I walked by a set in NYC at 3am where they changed all the signs to look like the past and made it rain. So cool to witness. Also interesting they film so late at night so no people get in the way
Love videos like this. Sometimes “behind the scenes” can be more interesting than the movie itself! Makeup, set dressing, how stunts are done always fascinated me. The level of detail is amazing!
Especially when they take the time to explain how things were done not just showing a picture of the modern scene before they started dressing it. A lot of the "behind the scenes" specials on the big networks will only gloss over things.
I've been inside her business a plentiful number of times when I worked with a certain company that's located inside the Brooklyn Navy Yard. She's an artistic historian herself and a lovely soul. When she was not too busy she loved explaining EVERY piece. I adored her. 🤗🤗
Guess you mean Steiner Studios. Were you there for Greatest Showman. It was great working on that and see history come to life. It's amazing on how they work on this.
she has like perfect pitch for street decoration eras. it's amazing how she can point something and knew the year they belonged to. amazing years of research!!
about 20 years ago , they closed off a major intersection in my town for the final crane shot of a movie that was set 120 years ago concrete gutters were covered in rubber cobblestones, the road was covered in gravel to remove lines, balsa wood doors covered glass doors, traffic lights were removed It was interesting seeing the work that went into 20 seconds of film
@@KeepCalmContemplateYourChoices it probably is still cheaper to use streets etc. than build whole set, especially for short shot. I don't have experiance with movie sets but I do work in theatre and decorations and costiumes are expensive and time consuming, so finding period pieces is sometimes easier and cheaper than designing and making them
Most of the movies she works on wouldn't allow that. Any time you work on a major production you have to sign NDA's (nondisclosure agreement) plus a secondary film crew would just get in the way. That's more people that the first team now has to be responsible for meaning extra liability on set.
"Here is a newspaper stand" Me: flashing back too like five different movies where I saw that stand and realizing it's probably been the same one this whole time lol
It always impresses me that they manage to find period-accurate consumer electronics that aren't all beat-up and worn-out. Unlike cars, these are the sort of things people back then wouldn't have cared too much about if they got scratched or the plastic yellowed. I'm surprised they're able to find ones that still look fresh, and not like they've been sitting in a pawn shop for the past 50 years.
That’s what cultural historians, archivist and preservist do for a living. There’s actually companies based out in LA that caters to the film industry. They used to be extension of big studios back in the Hollywood golden age now they’re separate and completely independent.
I always wondered about cars. No doubt those vintage cars have been lovingly restored to as good as new. So what happens if it damaged or worse on set?
Today, with 3d printing, you could fake a lot of it. You could scan parts of old TVs and make a new design that matches the stylings of the era you're going for, then you just have to treat the 3-d print so it looks like it's made of the old plastic or wood from the era. 3D printing is going to go a long way to make these people's lives easier! You can get a good combination of authentic design without having to dig through flea markets (which takes paying someone to do it!) and other antique sources and purchasing those items. You could easily take scans of real objects and build up a library of printables you could produce as needed, then have a 'treatment' process to get them into the condition and look you want, whether that's BRAND NEW shiny 1950's electronics, or older beaten up ones... or even destroyed versions! Imagine DESTROYING a beautiful piece of vintage tech because the movie calls for a burned out TV or an explosion or something... 3d printing means you could just print and paint as many sacrificial props as you need, and I imagine it would cost a lot less then sourcing the real thing. That said, I'm very impressed by all the historical work that goes into making sure every detail is right and sourcing proper period pieces, or using cover up wraps and such, all to make it perfect. As a movie watcher I likely wouldn't notice if a particular sign or lamp post was a decade off, but it's nice to see this attention to detail! Kudos to this amazing lady!
6:00 I found it interesting that you said that sodium vapor lamps give off an "icky" orange glow, whereas I tend to think of the orange glow as calming and gentle rather than the harsh and stark green/blue/whitish light of LEDs. Nothing more to comment on my side, set design is set design of course!
So true! It's much nicer light imo. Cooler light also disturbs the bio-rhythm of animals and the sleep of residents (if they can't block out the light entirely at night).
The sodium vapor lights are different from warm lighting vs led cool lighting. It really is bright orange, like a neon peach. If it was really over cast, like fog or snow, the sky would glow orange.
She was completely worng with that. The 1950s all the way too the late 80s you would have seen Mercury vapor lamps which are blueish green in color. The high pressure sodium lamps came in the 80s but you would still see tons of Mercury vapor. Don't believe me ? Go watch any 70s or 80s movie when they show streets at night and you will see all the blueish lamps.
There was a yellow screen process that I saw used for Mary Poppins. It talked about the sodium vapor light and a prism that was used in the camera. Only one was ever made.
Fun fact: my late grandma’s house hadn’t changed a bit since she moved there in the 50’s, I mean everything was perfectly preserved and as if it was still new. So much so that her house interior was used on the U.K. film from 1990 The Krays.
Major kudos to Rena and other set designers for successfully transforming the location to befit the time period. I never realised that amount of time and effort that goes into making everything look authentic, but it's certainly an Amazing accomplishment! 👌☺️♥️
I think what's harder than preparing the set to look the era, is to make sure no odd contemporary item/vehicle/utility structure is within a shot. Because a 99% periodically accurate set can be absolutely tainted by one random starbucks cup for example (coughs* GoT) I cannot imagine my job description having to 'find the difference' every single day for months on end, I'll lose my spark
I agree. I've always loved movies and thought (if my life had been different) that I'd love to help make them. But not as an actor or star but in set design. I think this type of skill can make or break a film and I'd have loved this type of challenge!
When you think about it it's more like historical approximation than historical accuracy. Which probably explains a lot of goofs when people spot them.
They were relatively expensive, so people tended to leave them up despite damage, as long as they were readable and didn't have problematic or obscene graffiti on them. So, realistically you've have a mix of some new, clean signs, some kind of dingy signs, and a few terrible signs that needed cleaning, repair/repainting, or complete replacing.
I think the look is to say,set a movie in the 50's were some signs would be new but plenty would have been around since the 40's and weathered , (dependant on the set location )
I was thinking the same about the televisions and stuff, shouldn't they look "newer"? But i guess they wouldn't build a new "old" tv or something similar, just for the movie....
