate the claustrophobic atmosphere of the train interiors, they also wanted to give this film a more epic scope and heighten the drama, and to that end, several sets were constructed taking the action out of the train...

The breathtaking Stamboul Station, Istanbul from which the Orient Express departs on its journey to Paris was built on the largest soundstage at Longcross, the set filled with huge columns, exotic lighting and comprised of two tracks with platforms on either side.

Alleway gives us further insight...
Because Longcross was originally a factory for building and testing tanks, we had an advantage as the stage had two big doors at one end, so we were able to build the track the full length of the stage, and indeed take it out of the stage and into the car park. We were even permitted to close part of the studio road, in order to pull the whole of the train out of the station as it set off on its journey. An extraordinary sight to witness!

Alongside Stamboul Station, we built and dressed several other train stations on the back lot at Longcross. These were stations on the Orient Express journey where the train stopped and loaded with sumptuous goods.

The train...
The train carriage compartments, suites, corridors, salon, dining car, storage and kitchen areas were actually built multiple times to accommodate shooting in the different environments. We had a train built and dressed to shoot the exterior and interior on the vast viaduct set and all the station environments. We then built and dressed the interior carriages in the studio that were used for some of the interiors shots. All the suites and compartments were built as part of the composite train as well, but also as individual sets on stage, so they were made slightly bigger and had floating walls. All compartments and suites were dressed to suit character and status.

The ‘viaduct train’ was a full scale tender with four carriages. This set was on top of a massive 100-ft viaduct platform built over months on the back lot of Longcross...complete with sculpted mountains...for all the scenes shot after the train has been hit by an avalanche. The train was craned onto the viaduct and then we dressed it! This was a huge logistical challenge. The train was dressed for the full interior—with all corridors, kitchens, salon, dining room, compartments and storage—which took exceedingly detailed planning. Therefore, anything that could be fixed onto the train for this exterior and interior set was dressed before the train was craned onto the viaduct! However, most of the dressing was done after the train had been craned up onto the 100 ft high set, which made the process quite a challenge.

The set dec team included a buyer who was just dedicated to tender engine and exterior train parts. An enormous amount of research went into sourcing anything we could mold, copy or use for the exterior engine and all the carriages. We sourced beautiful 1930's ironmongery and period lighting fittings, which were then manufactured in great quantities by our propmaking workshop.

Arasta Bazaar, Istanbul...
One of the biggest sets outside of the train was the Arasta Bazaar in Istanbul, which was built on one of the larger stages at Longcross. We dressed long, wide streets with shops, traders, restaurants and the Orient Express check-in area. We flowed from the street into the large Arasta Bazaar restaurant, which was divided into 5 different areas: the open café, the bar, a restaurant, the local Turkish café area and then several kitchen spaces where all Turkish delicacies and baking took place.

All the sets were built at Longcross with the exception of The Wailing Wall and the Jerusalem Port, which were built and dressed on location in Malta. Poirot’s Jerusalem hotel bedroom, lobby and reception were planned to be filmed on location in Malta, but for scheduling reasons, we ended up building them all at Longcross! Sadly, the large hotel lobby and reception never made it into the final film.

Armstrong mansion...
Other large sets were constructed for the all the flashbacks to include the Frank Lloyd Wright style Armstrong mansion, a New York street and a courtroom. Daisy Armstrong’s bedroom in the flashback sequence was a small set compared to the rest of the film, but it carried the weight of being shown in black and white. Most furniture for this set was sourced through dealers of American Shaker-style furniture. All the toys were found through toy fairs and antique shops, so every detail was correct for period and style. I tested all the fabrics and colors in black and white before committing to anything and had some of the furniture painted to create more contrast. The Armstrong mansion was a large set and all the furniture was carefully considered for its scale. It was a balance between dressing it to give it a richness but also at the same time a minimalist and oppressive feel. It, too, had to work in color and for black & white. I designed the Lloyd Wright style wall lights and modernist paintings to give it a unique modernist feel.

The period...
I started the film after I received a call from Production Designer Jim Clay, asking me to come in for a meeting with him and Kenneth. Unfortunately the original Set Decorator, Caroline Smith, had to leave for personal reasons. Jim and Ken were both quite clear that they wanted to steer away the more decorative Art Nouveau style and edge towards the more geometric patterns of the Art Deco period. Luckily, I had researched this period many times before and was armed with a large amount of research material and resources!

I genuinely think this was an amazing piece of production design by Jim and an extraordinary logistical feat by Dominic Masters the Supervising Art Director, and the Art and Set Dec department.

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