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The making of Dune
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% The Farpoint Station BBS 403-248-9999 %
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"The Making of Dune"
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by Sharon Williams
Reprinted from PrimeTime Magazine
Even with a budget the size of an Arrakeen sandworm ($43 million), the
business of bringing Frank Herbert's DUNE to the screen was not as easy as it
might seem. Director David Lynch was confronted with the prospect of having
to satisfy both an anxious cult following with preconceived ideas, and a
curious but uninitiated mainstream audience. Literary legend though it may
be, Herbert's often metaphorical descriptions of the DUNE world made the
visual translation from mental image to screen image a difficult undertaking.
And, unfortunately, Herbert's novel did not include a set of "Spice Harvester"
blueprints or a "stillsuit" pattern.
With few exceptions, filming took place at Mexico's Churubusco Studios, one of
the largest studios in the world. By the close of principal photography, all
eight of Churubusco's sound stages had been utilized and more than 75 enormous
sets had been built, struck, and replaced. The project also required an
extensive cross section of personnel, numbering over 1000 people. Extras,
mostly Mexican, exceeded 20 000 and the principal cast, which includes such
international notables as Francesca McGill, Jurgen Prochnow, Kenneth McMillan,
Sean Young, Kyle McLachlin, Max Von Sydow and Sting, had a total of 39
speaking parts.
Conditions were less than ideal at the studio and there were also two external
locations that required "special" attention: Las Aguilas and the Samalyuca
Desert. Las Aguilas translates rather deceptively as "the red eagles" but for
the crew it was just the "dead dog dump". As a result of the volcano
Ixtazihuatl's eruption circa 3000 BC, Las Aguilas remains a prehistoric lava
bed with jagged, volcanic outcroppings covered everywhere with grey lava dust.
Lynch recalled, "When we first went there to scout, I saw about 12 dead dogs.
And then we got there and it's a trash dump-- some of the trash was smoking.
There was one dead dog at the top of the dump and we walked down among those
strange rocks and there was a dead pig..." For weeks before shooting, a
cleanup crew sifted through the site, removing carcasses and cleaning up the
garbage of several generations. When their work was completed all that
remained was a fine powder of lava dust which rose in small puffs when it was
walked on.
The Samalyuca Desert presented a different problem-- heat. While on location
for filming the Fremen tribal communities and other desert scenes, the actors
were required to wear the Fremen costume-- rubber stillsuits covering them
from head to toe. During the first two weeks of filming, the desert
temperature reached 120 degrees Fahrenheit. 300 men had spent three months on
their hands and knees preparing the site, removing every rock, shrub and
cactus. The result was a glare and heat effect that made work almost
unbearable. Remarkably, only seven extras fainted and only one required
hospitalization. So much for tinsel and glamour.
The DUNE sets are also remarkable in both size and detail. Working closely
with Lynch was Tony Masters. Masters, nominated for an Academy Award for his
art direction on Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY and a veteran of more
than 50 films, had been selected as DUNE's production designer by executive
producer Dino De Laurentiis back in 1981. "We had to make everything up,"
explained Masters, "right down to the knives and forks, the door handles and
the lights. There were no limits."
Although DUNE is not a "special effects" movie in that its world of the future
is merely a background against which the characters enact their drama, that
world did require some highly detailed special effect work. Brian Smithies,
Model Unit Director, was responsible for 100 models and also directed one of
the two film units which shot models and effects exclusively. The other was
directed by Barry Nolan, Supervisor of Special Photographic Effects. Each
unit employed approximately 35 persons and between them nearly 400 effects and
sequences involving models, blue screens, and mechanical effects were created
and filmed.
Since DUNE's people left Earth only a few thousand years previously, Lynch
wanted DUNE's settings to reflect that heritage. Rather than a crisp
futuristic look, Lynch opted more for elaborate, overdecorated sets reflecting
an influence of early Victorian, Egyptian and Venetian styles.
Caladan, home world of the Atreides family, is densely covered in green
vegetation, expansive forests and blessed with an abundance of water. By
choosing organic materials for the furnishings, lots of wood and leather,
Masters gave it a feeling of comfort, security and stability reminiscent of a
19th century English drawing room.