Recently I had the privilege of side street watching a filming of a 80s movie in Montreal (meant to be somewhere in New York) .. they brought all the yellow cabs, license plates, trash cans, and even the news papers as mentioned here. It was a really nice thing to watch, and the many prep that went into it was cool too. I sadly have no idea which movie it was, but Google results gave me hints towards a Transformers movie xD
i used to live in Old-Montreal, so many streets can pass for New York, Berlin, Chicago, with a bit of dressing. I did took a few photos but its usually not allwowed
What they didn't mention is it's usually both. I actually got really annoyed with urban period pieces after awhile, because they're very claustrophobic. You realize the camera won't move when it probably would have in another movie, or adheres to weird angles to hide modern skylines or whatever. Now, sometimes they'll make a period piece where the camera just glides through the streets, because they just mask out anything that shouldn't be there. I actually can't wait for AI CG to be fast and seamless, because that'll free people up to do whatever, on a fairly tight budget. I'm very excited by the possibility, even though I hope it doesn't put practical effects work out of business.
I walked down some streets in New York City 2017 and suddenly found myself on a street full of old vintage cars. I had ended up on the set of The Post. It was rad. Got to see steven spielberg there aswell 😊
Once in Barcelona, the street in front of my apartment was transformed into a period piece for a movie set in the 1960's. All they did was add 60's looking extras in the background and brought in a sweeeeet Lincoln and a small 60's Spanish police car. Everything else remained untouched 😂
Same in Paris. I used to live in Pigalle; there was a film crew somewhere nearby every few days. I recently took a few photos on a walk and there was one without a car in it. I checked and apart from a very small antenna on a distant roof, there is nothing in the photo that wasn't there/couldn't have been there in... 1900? I just love all that history in a city 😊
I got to go behind the scenes for The French Dispatch and it really does feel like a doll house set. The amount of historical detail they put in to films right down to the utensils used in family meal scenes. It's incredible. I would do anything to work on a history film set!
My grandpa said that in the 1950's there were signs everywhere that stressed the importance of getting the polio vaccine. There were signs stating how patriotic it was to get vaccinated against polio. So that would be a good thing to through into a movie or TV show about the 1950's.
When recreating old times, they often make everything on the set look old, weathered, and brown - even things that were supposed to be new during that time. The 80s in Stranger Things uses a lot of brownish colors to create the feel of the nostalgic past. But people liked bright colors in the 80s.
great video but was was only showing props! I wanted to see her transform the block into 1950s. Like how she would block the modern stuff! INSIDER please film her process!
@@WhatALoadOfTosca Tbf, it's not like it's *that* easy to get her while also timing it right when there would be a movie that she'd be working on. Besides, it'd probably be less likely for her to respond if she _was_ working on a movie, and Insider would have to do a bunch of talking to the producers and whatnot.
My grandmother and I were background extras in a BBC period drama set in Victorian London. It was an amazing experience. My grandmother passed away just a few months later and there's a really poignant sdene where she and another woman walk off into the darkness.
I really wanted to find a video talking about this but I didn't know how to type it on the searchbar so I just wrote "how are movie sets made" and THIS CAME UP omg that was PERFECT.
One example I find most impressive, Barbara Ling and Nancy Haigh’s work on Once Upon A Time… In Hollywood, turning 2010s L.A into 1969 so seamlessly. It genuinely looks beautiful. I could genuinely watch a whole film of just Rick and Cliff wandering through Lord Angeles, California. There’s also the work done for films like Once Upon A Time In America and L.A Confidential.
What a wonderful job, history, art, movies, scouting for props and old items, sounds super fun but I can tell it's not easy and it takes a lot of hard work too!
The attention to detail is amazing when making a movie. And the age of the items, too. Some movie scenes look odd because the old cars are too perfect - no dirt, no dents, no rust.
I remember walking through San Francisco a few years back in Chinatown and entering a block filled with classic cars and old neon and handpainted signage. The cameras hadn't been brought in yet cause they were still bringing the classic cars in, so at first I didn't realize it was a film set. People were still allowed to walk through because filming hadn't started. As we reached the end of the block I asked someone pushing a cart full of equipment why all these classic cars were here and they mentioned it was for a movie about Bruce Lee called "Birth of the Dragon" set in 1960s Chinatown. Didn't ever see the movie but they certainly did a great job of fooling me into thinking I had stepped into the past.
what I find interesting is how the signs and items from the past seem to all look aged, as if that's what a sign from that era would look like now as opposed to when they were actually first made. When they film scenes set in the past its probably still inaccurate because a lot of these items would look brand new, but would look weird to the viewer since we associate those eras with that aged wear and tear
I'm pretty sure you're overthinking this. Not only have I not noticed the actual props in movies looking aged, she mentioned manufacturing new ones if a scene demands it. There are also reverses and like inverses of what you're talking about. So, for example, on Back to the Future the set decorator said that it was very important to him that you see a lot of cars from the 1940's on the road, because it frustrated him to see other films sticking so rigidly to the decade of their setting, as if every person had the money, or even the inclination, to go out and buy a new family car every year. But then I also heard another director complain about how not a single person who rented him a vintage car would allow him to throw some dirt on it, because these are obsessive people who take more care with these cars than their own children, saying "There's nothing less realistic than an entire parking lot full of pristine cars." Then you look at movies like Taxi Driver, and most things don't really look all that nice. So I'd go out on a limb and say actually most "old things" in movies look old because we've seen pictures of old things, so we associate that look with being old, not necessarily because they are actual vintage props. I remember the last time I went to an exhibit of ancient Egyptian artifacts - literally like thousands of years old, and somehow it was as if my brain couldn't comprehend that an object can't "look" over a thousand years old. It's either in pretty good condition, or very bad condition. Leave a box in the sun for five years it's going to look older than almost any prop she has.
For Apollo 13, they had to dirty-up the Saturn 5 rocket miniature so that people would not think that it was plastic. The real NASA rockets were so clean that they looked unreal from a distance and a clean rocket would not work for movie audiences.
If you really think about, like say for trash cans and brick work in alleys, it’s not like people would have taken care of things like those for a daily basis and naturally dirt and would grow on them along with some wear and tear, as long as the signs are readable then they wouldn’t bother to clean it
One downside to using period-accurate props is that those props are often genuine objects that have been around for 50 years or more meaning they are now bashed, faded, scratched, etc, when at the time they would have been brand new. So many period-set movies look as though nobody took care of things because a lot of the props in them are older than the actors when the reality is that they would have been in much better condition at the time.
Exxxactly. Also they take specific owned car models, don't represent features of automobiles at the time. Like how hardly anyone will use a black wall, or a bias ply thin tire, or a paint job that will probably be Turquoise, Red, or black instead of a period accurate color in say, 1960, like firemist blue, silver, light mint, or storm gray.
I went to UBC and we would commonly get sets coming in to do filming. They would paint over our street signs, building signs and add other props like booths. Basically just imagine all the romanticized university experiences in film and many of them was us.
I really like these vintage signages. It carries certain uniqueness back in the day and beautiful! In fact, I really like anything vintage. I keep a classic table fan from 1950-ish and some windshields of old car (because I could carry it with hand!), several old boxy luggage bag and kerosene lantern. It is not necessarily in tip top condition. Simply cool. The craftmanship are top-tier despite the tear-and-wear effects 👌😀
I've always been fascinated by set design and period props. Cars, machines, weapons, clothing and I'm Wondering how all that stuff is procured. A tour through several prop warehouses would be of great interest.
I don't know if you've done a video on sound editing in the movies, but it would be a good one. A friend has been such an editor for more years than she or I can count. Watching her on the sound stage after all the recordings were done and they were dubbing the sounds in, geez, the work they do to get footsteps synched. Or getting a camera's shutter sound to synch to the actual pressing of the shutter button (the trick she used was to watch for the flash). A favorite story she's told me has to do with "Twister." When you see the cow fly across the screen (well, in front of the pickup truck), you hear the cowbell. But look closely, the CGI cow is NOT wearing such a bell. She told me that the sound editors for that movie deliberately put the sound in since folks would expect to hear it. As for this video, set decoration is certainly another function that requires a great attention to detail. It's great to see folks who truly have what it takes to do it. Thank you.
Movies in the 1960s/1970s had really annoying footsteps. You would think people were wearing wooden shoes in some of the worst offenders. But as Foley artists got better, that annoying unrealistic sound went away.
What always gets me in movies with older cars is that they are ALWAYS polished all the time. It is as if every car, in every scene, just drove off the dealer's lot. Never a speck of dirt anywhere. Never any smallest sign of wear and tear. Now I get that people took better care of things in the past than we do today but it's just not reasonable and diminishes the fantasy - for me.
Props in the original Star Wars movies were weathered on purpose to make them look more realistic. I believe it’s a technique George Lucas took from Kurosawa
Being the car nut I am I'm always more aware of cars that are glaringly anachronistic, like the '59 Plymouth shown in the opening of this video in a scene that's supposed to be set in June of '57.
I am a high school technical theater director. I always stage my sets with props of the proper time period. It is very difficult to get it right. I cringe when I see a production using the wrong time period props.
I've rewatched this a number of times and always seem to find something new. I really enjoyed this video. Please continue the behind the scenes of movies. Maybe more in depth on the props in general. Would also be very interested in the sound editing process, editing and lighting.
The thing I've always wondered about was how accurate they really are, as far as the cars are concerned. All the cars in so many period movies are so perfect looking because the owners restore them and want them to be in their best condition. But surely in reality, in the past, there were plenty of crappy looking cars on the road. But you're not going to see that in movies. Also, imagine how big of a help Google Streetview is going to be, decades from now, for this purpose, and all kinds of other research purposes too.
I imagine the art department has some tricks they can use to temporarily make a car look dirtier/scuffed, if they want to. Depends on how much the director cares about that, and the time available.
@@andyndanaemcburney122 Not only that, but another thing I noticed in old movies, are not only are the cars so unnaturally perfect looking, but they're all usually from the same decade too. In real life, at least until the mid 2000's, anyway, there are still plenty of 15-20, or even some 30 year old cars on the road. I'm sure that in the 60's and 70's, there must've still been a fair amount of 40's and 50's cars, and even maybe a few 30's era junkers still on the road and people just thought it was totally normal. They weren't like, "oh look, there goes that neat old car, "like the way it seems like in so many movies, they do.
It's way, way harder to get beater cars from the era than picture-perfect iconic rides, simply because almost nobody wants to restore a car to beater spec, a period correct "tuner", etc, and thus, you get a "cleaner" view of the era than it actually was. Also, it's pretty common to see almost no compacts or early imports for the same reason, even in 70's L.A. I'd doubt everyone was driving high spec V8 coupes lol
I had no idea they were recording a movie in my downtown and it was completely transform to a different era. I spent so much time looking at all the details.
Don't start, in the past especially in the 1950's most automobiles we're clean and always preserved for over a decade. This movie from what I've seen has shown a very closed view of the 1950's versus what it was like in reality. The setting looks akin to the 1930's, this lady doesn't realize that signage stayed the same use of the 1930's style for a while after. The 1950's style was always sleek, tall, and dressed..or elegantly cursive. The biggest disruption is the automobiles, 6 vehicles on the block range from dark gray, to black whilst the taxi is signature yellow, and a medium blue automobile in the background. That is immediately wrong as by 1957 most automobiles we're either fitting into the blue, red, White, or Magenta/lime green-white surprisingly. These felt like a gray scale, in the 1930's, most automobiles we're beige/light blue/dark autumn red-magenta-green-blue-black occasionally and a nice orchard yellow, then the iridescent options like rubelity red on the Nash, or Starboard blue iridescent on Oldsmobile in 1934. So it isnt as though color just started appearing in the 1950's, that's just a lie some kid created because they only started seeing colored pictures in the 1950's.
@@WitchKing-Of-Angmar Period accuracy is important, no question about that. My guess would be the colours of the cars would have been picked specifically to work within the colour palette of the film.
This was really interesting. I’m in Finland and am very interested in these kind of things and because I’m 72 I remember those old times well. I enjoy well done set decorations and rarely spot any fails in large movie products.