Arrakis, on the other hand, is a harsh, unrelenting world of rock and
expansive deserts. Once again, reflecting the environment, the Great Hall is
an enormous, dimly lit edifice with black melange-streaked rock walls richly
decorated with baked tile mosaics. Probably the most spectacular feature of
the Hall is the floor. While DUNE was still in its early design stage, Lynch
returned from a trip to Venice. His enthusiasm for the mosaics in St. Mark's
Cathedral caused Masters to suggest they be incorporated in the place. Taking
two months to complete, the result is an extraordinary elaborate design of
hand carved tinted tiles, individually laid by hand.
Among the more than 75 sets Tony Masters designed for DUNE, undoubtedly the
flashiest and most complicated was the Emperor's Throne Room. Although built
of wood and plaster, the Moorish style hall was elaborately decorated making
it appear as if it had been constructed out of solid gold. "It's enormously
detailed," explained Masters. "We had, for example, some 24 000 polystyrene
stalactites on that set, intricately carved, that took three months to shape
and hang."
DUNE's diverse styles were also costume designer Bob Ringwood's problem. At
one point, Ringwood had 45 people "making costumes for three different units
shooting on three different sets." A grand total of 4000 costumes were
created for the film.
In order to make the costumes as unique and personalized as possible, Ringwood
purposely waited until the principal cast was chosen before designing their
wardrobes. Much of his work was therefore done "down Mexico way" where he
learned a new definition for the term "local customs". Although he was able
to use Mexican cotton, most of Ringwood's fabrics, such as silks and brocades,
had to be imported from New York and Las Angeles. Finding suitable materials
was easy. The hard part was getting them into Mexico. Customs officials
frequently held up vital materials, strangling the production in a sea of red
tape. In order to get around this problem the costume department devised its
own "S.W.A.T.C.H. Team," smuggling bolts of cloth and costume accessories into
the country in the suitcases of those travelling back and forth between the
States and the studio.
Reflecting a dimly remembered Terran influence, the costumes are reminiscent
of several of Earth's historical periods rather than space-opera high tech.
For example, the Bene Gesserit's high collars and head pieces hint at a Tudor
influence. The Atreides capes, uniforms, and high leather boots suggest those
worn by Russian officers in the 1800's and the costumes worn by the desert
dwelling Fremen have a distinctly Oriental flavour.
For Ringwood, the stillsuit was the most interesting costume to design and
other than the sandworm, most indicative of Herbert's novel. The
water-starved planet of Arrakis had forced the Fremen to invent a sort of
personal water recycling plant in the form of snugly fitting suits. The
body's excretions are pumped and purified in the suit. The resulting moisture
can then be taken back into the wearer's body by sipping through a small tube
located near the mouth.
Cast from full-body molds of the major actors, giving them a really custom
fit, the stillsuits were made of rubber. "Actually," explained Ringwood,
"it's the kind of rubber that lines the inside of car doors. We quilted
plastic over it. I'll work with anything."
Ringwood's biggest challenge, and the most expensive, was making the Baron
Harkonnen's body. Actor Kenneth McMillan was first fitted with a harness used
to achieve an antigravitational effect. Then a 150 pound silicone
construction was added, making the actor appear enormous. Finally the
remainder of the costume was fitted over the entire construction. "The body
and the costume together weighed about 450 pounds," commented Ringwood. "In
the beginning, we had to wheel Ken to the set-- he literally couldn't walk in
the thing. He finally learned to walk, but still could never navigate stairs
without two dressers supporting him." The Mexican heat took its toll and
McMillan lost more than 40 pounds during filming. Ringwood's people initially
designed a water-cooled undersuit, similar to that created by NASA for its
pilots, but McMillan refused to wear it, wanting to add realism to his
character. The heat made him feel meaner.
Frank Herbert's science fiction novel, DUNE, first published in 1965, was that
troubled decade's literary lodestar. The book not only delineated an
extraordinary universe of diverse peoples, surreal technology and awesome
creatures, but within a framework of high adventure created a metaphor in
which positive human potential prevails over deeply entrenched evil. Although
the critics were mixed in their opinions of Lynch's technical and storytelling
talents, the visual imagery contained within the film deserves praise. DUNE
is a feast for the senses, and you won't leave the table unsatisfied.
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