We were allowed to cross through a street for a quick second while they were filming Marvelous Mrs. Maisel - and the way they transformed the street with the trash cans, cars, signs, et al to look like the early 60s (I think, I don't watch the show). And then to be among extras waiting for filming to resume, dressed in the garb of the time. Literally like we stepped back in time.
i watched mad men and couldn't care about the plot. it was the feeling of the era that made that show extraordinary and so much enjoyable. I felt like I was living in those decades and felt so good. a huge appreciation for set decorators for that.
only differences: cars and clothes. i specialize in period props and paint and key to all sequences are (1) cars, which generate very specific assumptions and (2) to a lesser degree, manner of appearance, in dress and hairstyle. Less prominent are details like signage, background dressing, CG extensions and color treatment in post.
I lived in two towns that have been used for various movies and it's pretty fun to see the transformations. The Perfect Storm was filmed in Gloucester, MA and used a lot of locals in the production, especially the church scene. George Clooney played basketball in a downtown parking lot and stayed in town. Olive Kitteredge was filmed there and in Rockport next door where Mermaids, The Crucible, The Good Son, The Love Letter, Stuck on You and The Proposal were all filmed. For the proposal, they turned our Main Street into Sitka, Alaska. We had a totem pole in our downtown for a few weeks. Very interesting.
Nice to see set decorators getting attention like this; their hard work usually goes ignored, but it's fascinating and never-ending. One puzzling bit about this video, though - the shot toward the end from Tarantino's ONCE UPON A TIME...IN HOLLYWOOD (2019), where Cliff's Kharmann Ghia drives into the Van Nuys Drive-In....that was all models, not set design. The Van Nuys Drive-In was torn down decades ago and no longer exists. John Dykstra's special effects team made detailed (and somewhat large) models of the drive-in and its signs. The car itself might have been real, but if it was, it was merged into the SFX footage of the drive-in model. If not, then it was likely a remote controlled model car as well.
I live in Dibrugarh, Assam. Unlike the US there is a sort of lack of photos, videos and other references but someday I want to see a past recreation of my city in a movie.
Fascinating! There’s a funny story that a late night street cleaning crew in Ottawa, Canada, unaware the garbage strewn along the sidewalk was for a movie short, cleaned it up!
I lived in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn, when they were filming one of the MiB movies (3, I think). One day I was walking home and noticed that one block of Court St. had a bunch of 60s cars parked on either side. Was a really cool feeling of time travel.
This is one of the main reasons why there are so few signs at the WB studio, just about every part of the studio has been used to film something at some point. Often times, you wouldn't realize that it was just a regular studio building with a few temporary signs.
I hope that Hollywood understands that period pieces are worth every extra penny to turn the clock back. Sometimes a well done period piece is the whole reason to see the movie.
While attending film school (SVA) in Manhattan in the early '80's, one day I walked up from the subway on to 23rd st and thought I had walked through a time capsule; it was 1950. Turned out Francis Ford Coppola was shooting, Cotton Club!
I lived in Charleston, SC when Mel Gibson's scenes fromThe Patriot were filmed there. One scene was shot on a street a couple of blocks from my place of work. I noticed that all the metal street signs had been taken down.
I lived in Jersey City when they filmed. The Preacher's Wife. They used Jersey Ave as a winter scene. Fale snow and decorated all brownstones for Christmas. I was on the crew and we took a small church tore the sides out to build bigger sides and decorated it to the theme of the original church This was in Newark. Everything outside was covered in Black fabric like you were going into a haunted house. we made all the Christmas decorations. It was magical and a wonderful memory. Wow most were filmed on my street.
I walked by a set in NYC at 3am where they changed all the signs to look like the past and made it rain. So cool to witness. Also interesting they film so late at night so no people get in the way
Waste of water
That’s probably why they film late
@@jumbomuffin1316 They dont use drinking water
@@jumbomuffin1316 🤣
Are you sure you didn't enter into the Twilight Zone by walking into the past?
Love videos like this. Sometimes “behind the scenes” can be more interesting than the movie itself! Makeup, set dressing, how stunts are done always fascinated me. The level of detail is amazing!
Agreed
Trippin
We are on the same page. Blessings from India.
& hearing intelligents commentators like you exspressing yourself like this is more amazing & interested! 📹❤
Especially when they take the time to explain how things were done not just showing a picture of the modern scene before they started dressing it. A lot of the "behind the scenes" specials on the big networks will only gloss over things.
I've been inside her business a plentiful number of times when I worked with a certain company that's located inside the Brooklyn Navy Yard. She's an artistic historian herself and a lovely soul. When she was not too busy she loved explaining EVERY piece. I adored her. 🤗🤗
Guess you mean Steiner Studios. Were you there for Greatest Showman. It was great working on that and see history come to life. It's amazing on how they work on this.
This job is clearly a passion for her.
she has like perfect pitch for street decoration eras. it's amazing how she can point something and knew the year they belonged to. amazing years of research!!
* taps crate *
yep, 1960's
about 20 years ago , they closed off a major intersection in my town for the final crane shot of a movie that was set 120 years ago
concrete gutters were covered in rubber cobblestones, the road was covered in gravel to remove lines, balsa wood doors covered glass doors, traffic lights were removed
It was interesting seeing the work that went into 20 seconds of film
It's kinda surprising they didn't just use a set. But I guess that just proves the devotion of the film makers?
@@KeepCalmContemplateYourChoices it probably is still cheaper to use streets etc. than build whole set, especially for short shot. I don't have experiance with movie sets but I do work in theatre and decorations and costiumes are expensive and time consuming, so finding period pieces is sometimes easier and cheaper than designing and making them
If it was marvel it would all be cgi including the actors clothes 😂
what movie may I ask?
@@rayvega3163 Ned Kelly with Heath Leger. The corner was Sturt and Lydiard streets Ballarat, looking north
SHE NEEDS A TV SERIES FOLLOWING HER SETTING UP MOVIES! LOVE THIS! My fave type of films and series are period ones. Esp 70s/80s disco era excess.
This would be so good!
Most of the movies she works on wouldn't allow that. Any time you work on a major production you have to sign NDA's (nondisclosure agreement) plus a secondary film crew would just get in the way. That's more people that the first team now has to be responsible for meaning extra liability on set.
@@liquidbraino ugh thank you for ruining my day lol!
I would have settled for more of her talking about her interesting job and less voiceover, but yes. I'd watch that.
that would be really great
"Here is a newspaper stand"
Me: flashing back too like five different movies where I saw that stand and realizing it's probably been the same one this whole time lol
same.. like those silent prop brown bag
Guess you were right lol
Kidding!
That's why don't watch these things
It always impresses me that they manage to find period-accurate consumer electronics that aren't all beat-up and worn-out. Unlike cars, these are the sort of things people back then wouldn't have cared too much about if they got scratched or the plastic yellowed. I'm surprised they're able to find ones that still look fresh, and not like they've been sitting in a pawn shop for the past 50 years.
That’s what cultural historians, archivist and preservist do for a living. There’s actually companies based out in LA that caters to the film industry. They used to be extension of big studios back in the Hollywood golden age now they’re separate and completely independent.
I always wondered about cars. No doubt those vintage cars have been lovingly restored to as good as new. So what happens if it damaged or worse on set?
They do CGI or take the chassis of a more modern car and build a shell of the older car.
Today, with 3d printing, you could fake a lot of it. You could scan parts of old TVs and make a new design that matches the stylings of the era you're going for, then you just have to treat the 3-d print so it looks like it's made of the old plastic or wood from the era. 3D printing is going to go a long way to make these people's lives easier! You can get a good combination of authentic design without having to dig through flea markets (which takes paying someone to do it!) and other antique sources and purchasing those items. You could easily take scans of real objects and build up a library of printables you could produce as needed, then have a 'treatment' process to get them into the condition and look you want, whether that's BRAND NEW shiny 1950's electronics, or older beaten up ones... or even destroyed versions! Imagine DESTROYING a beautiful piece of vintage tech because the movie calls for a burned out TV or an explosion or something... 3d printing means you could just print and paint as many sacrificial props as you need, and I imagine it would cost a lot less then sourcing the real thing.
That said, I'm very impressed by all the historical work that goes into making sure every detail is right and sourcing proper period pieces, or using cover up wraps and such, all to make it perfect. As a movie watcher I likely wouldn't notice if a particular sign or lamp post was a decade off, but it's nice to see this attention to detail! Kudos to this amazing lady!
It’s not that hard or serious
6:00 I found it interesting that you said that sodium vapor lamps give off an "icky" orange glow, whereas I tend to think of the orange glow as calming and gentle rather than the harsh and stark green/blue/whitish light of LEDs. Nothing more to comment on my side, set design is set design of course!
So true! It's much nicer light imo. Cooler light also disturbs the bio-rhythm of animals and the sleep of residents (if they can't block out the light entirely at night).
The sodium vapor lights are different from warm lighting vs led cool lighting. It really is bright orange, like a neon peach. If it was really over cast, like fog or snow, the sky would glow orange.
She was completely worng with that. The 1950s all the way too the late 80s you would have seen Mercury vapor lamps which are blueish green in color. The high pressure sodium lamps came in the 80s but you would still see tons of Mercury vapor. Don't believe me ? Go watch any 70s or 80s movie when they show streets at night and you will see all the blueish lamps.
@@67tr876 NYC started using HPS in the 1970s, so having them in 1981 isn't wrong.
There was a yellow screen process that I saw used for Mary Poppins.
It talked about the sodium vapor light and a prism that was used in the camera.
Only one was ever made.
this whole movies insider series is making me realize how much efforts it takes to get our favorite movies on the screen, great job
Fun fact: my late grandma’s house hadn’t changed a bit since she moved there in the 50’s, I mean everything was perfectly preserved and as if it was still new. So much so that her house interior was used on the U.K. film from 1990 The Krays.
Did they have any Bar-Kays on the soundtrack?
Major kudos to Rena and other set designers for successfully transforming the location to befit the time period. I never realised that amount of time and effort that goes into making everything look authentic, but it's certainly an Amazing accomplishment! 👌☺️♥️
I think what's harder than preparing the set to look the era, is to make sure no odd contemporary item/vehicle/utility structure is within a shot.
Because a 99% periodically accurate set can be absolutely tainted by one random starbucks cup for example (coughs* GoT)
I cannot imagine my job description having to 'find the difference' every single day for months on end, I'll lose my spark
this was actually so interesting to watch
I agree. I've always loved movies and thought (if my life had been different) that I'd love to help make them. But not as an actor or star but in set design. I think this type of skill can make or break a film and I'd have loved this type of challenge!
😯😯
Huge amount of respect for them to make all of that for historical accuracy in every movie
When you think about it it's more like historical approximation than historical accuracy. Which probably explains a lot of goofs when people spot them.
@@futurestoryteller oh yeah ur right
I only wonder wouldn't signs have looked less weathered and worn back in their original days?
I was thinking the same thing.
They were relatively expensive, so people tended to leave them up despite damage, as long as they were readable and didn't have problematic or obscene graffiti on them. So, realistically you've have a mix of some new, clean signs, some kind of dingy signs, and a few terrible signs that needed cleaning, repair/repainting, or complete replacing.
I think the look is to say,set a movie in the 50's were some signs would be new but plenty would have been around since the 40's and weathered , (dependant on the set location )
I was thinking the same about the televisions and stuff, shouldn't they look "newer"? But i guess they wouldn't build a new "old" tv or something similar, just for the movie....
Had the same thought about the aging on brickwork and the like.
Recently I had the privilege of side street watching a filming of a 80s movie in Montreal (meant to be somewhere in New York) .. they brought all the yellow cabs, license plates, trash cans, and even the news papers as mentioned here.
It was a really nice thing to watch, and the many prep that went into it was cool too.
I sadly have no idea which movie it was, but Google results gave me hints towards a Transformers movie xD
I saw some of that too! Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, set in 1994. It was crazy how quickly they removed everything once filming was done.
i used to live in Old-Montreal, so many streets can pass for New York, Berlin, Chicago, with a bit of dressing. I did took a few photos but its usually not allwowed
Yeah I've always wondered whether it was CG or not. So cool to know this!!!
What they didn't mention is it's usually both. I actually got really annoyed with urban period pieces after awhile, because they're very claustrophobic. You realize the camera won't move when it probably would have in another movie, or adheres to weird angles to hide modern skylines or whatever. Now, sometimes they'll make a period piece where the camera just glides through the streets, because they just mask out anything that shouldn't be there. I actually can't wait for AI CG to be fast and seamless, because that'll free people up to do whatever, on a fairly tight budget. I'm very excited by the possibility, even though I hope it doesn't put practical effects work out of business.
I wished she had a TH-cam channel that educates people on how to find the right stuff from a different period. This was interesting!
She: not going to give up her hard won experience on a you tube channel 🤣
I absolutely love this eye for detail in movies that plays in older eras
All these details and we all see it in just few seconds. Salute to all filmmakers and staffs.
I walked down some streets in New York City 2017 and suddenly found myself on a street full of old vintage cars. I had ended up on the set of The Post. It was rad. Got to see steven spielberg there aswell 😊
I’d always think how they’d change all of the streets like this! thanks!
This is exactly the authenticity that CGI could never replace. I with this could happen more often.
no matter how real cgi looks..it still looks fake to me.
Once in Barcelona, the street in front of my apartment was transformed into a period piece for a movie set in the 1960's. All they did was add 60's looking extras in the background and brought in a sweeeeet Lincoln and a small 60's Spanish police car. Everything else remained untouched 😂
No need, all of Europe is pretty much untouched
Same in Paris. I used to live in Pigalle; there was a film crew somewhere nearby every few days. I recently took a few photos on a walk and there was one without a car in it. I checked and apart from a very small antenna on a distant roof, there is nothing in the photo that wasn't there/couldn't have been there in... 1900? I just love all that history in a city 😊
Makes me think filming in European city that is set in the past probably is easier and cheaper lol
I don’t think they’d have to do much in London…just add a couple of routemasters and vintage cars around 😂
@@kornkernel2232 that's true.
6:01 I actually miss orange street lamps. They were much warmer and softer than the harsh blue-white bulbs used today.
I got to go behind the scenes for The French Dispatch and it really does feel like a doll house set. The amount of historical detail they put in to films right down to the utensils used in family meal scenes.
It's incredible. I would do anything to work on a history film set!
I love the fonts used in the 50's and 60's. I find it much more appealing.
As someone dreaming of writing some historical fiction, inspired by some of these modern films set in the past, this was cool to see!
My grandpa said that in the 1950's there were signs everywhere that stressed the importance of getting the polio vaccine. There were signs stating how patriotic it was to get vaccinated against polio. So that would be a good thing to through into a movie or TV show about the 1950's.
Yeah, that WOULD be good!
When recreating old times, they often make everything on the set look old, weathered, and brown - even things that were supposed to be new during that time. The 80s in Stranger Things uses a lot of brownish colors to create the feel of the nostalgic past. But people liked bright colors in the 80s.
great video but was was only showing props! I wanted to see her transform the block into 1950s. Like how she would block the modern stuff! INSIDER please film her process!
Insider is more about the clickbait titles than content sadly
Well, for example, she did say that they would cover things like street lamps with props of older ones
@@WhatALoadOfTosca Tbf, it's not like it's *that* easy to get her while also timing it right when there would be a movie that she'd be working on. Besides, it'd probably be less likely for her to respond if she _was_ working on a movie, and Insider would have to do a bunch of talking to the producers and whatnot.
My grandmother and I were background extras in a BBC period drama set in Victorian London. It was an amazing experience. My grandmother passed away just a few months later and there's a really poignant sdene where she and another woman walk off into the darkness.
Just the amount of history in all of these individual items is amazing
I really wanted to find a video talking about this but I didn't know how to type it on the searchbar so I just wrote "how are movie sets made" and THIS CAME UP omg that was PERFECT.
One example I find most impressive, Barbara Ling and Nancy Haigh’s work on Once Upon A Time… In Hollywood, turning 2010s L.A into 1969 so seamlessly. It genuinely looks beautiful. I could genuinely watch a whole film of just Rick and Cliff wandering through Lord Angeles, California. There’s also the work done for films like Once Upon A Time In America and L.A Confidential.
I love those props, it's like decorating in a videogame
My hat goes off to you Ms. DeAngelo. You're very gifted at your craft.
What a wonderful job, history, art, movies, scouting for props and old items, sounds super fun but I can tell it's not easy and it takes a lot of hard work too!
You gotta be extremely detail oriented for that
It's her career
This is like a dream job for history lovers
Rena DeAngelo is ONE OF THE BEST. Old School Set Dec. - Time she WON an Oscar for her brilliant work
The attention to detail is amazing when making a movie. And the age of the items, too. Some movie scenes look odd because the old cars are too perfect - no dirt, no dents, no rust.
They take better care of their vehicles than with today
I remember walking through San Francisco a few years back in Chinatown and entering a block filled with classic cars and old neon and handpainted signage. The cameras hadn't been brought in yet cause they were still bringing the classic cars in, so at first I didn't realize it was a film set. People were still allowed to walk through because filming hadn't started. As we reached the end of the block I asked someone pushing a cart full of equipment why all these classic cars were here and they mentioned it was for a movie about Bruce Lee called "Birth of the Dragon" set in 1960s Chinatown. Didn't ever see the movie but they certainly did a great job of fooling me into thinking I had stepped into the past.
You never really appreciate stuff like this until you see what they have to go through
what I find interesting is how the signs and items from the past seem to all look aged, as if that's what a sign from that era would look like now as opposed to when they were actually first made. When they film scenes set in the past its probably still inaccurate because a lot of these items would look brand new, but would look weird to the viewer since we associate those eras with that aged wear and tear
I'm pretty sure you're overthinking this. Not only have I not noticed the actual props in movies looking aged, she mentioned manufacturing new ones if a scene demands it. There are also reverses and like inverses of what you're talking about. So, for example, on Back to the Future the set decorator said that it was very important to him that you see a lot of cars from the 1940's on the road, because it frustrated him to see other films sticking so rigidly to the decade of their setting, as if every person had the money, or even the inclination, to go out and buy a new family car every year. But then I also heard another director complain about how not a single person who rented him a vintage car would allow him to throw some dirt on it, because these are obsessive people who take more care with these cars than their own children, saying "There's nothing less realistic than an entire parking lot full of pristine cars."
Then you look at movies like Taxi Driver, and most things don't really look all that nice. So I'd go out on a limb and say actually most "old things" in movies look old because we've seen pictures of old things, so we associate that look with being old, not necessarily because they are actual vintage props. I remember the last time I went to an exhibit of ancient Egyptian artifacts - literally like thousands of years old, and somehow it was as if my brain couldn't comprehend that an object can't "look" over a thousand years old. It's either in pretty good condition, or very bad condition. Leave a box in the sun for five years it's going to look older than almost any prop she has.
For Apollo 13, they had to dirty-up the Saturn 5 rocket miniature so that people would not think that it was plastic. The real NASA rockets were so clean that they looked unreal from a distance and a clean rocket would not work for movie audiences.
If you really think about, like say for trash cans and brick work in alleys, it’s not like people would have taken care of things like those for a daily basis and naturally dirt and would grow on them along with some wear and tear, as long as the signs are readable then they wouldn’t bother to clean it
One downside to using period-accurate props is that those props are often genuine objects that have been around for 50 years or more meaning they are now bashed, faded, scratched, etc, when at the time they would have been brand new. So many period-set movies look as though nobody took care of things because a lot of the props in them are older than the actors when the reality is that they would have been in much better condition at the time.
Exxxactly.
Also they take specific owned car models, don't represent features of automobiles at the time. Like how hardly anyone will use a black wall, or a bias ply thin tire, or a paint job that will probably be Turquoise, Red, or black instead of a period accurate color in say, 1960, like firemist blue, silver, light mint, or storm gray.
I love vintage stuff! This is totally cool!
I went to UBC and we would commonly get sets coming in to do filming. They would paint over our street signs, building signs and add other props like booths. Basically just imagine all the romanticized university experiences in film and many of them was us.
The amount of work put in is just crazy!
I really like these vintage signages. It carries certain uniqueness back in the day and beautiful! In fact, I really like anything vintage. I keep a classic table fan from 1950-ish and some windshields of old car (because I could carry it with hand!), several old boxy luggage bag and kerosene lantern. It is not necessarily in tip top condition. Simply cool. The craftmanship are top-tier despite the tear-and-wear effects 👌😀
I've always been fascinated by set design and period props. Cars, machines, weapons, clothing and I'm Wondering how all that stuff is procured. A tour through several prop warehouses would be of great interest.
Incredible amount of detail, thanks to the people who make this happen….unsung heroes
This storehouse is worth a small fortune. Her knowledge is so cool.
I don't know if you've done a video on sound editing in the movies, but it would be a good one. A friend has been such an editor for more years than she or I can count. Watching her on the sound stage after all the recordings were done and they were dubbing the sounds in, geez, the work they do to get footsteps synched. Or getting a camera's shutter sound to synch to the actual pressing of the shutter button (the trick she used was to watch for the flash).
A favorite story she's told me has to do with "Twister." When you see the cow fly across the screen (well, in front of the pickup truck), you hear the cowbell. But look closely, the CGI cow is NOT wearing such a bell. She told me that the sound editors for that movie deliberately put the sound in since folks would expect to hear it.
As for this video, set decoration is certainly another function that requires a great attention to detail. It's great to see folks who truly have what it takes to do it. Thank you.
Movies in the 1960s/1970s had really annoying footsteps. You would think people were wearing wooden shoes in some of the worst offenders. But as Foley artists got better, that annoying unrealistic sound went away.
I think it would be cool to get a tour of this facility by this lady.
What always gets me in movies with older cars is that they are ALWAYS polished all the time. It is as if every car, in every scene, just drove off the dealer's lot. Never a speck of dirt anywhere. Never any smallest sign of wear and tear. Now I get that people took better care of things in the past than we do today but it's just not reasonable and diminishes the fantasy - for me.
Props in the original Star Wars movies were weathered on purpose to make them look more realistic. I believe it’s a technique George Lucas took from Kurosawa
I know some of the cars are rented from private owners so I'm sure they don't want to mess up anyone's car like that
Being the car nut I am I'm always more aware of cars that are glaringly anachronistic, like the '59 Plymouth shown in the opening of this video in a scene that's supposed to be set in June of '57.
And even the criminals' vehicles have perfectly clean windshields......
And whenever they do a modern show in NYC the cars are covered in an inch of grime.
They take it too far the other way.
Wow. The amount of work it takes is insane.
I'm 80years old so I lived through a lot of this & I spent years lettering signs & billboards.Much better than today's junk.
This woman is a GREAT artist! Also a terrific historian.
I am a high school technical theater director. I always stage my sets with props of the proper time period. It is very difficult to get it right. I cringe when I see a production using the wrong time period props.
Fascinating! The history and research needed to pull these things off!
I've rewatched this a number of times and always seem to find something new. I really enjoyed this video. Please continue the behind the scenes of movies. Maybe more in depth on the props in general. Would also be very interested in the sound editing process, editing and lighting.
Always fascinated by these kind of behind the scenes stories.
more of this content please
she is the master of her craft 🔥
What a great look behind the scenes and behind making films .. Very interesting to watch the looktransformations of the sets.
I've always appreciated this work.
The thing I've always wondered about was how accurate they really are, as far as the cars are concerned. All the cars in so many period movies are so perfect looking because the owners restore them and want them to be in their best condition. But surely in reality, in the past, there were plenty of crappy looking cars on the road. But you're not going to see that in movies. Also, imagine how big of a help Google Streetview is going to be, decades from now, for this purpose, and all kinds of other research purposes too.
Yep, no beaters.
I imagine the art department has some tricks they can use to temporarily make a car look dirtier/scuffed, if they want to. Depends on how much the director cares about that, and the time available.
@@andyndanaemcburney122 Not only that, but another thing I noticed in old movies, are not only are the cars so unnaturally perfect looking, but they're all usually from the same decade too. In real life, at least until the mid 2000's, anyway, there are still plenty of 15-20, or even some 30 year old cars on the road. I'm sure that in the 60's and 70's, there must've still been a fair amount of 40's and 50's cars, and even maybe a few 30's era junkers still on the road and people just thought it was totally normal. They weren't like, "oh look, there goes that neat old car, "like the way it seems like in so many movies, they do.
@@Melissa0774 Cars didn't last as long back then compared to how long they last now.
It's way, way harder to get beater cars from the era than picture-perfect iconic rides, simply because almost nobody wants to restore a car to beater spec, a period correct "tuner", etc, and thus, you get a "cleaner" view of the era than it actually was.
Also, it's pretty common to see almost no compacts or early imports for the same reason, even in 70's L.A. I'd doubt everyone was driving high spec V8 coupes lol
I had no idea they were recording a movie in my downtown and it was completely transform to a different era. I spent so much time looking at all the details.
Vintage cars in movies are always perfectly clean. A few rust buckets and cars with dents would add more realism.
Don't start, in the past especially in the 1950's most automobiles we're clean and always preserved for over a decade. This movie from what I've seen has shown a very closed view of the 1950's versus what it was like in reality. The setting looks akin to the 1930's, this lady doesn't realize that signage stayed the same use of the 1930's style for a while after. The 1950's style was always sleek, tall, and dressed..or elegantly cursive. The biggest disruption is the automobiles, 6 vehicles on the block range from dark gray, to black whilst the taxi is signature yellow, and a medium blue automobile in the background. That is immediately wrong as by 1957 most automobiles we're either fitting into the blue, red, White, or Magenta/lime green-white surprisingly. These felt like a gray scale, in the 1930's, most automobiles we're beige/light blue/dark autumn red-magenta-green-blue-black occasionally and a nice orchard yellow, then the iridescent options like rubelity red on the Nash, or Starboard blue iridescent on Oldsmobile in 1934. So it isnt as though color just started appearing in the 1950's, that's just a lie some kid created because they only started seeing colored pictures in the 1950's.
@@WitchKing-Of-Angmar Period accuracy is important, no question about that.
My guess would be the colours of the cars would have been picked specifically to work within the colour palette of the film.
Wow! Such a detailed trip going back in time!
This was really interesting. I’m in Finland and am very interested in these kind of things and because I’m 72 I remember those old times well. I enjoy well done set decorations and rarely spot any fails in large movie products.
Thank you, Rena! People like you keep the imdb's goofs section alive! 🙂
We were allowed to cross through a street for a quick second while they were filming Marvelous Mrs. Maisel - and the way they transformed the street with the trash cans, cars, signs, et al to look like the early 60s (I think, I don't watch the show). And then to be among extras waiting for filming to resume, dressed in the garb of the time. Literally like we stepped back in time.
This is a technical point: But what the narrator calls "these signs in Hebrew" (1:30) are actually written in Yiddish.
I have to find the episode of Larry David trying to convince the donor that he talks like that all the time.
its days are numbered.
green and blue screens in visual digital effects are sophisticated and dynamic.
i watched mad men and couldn't care about the plot. it was the feeling of the era that made that show extraordinary and so much enjoyable. I felt like I was living in those decades and felt so good. a huge appreciation for set decorators for that.
Nothing to say... Just Awesome work...
BRIDGE OF SPIES may be set in 1957...but that is a 1959 Plymouth in the background
only differences: cars and clothes. i specialize in period props and paint and key to all sequences are (1) cars, which generate very specific assumptions and (2) to a lesser degree, manner of appearance, in dress and hairstyle. Less prominent are details like signage, background dressing, CG extensions and color treatment in post.
The fashion in the shows is always terrible.
I lived in two towns that have been used for various movies and it's pretty fun to see the transformations. The Perfect Storm was filmed in Gloucester, MA and used a lot of locals in the production, especially the church scene. George Clooney played basketball in a downtown parking lot and stayed in town. Olive Kitteredge was filmed there and in Rockport next door where Mermaids, The Crucible, The Good Son, The Love Letter, Stuck on You and The Proposal were all filmed. For the proposal, they turned our Main Street into Sitka, Alaska. We had a totem pole in our downtown for a few weeks. Very interesting.
The most epic one had to be Godfather II, when they took 6 months to turn one block of E6th St into early 20th-century Little Italy.
Nice to see set decorators getting attention like this; their hard work usually goes ignored, but it's fascinating and never-ending.
One puzzling bit about this video, though - the shot toward the end from Tarantino's ONCE UPON A TIME...IN HOLLYWOOD (2019), where Cliff's Kharmann Ghia drives into the Van Nuys Drive-In....that was all models, not set design. The Van Nuys Drive-In was torn down decades ago and no longer exists. John Dykstra's special effects team made detailed (and somewhat large) models of the drive-in and its signs. The car itself might have been real, but if it was, it was merged into the SFX footage of the drive-in model. If not, then it was likely a remote controlled model car as well.
Great art. Great artist. ❤️
If they did this (permanently) to an entire town, I’d move there! Replace everything with 50s or 60s stuff to make a real-life time capsule town! lol
0:38 SHEEESH ITS THE Triumph Daytona 675!!!
I live in Dibrugarh, Assam. Unlike the US there is a sort of lack of photos, videos and other references but someday I want to see a past recreation of my city in a movie.
Thanks for showing how it's done.
0:45. Excellent time capsool.
Nothing will ever beat a film made in the era
Fascinating! There’s a funny story that a late night street cleaning crew in Ottawa, Canada, unaware the garbage strewn along the sidewalk was for a movie short, cleaned it up!
I lived in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn, when they were filming one of the MiB movies (3, I think). One day I was walking home and noticed that one block of Court St. had a bunch of 60s cars parked on either side. Was a really cool feeling of time travel.
This is one of the main reasons why there are so few signs at the WB studio, just about every part of the studio has been used to film something at some point. Often times, you wouldn't realize that it was just a regular studio building with a few temporary signs.
I hope that Hollywood understands that period pieces are worth every extra penny to turn the clock back. Sometimes a well done period piece is the whole reason to see the movie.
Somthing I always wondered for my whole existence
I love this and wish this level of scrutiny was used in historical dialogue as well. I’m sure a lot of different categories could use it.
While attending film school (SVA) in Manhattan in the early '80's, one day I walked up from the subway on to 23rd st and thought I had walked through a time capsule; it was 1950. Turned out Francis Ford Coppola was shooting, Cotton Club!
I lived in Charleston, SC when Mel Gibson's scenes fromThe Patriot were filmed there. One scene was shot on a street a couple of blocks from my place of work. I noticed that all the metal street signs had been taken down.
I lived in Jersey City when they filmed. The Preacher's Wife. They used Jersey Ave as a winter scene. Fale snow and decorated all brownstones for Christmas. I was on the crew and we took a small church tore the sides out to build bigger sides and decorated it to the theme of the original church This was in Newark. Everything outside was covered in Black fabric like you were going into a haunted house. we made all the Christmas decorations. It was magical and a wonderful memory. Wow most were filmed on my street.
Really interesting video! Thanks for making it